Getting Things Done (GTD) Podcast — Ep. 299: GTD with Others
Release Date: February 26, 2025
Host: GTD®
Guests: David (Co-author), Ed (Co-author), Dave (Host), Additional speaker D
Episode Overview
This episode delves deeply into the practice of Getting Things Done (GTD) in team settings. The discussion explores the nature of working collaboratively, why so many teams operate sub-optimally, and how GTD principles can be adapted to foster high-performing, healthy groups. The hosts and authors also address the impact of remote work and technology, cultural challenges, the role of leaders, and practical steps for new teams to start strong.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Human Drive for Teamwork
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Working in teams is ancient and natural.
"Humans working together, it is as natural as us sitting around a fire chatting about the day's events... Like, we need to do it right. We don't thrive alone as humans."
— Ed (C), [01:03] -
Collaboration is instinctive, but the modern work environment introduces new pressures (e.g., deadlines, targets), making effective group work more challenging.
2. Main Obstacles to Effective Teams
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Most teams operate in a comfort zone.
"That's the biggest hindrance is the fact that people are just in their comfort zone about how they work with other people..."
— David (B), [03:00] -
Many teams are suboptimal simply because "that’s the way things are done"—routine and unexamined habits that no one questions.
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High-performance, healthy teams require conscious, principled structure.
"...What Ed and I produced is a manual that has never been done before about what are all the best practices of high performance healthy teams. Not just high performance teams, but teams that are healthy, that are not burning people out."
— David (B), [03:41]
3. Building the New GTD Team Approach
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The new book distills global best practices into adaptable principles rather than a rigid recipe.
"We've gone into the world and gone what's working and, and tried to distill that in a way that makes it easy for people to do their own version of it."
— Ed (C), [05:23] -
Teams are encouraged to identify their pain points, tackle two or three, and iterate, rather than attempting wholesale change immediately.
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Teams often lack awareness of alternatives.
"...most teams think the way they're doing, what they're doing is just the way things are done. And they just don't know that there's a whole nother avenue or opportunity, you know, for them to do things differently."
— David (B), [07:19]
4. Overcoming Resistance & Driving Change
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Change requires surfacing frustrations and building a vision.
- Increase awareness of what isn't working.
- Show a possibility for something better to inspire movement.
"...it's a combination of increasing the pain of what's not working by, by increasing awareness. Right... and then increasing the pain again by creating some vision of what we think is possible."
— Ed (C), [08:54] -
Respect is central.
"The only way that you can allow your meetings to be bad time after time after time is if you have a lack of respect for your own time and you have a lack of respect for everybody else in the room."
— Ed (C), [10:27]
5. The Meeting Problem
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Meetings are a symptom of team dysfunction—often unnecessary, poorly run, or misused.
"Some cultures where meetings become the only way anything can get done... most of what is being accomplished... could have been done in an email."
— Dave (A), [11:34] -
Meetings can become "the only channel" when tools like email are ignored, causing a vicious cycle of endless, unproductive gatherings (see Ed’s government anecdote, [12:02]).
6. Technology, Remote Work & Global Teams
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Remote work (e.g., Zoom) democratizes participation but demands greater discipline.
"...the technology has... bring to the fore the necessity for a lot of these principles that Ed and I put, put in the book. What's the purpose? What's the purpose of the meeting... clear agendas, clear outcomes, clear decisions about what we need to do."
— David (B), [14:26] -
Dispersed teams lose natural culture-building mechanisms and must be especially intentional about their processes and feedback loops.
"...when you sit together there's a lot of things that, that kind of happen naturally, organically... If you are not conscious of those things and what might be missing, it'll be much more glaringly obvious..."
— Ed (C), [15:18] -
Cultural barriers and authority distance in global teams: Some cultures resist open criticism or participation, complicating virtual collaboration ([16:57]).
7. Who Drives Team Success?
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It’s not just the formal leader’s responsibility.
"The leader needs to be on board, but the leader doesn't necessarily need to lead. They need to... be okay with the team beginning to articulate..."
— Ed (C), [17:46] -
Avoiding parental leadership: If leaders "police" everything, team culture suffers; teams should enforce their own agreed standards.
8. Handling Dysfunction
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Strictly interpersonal challenges (e.g., 'psychopath' team members) are outside the book’s scope.
"...frankly, there is no accounting for a psychopath on your team."
— Ed (C), [21:27] -
Focus is on operational 'mechanics':
Clear agreements, communication, holding fast to meeting norms, documentation, etc., are vital and often overlooked aspects.
9. Practices for New Teams
- First steps for a new (Zoom) team:
"We just need a starter set of... things that look like purpose, that look like, where are we going? How are we going to do what we decided we wanted to do together?... We need to examine how we're performing and have some kind of learning loop... This is the stuff that gets missed because we're moving too fast to simply... take whatever it is, two to five minutes to make some record of what it was that we decided and why..."
— Ed (C), [22:45]
10. GTD Practice & Evolution
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Mastery is cyclical, not linear.
"...all of us with this GTD methodology and this set of practices go through cycles. You know, I still go through cycles myself..."
— D, [24:47] -
Return to the 'manual' as needed:
Use resources like GTD Connect to continually deepen your understanding and implementation as your needs evolve, like re-reading a software manual for new tricks ([24:47]-end).
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On human teams:
"It is as natural as us sitting around a fire chatting about the day's events..."
— Ed (C), [01:03] -
On teams’ lack of awareness:
"Most teams think the way they're doing, what they're doing is just the way things are done."
— David (B), [07:19] -
On respect and meetings:
"...the only way that you can allow your meetings to be bad time after time after time is if you have a lack of respect for your own time and you have a lack of respect for everybody else in the room."
— Ed (C), [10:27] -
On the reality of change:
"I couldn't just walk in and make things better... we kind of have to walk in, make things worse, at least to increase the perception of how bad things are..."
— Ed (C), [09:44] -
On leadership dynamics:
"The default setting is that while the leader has to police everything, and that's just a bad idea..."
— Ed (C), [18:26] -
On the limits of methods:
"...frankly, there is no accounting for a psychopath on your team."
— Ed (C), [21:27] -
Practical actionable step for new teams:
"...take whatever it is, two to five minutes to make some record of what it was that we decided and why so that other people can profit from our experience."
— Ed (C), [24:00]
Useful Timestamps
- 00:09–03:00: Why teams struggle to work together; evolutionary context.
- 03:00–04:36: Comfort zones and suboptimal team habits.
- 05:23–07:19: How the GTD team approach was developed from global best practices.
- 08:54–11:34: Obstacles to change; the importance of increased awareness and respect.
- 12:02–13:13: The dysfunctional meeting cycle.
- 13:13–15:18: Impact of remote work and technology on team dynamics.
- 16:57–17:31: Challenges of authority and cultural nuance in virtual teams.
- 17:31–19:38: The changing role of leaders in team success.
- 19:54–22:12: What the GTD team book does (and doesn’t) aim to address.
- 22:45–24:00: Concrete first steps for new teams to get started effectively.
- 24:47–episode end: On the evolving nature of GTD mastery and continuous learning.
Final Thoughts
This episode reinforces that working well in teams isn’t about grand interventions or charismatic leaders, but about surfacing and addressing simple but critical operational habits. Clarity of purpose, awareness of pain points, respect for time, and ongoing iteration are key. The GTD approach, as applied to teams, is an evolving set of principles rather than a rigid formula—empowering each group to design sustainable, healthy practices that stick.
The episode is packed with actionable wisdom for anyone—whether a team leader or member—striving to make team collaboration less painful and more productive in today's complex, fast-paced world.