Principles for Establishing High Performing Teams
This is a big topic. There have been hours, probably decades of research into this and many careers have been made on sharing and teaching their take on this subject. As with many of our resources, this is intended to be a digestible summary and a reference article to come back to when a little inspiration is needed. This is based on a set of tools developed by VFS.
Who is this for?
Senior Leaders
Agile Coaches
HR Managers
Agile practitioners, scrum team members etc.
Establishing High Performing Teams
What needs to be in place and what behaviours are required?
We refer to these two factors as Vital Behaviours and Environmental Enablers. But before we get to them, there are three fundamental concepts that team and management need to have a good grasp of: Control factors, Noise Factors and Motivation Drivers & Suppressors:
The team learns and controls the Levers that they can adjust to perform better. These are Controllable Factors.
The team learns which elements of their working environment they can't control and, thus, they simply need to be robust to. These are Noise Factors.
The management and support structure understand both Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivational drivers and suppressors, and the effect of diminished autonomy.
1. A Common Goal (ENVIRONMENTAL ENABLERS)
Relevant topics: Purpose; Relatedness; Alignment; Goals & Objectives
Establish Goals. Teams need to be focused on shared goals and outcomes. Commitment to that goal is essential for success.
Focus on the Collective Mission. Mission-driven teams and organisations perform better because they see beyond their individual workload and tasks and feel as if they are working for a higher purpose.
2. High Standards & Expectations (VITAL BEHAVIOURS)
Determine How The Team Will Make Decisions. Whether directed or democratic, the team needs to understand beforehand how decisions will be made. This reduces conflict within the team when a decision has to be made. Also see Making Better Decisions.
Create a Learning Environment. Emphasise the development of the team, learning through successes, but particularly through mistakes. A team with a culture of continuous improvement and where members are motivated to develop their skills and knowledge will become a high-performing team.
Clear Expectations. Team members have agreed and know what to expect from one-another, potentially with the use of agreed standards, processes...even behaviours. These may be captured in technical standards and a team charter.
Healthy Conflict. All members are able to handle and resolve problems and conflict during the moment. High levels of trust are essential.
Own the Situation. Everyone demonstrates ‘Ownership’ behaviour and each member has a ‘resourceful state of mind’ see below.
Peer Accountability. All members take the responsibility to hold each other accountable.
3. Recognised Output (ENVIRONMENTAL ENABLERS)
Clear and Constant Feedback is Provided. Teams need to know how they are doing in order to stay motivated and to correct performance problems or inefficiencies. The more feedback loops the better.
Use Team-Based Reward Systems. Too much emphasis on individual rewards can lead to in-fighting and resentment. A combination of individual and team-based rewards is often best.
Of course, each member of the team needs to possess the core knowledge, skills and competencies to be able to contribute effectively to the team’s purpose and goals. This is Ability in the 4A Framework.
The Pressure - Performance Curve
We all need pressure, internal and external to motivate us and produce a good performance. The relationship between pressure and performance is a direct one (see diagram below). From a high performing teams and workforce perspective, avoid unnecessary pressure and keep performing. Be aware of the Pressure-Performance curve and proactively do things to reduce avoidable pressure building up. It's important that senior leaders and the employees are educated and well equipped to do so. It's worth investing in training and awareness for increasing personal resilience and personal agility.
It’s important to reduce, ideally eliminate the things that, together, can accumulate to build up pressure on us, it’s also important to recognise when it’s happening and why. Most people, even talented ones, can fail under pressure. Whilst it’s a complex topic, one of the primary mechanisms is overthinking. We start overthinking something that usually comes naturally to us.
When our performance increases to its maximum across the stretch/strain zones we often feel good about our performance and ourselves, as there is a sense of achievement, learning and progress. Whilst we're experiencing this sensation, we can believe that this level of performance is sustainable. But be aware, peak performance is driven by the oscillation between periods of intense pressure and activity and periods of recovery.
Note that this includes time in strain.
When considering your ideal company culture or your desirable working environment, recognise that pressure is an important ingredient. But appropriate pressure - ensure that avoidable stress and pressure is indeed avoided and that the levels of pressure are not constant. Pressure is better managed when ability and autonomy are high (see the 4A Framework).
There's another consideration...
Why would an individual want to be part of a high performing team?
Why would they want to have that difficult conversation and hold their teammates to account, stick their neck out to protect one another -
"What’s in it for me?"
The Short Answer:
"To increase our predictability and the company’s trust in us. With trust comes responsibility and empowerment."
A Slightly Longer Answer:
Reduce the Frustration
Take more control of matters
Have a clear purpose
The resulting reduced delivery pressure gives time to focus on process, product and people improvements
Feel Productive, Motivated, Empowered
Make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time and fewer resources
Put critical topics on the table and have lively, impactful meetings
Be Respected and Valued
Listened to
Get to work on the interesting and important things
Able to say no
Be included in part of the broader conversation and strategy and not simply be provided with a solution to implement
Patrick Lencioni’s take:
Teams willing to address the five dysfunctions can experience the following benefits. High performing, cohesive teams:
Are comfortable asking for help, admitting mistakes and limitations and take risks offering feedback
Tap into one another's skills and experiences
Avoid wasting time talking about the wrong issues and revisiting the same topics over and over again because of lack of buy-in
Align the team around common objectives
Retain star employees
Appendix
A Resourceful State of Mind
A resourceful state is when a person has positive, helpful emotions and strategies available to them that they are using to behave and operate effectively... you feel capable and confident. You feel calm and your mind is clear and you’re able to generate all kinds of options and make solid decisions. A non-resourceful state is where you feel anxious, fearful and tense.
Clarity on Value
High Performing team members are effective at clarifying the value, or lack of, for any given activity. This includes meetings. Members of such teams are very capable of articulating what the purpose of an attended meeting was...what it aimed to achieve and why it was important.