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?

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:


1. A Common Goal  (ENVIRONMENTAL ENABLERS)
Relevant topics: Purpose; Relatedness; Alignment; Goals & Objectives

2. High Standards & Expectations (VITAL BEHAVIOURS)

3. Recognised Output (ENVIRONMENTAL ENABLERS)

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."

Read more about Trust.

A Slightly Longer Answer:

Patrick Lencioni’s take:

Teams willing to address the five dysfunctions can experience the following benefits. High performing, cohesive teams:

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.