The definition of a “team” has changed considerably in the last few years, the change having been accelerated considerably by the impact of COVID-19. Traditionally, a group of individuals working together out of the same location were considered a team. For some organizations, a team was a group of individuals doing similar work. And instead, today, if you look at teams, you’ll find that they are far more dynamic and diverse in nature.
The most prominent difference is that the focus today has strongly shifted towards a different definition – a group of motivated individuals that have a common goal. With this, locations hardly matter anymore, and the best among them grow into what are called “High-Performing Teams”.
Source: forbes.com, Brent Gleeson
Merely calling a team a high-performing one doesn’t mean anything. It takes hard work – and some significant time and effort – to build a high-performing team. For anyone who wants to form a high-performing team, their goal should be to bring together motivated individuals who can work on anything that’s needed to create value for their customers.
Source: blog.eventective.com
Connecting this with certain Agile frameworks, there’s a general guidance and assumption that teams should be self-organizing, self-managing and cross-functional. Unfortunately, this isn’t easy to follow with an established team, and perhaps even more difficult when a team is being formed.
Let’s explore what could go wrong…
Typically, when a group of high-performing individuals come together to form a new team, whether by self-organizing, or by following orders or recommendations, you’ll find that there’s at least a modicum of respect shown to each other by team members.
This might be respect for each other’s expertise or experience, or even for a role itself. This might be peppered with a slight fear of confrontation – leading to inaction even if they observe that something’s going wrong.
Issues build up over a period of time. If individual team members are affected by mistakes of other team members, a lack of constructive dialogue can lead to complaints and escalations. And if complaints go unheard, you end up with disengaged team members, or people moving on to other teams or organizations.
Remember, these were high-performing individuals, though the team in this scenario is likely quite far from being high-performing.
This was one among many things that could go wrong in a team.
Source: clubsolutionsmagazine.com, Brian Freeland
On the other hand, there’s a quite a few things that can be done to ensure things go right. And it isn’t easy – a significant amount of effort needs to be put in to make a team a high-performing team:
Pick members who bring in diverse skills
Ensure you have at least one member covering every skill your team needs
Ensure the team agrees on ‘Why we are here’ and ‘What value do we want to create’?
Make the organizing and facilitating duties rotational within the team (this helps the team understand others’ perspectives)
Agree on how the team members will hold each other accountable for delays
Agree on team standards for work
Create transparency around ongoing work and blockers
Create short feedback loops to seek early feedback from customers
The list goes on… And also includes solutions to the scenario described earlier in this article. Consider the point “Agree on team standards for work”. Could that be a potential solution?
Certain standards of work could be the values your team follows in the course of work. “Courage” and “Openness” from Scrum are examples of these values. To show courage and call it out if you notice something going wrong is a simple, but effective way forward.
Such efforts are applicable whether your teams are old, established ones, or are coming together today. You might have Agile teams, or be in the middle of a transformation – no matter where you stand, it’s never too late to ensure that your teams become truly high-performing teams!
Coucal can help your organization tap into the performance, strength and creativity of your people to achieve successful outcomes. Whether you feel a need for some quick wins, or a paradigm shift in the way your teams work, your people – and what they can accomplish – are worth the effort.
Connect with our experts so that we can together understand what suits your needs.
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