Lecture Outline:

Definition
Building high performance teams
Stages of Team Development
Characteristics of a High Performing Team
Benefits of a High Performing Team

Definition
A high-performance team can be defined as a group of

people with specific roles and complementary talents and

skills, aligned with and committed to a common purpose,
who consistently show high levels of collaboration and
innovation, that produce superior results.

The high-performance team is regarded as tight-knit,

focused on their goal and nothing else. Team members are

so devoted to their purpose that they will surmount any
barrier to achieve the team's goals.

Within the high-performance team, people are highly

skilled and are able to interchange their roles. Also,

leadership within the team is not vested in a single
individual. Instead the leadership role is taken up by
various team members.

 High-performance teams have robust methods of

resolving conflict efficiently, so that conflict does not

become a roadblock to achieving the team's goals.
There is a sense of clear focus and intense energy
within a high-performance team.
Collectively, the team has its own consciousness,

indicating shared norms and values within the team.

The team feels a strong sense of accountability for
achieving their goals. Team members display high
levels of mutual trust towards each other.

Building high performance teams

As we strive for competitiveness, high performance teams become even more
critical to our success.
Regardless of the stage of your team coming together, these key steps will help
you build a high performing team:
Develop a diverse team

Utilise people who have different strengths and are closely aligned to the
crucial business functions, customers and stakeholders. The more diverse the
team, the more they are likely to be strong in achieving the whole range of
thinking, action and people orientated tasks for a successful outcome.
Motivation is likely to remain consistently high where team members can focus
the majority of their work in areas they enjoy.
Generate the team purpose

Facilitate the group to ensure clarity and accountability to the teams purpose
so that the team are clear of what success looks like and are empowered to
achieve it. Focus the team on achieving results by setting explicit goals.

Building high performance teams Cont

Develop crucial processes

Developing critical processes will ensure the team have the vital framework to achieve
their goals, and break through any existing or new barriers that prevent these processes
from functioning effectively.

Share the leadership and accountability

Inspire team members to take full ownership for achieving the team purpose with the
assigned resources, proposing solutions and provide performance coaching where
needed to address performance issues. Be authentic, work to your own strengths and
capitalise on the talents of the team members. Periodically ask the team for feedback on
your leadership so that you can adjust to get the most from each team member

Build strong relationships

Plan focused team building events that ensure team members recognise what effective
teams look like and the team behaviours for high performance, capitalise on strengths
and stimulate continuous improvements. Subject to team location, encourage periodic
get togethers such as a quick lunch or morning coffee to ensure the human team spirit
is fostered. Remember, teams do not have to be friends, but there does need to be mutual
respect and trust for high performance levels.

Building high performance teams Cont

Establish focused communication and review

Ensure the team regularly review progress against their team goals and make
the vital adjustments to ensure success. At the outset agree with the team the
most timely and effective forms of communication for this specific team.
Recognise key milestones and celebrate success

This could range from a simple thank you or well done to arranging awards,
gifts or bonuses to recognise effort and successful results in the most
appropriate way to maintain high performance levels.
Review and learn

Review each major team experience and share these across the business.
Record the output and review prior to any new team coming together. This
should include questions such as what contributed most to our team
outcome? as well as what could we do differently next time?.

High Performance Teams

You should also consider the following:
Have a clear and vision of where they are headed and what they want to

accomplish
Are excited about that vision because they took part in creating it
Act from clearly defined priorities
Have clear measures of success and receive feedback about how theyre
doing
Maintain open communication and positive relationships with each
other
Identify and solve problems
Make decisions when and where they occur
Successfully manage conflict
Share leadership responsibilities
Participate in productive meetings
Have clearly defined roles and work procedures

Stages of Team Development

Team development takes time and frequently follows recognizable stages as the
team journeys from being a group of strangers to becoming a united team with
a common goal.
According to researcher Bruce Tuckman, in both group dynamics and the four
stages of team development he popularized (forming, storming, norming,
performing), leaders must retain the motivation of team members in order to
successfully overcome the challenges of the storming and norming stages
(Figure 1).

Stages of Team Development Cont

The forming stage represents the beginning, the honeymoon period;

great expectations are shared from all team members. Relationships are
developed, purpose is clear and ground rules are established.

The storming stage is triggered once team members start pushing

around for position, stumbling/uncertain from confusion, having

arguments about leadership, strategy and goals. This is when team
leadership becomes imperative. The leader must succeed at keeping
the team motivated, addressing all concerns and clarifying purpose and
goals.

Once the storming stage is overcome the team is ready to establish

open communications, stable positions and norms the norming

phase. Trust is finally gained, and when the trust account is high,
communication is easy, instant, and effective. These are the first steps
towards cohesiveness (united).

Once cohesiveness is achieved, teams will move from norming to

performing and subsequently to highly performing.

Characteristics of a High Performing Team

Most members of high-performing teams report that it's fun and satisfying to
work on collaborative teams because they are asked to contribute at their
highest potential and they learn a lot along the way.
Characteristics of high-performing teams include the following:
People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose where
they feel free to express feelings and ideas.
Everybody is working toward the same goals.

Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks.
Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows
what is expected.

Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal
atmosphere.

Characteristics of a High Performing Team Cont

The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a

chance to contribute.

Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are

managed. Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward

problem solving and removing obstacles.

The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement - in

the cases where agreement is elusive (vague), the final decision is

made by the team lead to avoid disagreements.

Each team member carries his or her own weight and respects

the team processes and other members.

The leadership of the team shifts from time to time, as

appropriate, to drive results.

Benefits of a High Performing Team

Effective teamwork offers more than just superior
performance
A high performing team:
effectively meets and communicates in a way that raises

morale and alignment,

engages with all the team's key stakeholder groups in a way
that grows performance,
provides constant learning and development for all its
members and the collective team,
enhances generative thinking,
arriving at solutions that no one individual could have
thought up by themselves.