The
value of teamwork is not unknown. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn cofounder, summed it
up by saying, “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy is, if you’re
playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” An organisation has its foundations in cooperation
of individuals in achieving common goals. Executive, projects, marketing and
sales teams dominate the contemporary work settings. However, not all teams are
conducive of growth and progress. Many times, teams hit stagnation and thus,
performance is impacted.
What
is a high performing team?
A
high performing team consists of ‘a group of goal-focused individuals with
expertise and skills, who collaborate innovate and produce consistently
superior results’. Consistent efforts towards higher performance result in
innovative ideas, fresher perspectives, better problem-solving and
communication, and more productive collaborations.
J. Richard Hackman suggested that teams thrive
on certain enabling conditions, three of which are of particularly critical- a
compelling direction, a strong structure and a supportive context. Compelling
direction refers to knowing explicitly what a team is working towards. Strong
structure refers to the right mix and number of members, with designated tasks
and processes designed in a manner that work along with norms, discouraging
destructive behaviour and promoting positive dynamics. Lastly, a supportive
context allows a maintenance of reward system that reinforces good
performances, an information system that provides access to the data needed for
the work, and an educational system that offers training along with securing
the material resources required to do the job.
Factors
& Characteristics of High-Performing Teams.
Beech
& Crane (1999) also recognised three important factors that were crucial to
development of teams with superior performances, namely, transparency,
check ability and a climate of community.
Some
characteristics of high-performance team are:
·
Having clear goals tied
closely to team and organisational priorities.
·
Having defined roles
and responsibilities.
·
Understanding how their
work fits into the organisational mission.
·
Communicating clearly
and respectfully.
·
Managing work and
deadlines based on priorities.
·
Trusting and respecting
each other.
·
Celebrating success
together and recognizing contributions.
·
Practicing continuous
learning.
Practices that can help in enabling high performance teams are creating a shared sense of purpose to which the team can work towards, investing in employee development, streamlining communication so that everyone is updated, having an environment of mutual accountability, sustained commitment towards performance, rewarding achievements, having good leadership and ensuring healthy resolution of conflict.
References
(n..d.).
Developing and Sustaining High-performance Work Teams. Society of Human
Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/developingandsustaininghigh-performanceworkteams.aspx
Haas,
M & Mortensen, M. (2016). The Secrets of Great Teamwork. Harvard
Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork
Keller,
S. & Meaney, M. (2017). High-performing teams: A timeless leadership
topic. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/high-performing-teams-a-timeless-leadership-topic
