IMAGECHOICE.HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS

The old adage that he who controls the principle means of production, - “wins!” is no longer valid!  Organisations that fail to understand the implications of the principle means of production being inside people’s heads will struggle to achieve optimal performance levels. Old style control and command like structures are just not adaptable enough in today’s information and service led economies. 
 

In today’s world of work with hyper competition for the best talent and ideas, ‘people power’ has never been stronger. Independent thinking employees, even when they pay lip service to formal organisational hierarchies, still control their decisions about how they commit their informal consent to authority.  This informal consent is very much linked to an individual’s motivation and as such becomes a key contributor to performance outcomes. 

OK, high performance is dependant on people’s behaviours and behaviours are shaped by what goes on inside their heads. But building a high performance team is not just about the team member’s knowledge skills and abilities.  It is about their commitment from free choice, not from a directive.

In striving for organisational excellence new lessons from the growth and popularity of new social and professional on-line communities should be considered. How these borderless entities become producers, mediators and distributors of specialised knowledge and information should challenge leaders thinking about how to win the hearts and minds of employees. If organisations could emulate how these self directing communities organise themselves around collaborative processes, they would be well on the road to creating the culture that would support high performing teams. In social networks and on-line communities individual or team performance is not something that gets ‘managed’ in a formal way. Instead the success of the community and the individuals in it becomes a matter of effective collaboration. It’s all about reputation and “reputation systems” have much to teach the corporate world. Virtual communities such as Face Book and MySpace are real life examples of new ways to allocate forms of recognition, privileges and informal authority. People get the satisfaction of contributing something with both individual and wider social or political value. Wikipedia, the multilingual free content web based encyclopaedia is an amazing phenomenon and a great case study of what can be achieved if the incentive for people’s participation is directed towards learning and sharing knowledge. The content for Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world.  Anyone can participate, the only stipulation being that you must supply references for all entries or changes to content. It has grown from its inception in 2001 to be one of the largest reference web sites.

Most MDs would jump at the chance to discover a secret formula for creating high performing teams and culture. Much money and time is often spent trying to achieve the perfect state. But the irony is that in most organisations, managers time is still spent doing things that block their organisational potential.  This is because the MD must be concerned about controlling predictability and risk. A focus on profits, competitive positioning, costs and production levels creates tensions within the organisation and reduces slows or halts the boldness of truly empowered self directed teams. Leaders, who understand the human aspect of high performance, need to rethink how they energise their organisation through creating the vision and challenges that their stakeholders can rally around. But talk is not enough, no matter how impressive the speech is, it’s the behaviours that follow, how the organisation is designed and managed on a day to day basis that makes the difference to peoples commitment. Indeed research demonstrates that leaders, who set unrealistic expectations, say one thing but do another, only serve to cause more frustration and dissatisfaction in the work place.

There is no magic formula for building high performing teams but the following are attributes that are likely to be precursors to success.

• Team is organised around a clear mission and purpose
• Team gels as a cohesive group in response to a challenge [forming, storming, norming performing]
• Team members are always slightly uncomfortable [need to rise to the challenge and learn]
• Individuals value their membership
• Team is self-directed with top cover [benevolent visionary leader]
• All members are genuinely concerned about team performance
• Members hold themselves and other team members accountable for results
• Members love working in the team and are energised by it
• The best idea wins, even it is the idea of one over the consensus of many
• Often a degree of organised chaos
• Each persons distinct contributions are recognised and their reputation enhanced
• They know how the teams work contributes to the greater good and company success.
• Team members trust each other
• Team members are honest with each other
• Team has access to information and resources

If managed well these ways of working can become the norm – this creates a culture which is more likely to lead to sustainable innovation and unprecedented achievements.

Ingrid Blades, Managing Consultant

Ingrid has a masters in Organisational Design from Queens University, Belfast

and in Cognitive Behavioural Councelling from University of Ulster, Magee College

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