High Performing Teams - the holy grail of organizational success

How does your team rate?

‘HPTs’ – there’s so much written about them and yet they are still elusive in most organizations. Which of the following does your team demonstrate?

Common Characteristics of High Performing Teams		Yes	No
1	Members take ownership of their work and ideas
2	Members are interdependent, sense of unity
3	Shared vision and understanding of common purpose/mission
4	Clear and specific goals – have an action plan in place and strategies to achieve the goals
5	Understanding and agreement on roles and responsibilities – each member understands and is competent at his or her position. Members have complementary skills such as technical expertise, decision-making skills and good interpersonal skills
6	Honesty and trust are high. Disagreements seen as a positive/opportunity; recognise the value of conflict; problem solving strategies are in place and used. Play the ball, not the man – will seek to resolve an issue without apportioning blame. Conversations required to resolve individual dissent are held 1:1, not in front of other team members or outsiders
7	Willingness to share knowledge, experience and ideas on how the team can function more effectively. Collaboration rather than competition.
8	Open, communication channels. Information and learning is shared freely among team members. Communication is timely, clear and focused on the strategic goals of the organization as well as the team purpose for being
9	Learn from experience – team reflects; learns and applies new insights; has a relentless continuous improvement focus
10	Members encourage and support each other – willingness to take time out from own tasks to support other team members. Readiness to acknowledge each other’s challenges and successes.
11	Free expression and creativity – respect for the skills and contribution of all individuals
12	Resilience to setback – strong support networks in place
13	Team is outcome focused and delivers results – strives to exceed expectations and excels
14	Readily acknowledges achievement and celebrates success
15	Flexibility and Awareness – able to rotate members to other positions; a sharing or shifting of leadership roles. Know and utilize each member’s strengths and know their weaknesses
16	Mutual accountability for team results – share the glory, take ownership when things go wrong. Can work as a team while apart and contribute to a sequence of activities rather than a common task that requires their presence in one place at the same time.
TOTALS

(Sources: Skiffington & Zeuss, 2000; Sharp, Hides & Bamber, 2000; Castka, Bamber, Sharp & Belohoubek, 2001, Rickards & Moger, 1999)

Scoring Key:

> 14 Yes: Congratulations – your team is probably achieving outstanding success. They are focused on and committed to a common goal, self aware, flexible, interdependent and collaborative, and are recognized as a ‘High Performing Team’.
10 →14: Your team has many of the fundamentals demonstrated by a High Performing Team in place. There may be a number of areas they could easily work on to achieve even higher levels of success. Contact P2R today to find out how to make this happen quickly.
< 10 Yes: Your team has great potential but may be missing some of the key High Performing Team characteristics. Contact P2R today to see what they are and how to create them
> 12 No: Your team needs urgent help! They may be on a collision course where they have limited control of their goal and inadequate skills or likelihood to achieve it. Contact P2R today to see how to create the required changes.