Firstly (and this should really come as no great surprise) is the degree to which the formation of high performing teams is still absolutely critical and central to the success of any business. Yes of course organisations need to focus on selecting, retaining and developing highly talented individuals to deliver excellent personal performance. But the real nub of generating great value for shareholders still lies in the ability of gifted individuals to collaborate effectively to deliver world-class outcomes. In today's complex and rapidly changing commercial world any organisation hoping to outperform its competitors can only do so by acknowledging that it is the team and not individuals acting alone that is the primary currency of organisational success.
The second and more disappointing realisation is the lack of conscious planned attention businesses give to incentivising and shaping teams to deliver outstanding performance. Too often there is still an underlying presumption that by putting together a group of talented individuals then by chance they will know what to do to achieve team success. Worse still, most recently structured performance management processes and systems place an overly heavy weighting on recognition and reward for individual performance and in reverse provide a low level of incentivisation for collaboration and collective achievement. The base assumption too often is that if you encourage high levels of individual performance then as if by magic, high team performance will follow. All my experience suggests however that outstanding team performance rarely happens by accident. It is invariably the result of determined thought and effort to translate individual talents into outstanding collective performance. Neglect in this area results in teams simply failing to achieve the level of performance that either their potential deserves or that the organisation requires. The break up and re-forming of the team then becomes more inevitable.
And to these observations I can add one other stream of thought. In recent years there has been an explosion in the number and nature of teams within the umbrella of the one organisation. The simple organisation organisational structure of interlocking hierarchical line teams supported by specialist functional groups has gone. Businesses of any scale are now complex compositions of virtual teams, project teams, cross functional teams, self-managed teams, service teams, product teams .. and infinite other variations. Add to this then the complexities of globalisation with teams operating increasingly remotely across different time zones and with wide cultural diversity arising from business to business partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisitions and we can see that the challenge of building and sustaining high performance teams has becomes truly formidable. Quite simply, never before has there been a time when the imperative for high performing business teams has coincided so acutely with the complexity of team structures within and between organisations.
There is a highly cogent argument therefore to be made as to why organisations should channel additional investment into more consciously building and developing high performing teams. The argument goes something like this:
- Productivity - the effectiveness of any team quite simply has a primary bearing on the commercial performance of the business. Imagine the financial impact if you could increase the quality and quantity of output from each of your core business teams by a modest 10%. In reality careful investment in the development teams can generate productivity improvements way in excess of this; the difference between mediocre and high performing teams is invariably exponential not incremental.
- Cost & Waste - low performing teams are expensive. The under-utilisation of team talents, the failure to hit reasonable performance targets and the additional cost that follows from having to reform the team to retrieve the situation are all big budget items that drain an organisations resources. CEO's and Finance Director should worry as much about the waste of team assets as they do about gaining value from all the other deployed assets in the business.
- Motivation - if you have ever worked in a high performing team (and most of us have at some point in our lives) then you will know the effect that such participation had on your own level of personal performance, contribution and ultimate motivation. High performing teams are challenging and exciting places to be and provide individuals with feelings of self worth, added value and achievement above and beyond more solo endeavours. As a consequence, individuals grow, develop and give so much more of themselves. This is a win, win situation both emotionally and commercially.
- Relationships - high performing teams are all about the quality of personal relationships. An organisation that overtly values and invests in high performing teams is much more likely to create a culture with fewer silo's and better cross boundary working (persuade me that this is not an issue in your organisation!!). There will be less political in-fighting and turf wars, a stronger sense of common purpose and mutual support (particularly in times of difficulty) and a more open environment where communications are more effective. Looking from the outside in, as a consequence of this renewed focus on "team", potential customers are more likely to want to do business with an organisation that is seen to foster great personal and team relationships as part of its brand "DNA"
- Innovation - an individual working in isolation, staring endlessly at a computer screen is not the best scenario for generating world-beating ideas about products, services or process improvements. The spark and energy for creativity comes from from the interaction of diverse viewpoints in vibrant teams where ideas can be tested, explored ad worked into actionable outcomes. Given the absolute premium on innovation in today's nano-second world economy, organisations wanting to remain competitive simply cannot afford not to invest in team processes that generate such innovations.
- Attracting & Retaining Great People - we know that the most talented individuals are typically the most discerning and choosy about the organisations they elect to join and stay with. Organisations that are seen to value and invest in team and personal development are much more likely to meet the criteria of "great places to work".
Future blogs will take a more detailed look at what it takes to build and sustain high performing teams in todays complex, interconnected world.
Tim Chapman
Training-Network.Org Ltd
www.tno.org.uk
February 2010
