People on teams MUST have clear lines of accountability and authority. Knowing who does what-by-when within the prescribed standards and limits. People on teams NEED to know what they are individually responsible for and what others expect from them. People on teams NEED to see the connection of the teams, their own, and the organizations goals for the work to be valued, and accomplished within quality and time specifications. This process makes your team better.
7 Steps to High Performance Teams
For managers, team leaders and team members to accomplish team goals a model that is visual and prescriptive is needed. Allowing everyone to see where the team currently is, what to do next, and what to do if the team becomes stuck.
While facilitating a 3 day ‘Quality Tools for Quality Teams’ workshop the participants came up with action steps for managers to follow whether the team is Settled or Unsettled in the 7 Steps to High Performance Teams.
Settled
- the team has established shared-knowledge on the step and is ready to move to the next step, in accordance with the model.
Unsettled
- the team has not established shared-knowledge on the step and needs to move to an earlier step to re-settle, then move through the steps in accordance with the model.
You will notice only 5 of the 7 steps are listed below, the participants chose to focus on areas they felt their work-teams were at, in reference to goals, or were stuck at and needed to determine what to-do next.
- Ensuring the step is completed – Settled
- Techniques / ideas to turn Unsettled behaviors into Settled behaviors
TRUST
Steps to ensure that Trust is established – Settled
- Clarify the risks with the function & results if errors are encountered.
- Honesty about functions
- Share specific functions associated with other team members (Job Shadow)
Turn Unsettled into Settled
- Management attendance at staff meetings
- Commend performance
- Insight into goals
- Interject something on personal side
- Show trust by allowing them to be accountable & to learn by mistakes
COMMITMENT
Settled
- Hold team meetings allow everyone to voice their opinions & what their expectations from the group are.
- Manager specifically outlines each staff members roles & responsibilities.
Turn unsettled into settled
- Have one on one meeting where staff provides input and buy-in towards the groups common goals.
- Once the employees have a clearly defined role & goal, they should become less dependent.
IMPLEMENTATION
Settled
- Create a project plan (for the what + when) task, start date, end date
- Assign resources to the task (for the who)
- Identify potential additional resources purchasing equipment, more time
Turn unsettled into settled
- SME (subject matter expert) help resolve conflicts
- Work as a team to alleviate confusion
- Review time frames to make sure they are reasonable
- Coaching to manage time
- Reassign work load if needed
HIGH PERFORMANCE
Settled
- Surpassing results – Establish perfection
- Small step goals, incremental within that goal
- Spontaneous interaction
- Synergistic recognition / rewards for team & individual.
- Highly motivated
Turn unsettled into settled
- Overload – revaluate trust
- Assess staffing
- Vacation time
- Team Building
- Staff lunches
- Disharmony – team building may overcome
RENEWAL
Settled
- Reminders of the project
- Updates on how things are going – successes, challenges
- Provide detail of how its helping the organization
- Bring in new team members to continue the progress
Turn unsettled into settled
- Reassign people to new roles
- Analyze and reflect (lessons learned) on the project and implement changes or process improvements à could lead to new phases of the projects
- Education to the company about the project and how it impacts the organization
What do you think?
Reading through the steps and action-steps to Settle and change the step from Unsettled to settled, what have you tried? What would you add? What model / procedure have you found is most effective for team performance?