Foresee The Future

Team Basics and High-Performance Teams

What is a team? Katzenbach and Smith in "The Wisdom of Teams" define a team as: "A small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."

High-performance teams differ from other teams in one key respect: their level of commitment. The members of a high-performance team are deeply committed to one another's personal growth and success. This commitment significantly impacts the performance of the team, enabling them to achieve results that far exceed those of other work groups or loose teams of individuals.

The Performance Challenge

As the performance expectations placed on organizations by customers, shareholders, and stakeholders continue to rise, the only way for many organizations to deliver the needed level of performance is through a team approach. The team is the smallest unit of performance in an organization. The performance challenge that a team faces is what provides the impetus for its formation and the fuel for its continued performance. Without a significant performance challenge, it is very difficult to build a high-performance team.

The Role of the Facilitator

Facilitation of teams and working groups can have a significant positive impact on performance. A facilitator is someone whose primary role is to help the group do its work, but who is not a member of the group and has no authority over the group or its decisions.

The facilitator's contribution is to provide process skills that allow the group to focus its energy on the task at hand. The facilitator helps the group by:

• Designing and conducting effective meetings
• Helping the group set clear goals and expectations
• Managing the group dynamics and ensuring participation
• Maintaining focus on the task and the process
• Providing an objective perspective

One thing a facilitator cannot do is hold the group mutually accountable for its work products. That must come from the group itself.

The Role of Organizational Climate

The business climate and organizational culture have a profound effect on team performance. A performance ethic is evidenced by empowering workers and expecting results. In contrast, many organizations have a control focus, expecting conformance to procedures and risk avoidance.

In control-based organizations, expectations like individual reward and minimal meetings drive out the intuitive understanding of what it takes for people to work together. If such an organization tries to institute teams, the attempt will likely be hampered by excessive pronouncements and controls that leave no "solution space" for the team to find its own purpose.

When to Facilitate

There are several critical points in a team's lifecycle where facilitation is most valuable:

• Before the Charter: Assessing if a team is actually needed for the performance challenge.
• Building the Charter: Finding the balance point between specific expectations and team solution space.
• The First Meeting: Setting the tone for team formation rather than just "action items."
• When Trouble Strikes: Helping a "stuck" team refocus on team basics.
• Team Closure: Capturing lessons learned and celebrating success.

A truly high-performance team will not require a facilitator for every meeting, but an outside perspective can be instrumental in getting a team back on track or ensuring a successful ending.

Summary: The facilitator is most effective when the performance challenge inspires the team participants and the organizational climate supports the fundamentals of team behavior.