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We’ve all experienced it: the high of a great team-building event that leaves you and your team feeling energized and convinced that, finally, your team has the knowledge and motivation needed to work better together. You’re sure that this time it will be different, that the team finally “gets it” and that things will be better. “Hallelujah!” you say to yourself as you walk out of the session with great anticipation for the next day, when you know you will all hit the ground running. with smiles on your faces and new bounce in your steps. Then, just a few short days (or hours) later, the team-building hangover hits you. Your team members have reverted to the unproductive behaviors you thought would disappear, and you realize that nothing has changed.
Team building is like dieting. It often results in a yo-yo effect of highs and lows when the team doesn’t stick with the prescribed “diet.” Like failed diets, teams can experience even lower morale and poor performance following a team-building session when they discover that the session didn’t produce the changes they expected. The result is members who are disappointed and frustrated with themselves, their fellow team members and their leaders.
If your goal is to effect real behavior change and enable improved and sustained team performance, then team building doesn’t work. There is no quick fix or single team-building event that will address the issues preventing your team from being their very best. If you want your team to perform better, get along better, challenge each other and stretch themselves to achieve better results, it requires work and ongoing commitment from everyone. But, with the right approach – the “secret sauce,” so to speak – it doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming.
So, what is the secret to helping teams achieve exceptional results with ease? It requires moving away from the “event” of a team-building session and intentionally choosing to embed team development into the team’s everyday work. Here is a simple three-step process that, if you and your team commit to and intentionally apply and stay focused on, can quickly improve your team’s effectiveness:
- Step One: Get Crystal Clear
- Step Two: Get Fanatically Focused
- Step Three: Check In Monthly
Get Crystal Clear
The first step is to get crystal clear on what an exceptional team looks like. Without a clear understanding of the non-negotiable practices that must show up every day for improved performance, you and your team will waste time and energy focusing on changing behaviors and adopting new practices that will have little or no effect on the team’s performance at the end of the day.
So, what does a high-performance team look like? There are a number of definitions out there; we even have our own definition that you are welcome to use. The key is to choose a definition that resonates with you and your team, is aligned with your organization’s values, is practical and easy to apply, and most importantly, is simple to remember and stay true to. Regardless of which one you choose, you must choose one. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this first step. Without a clear picture of what a high-performance team looks like, you and your team won’t be able to achieve sustained improvement in team effectiveness.
Get Fanatically Focused
For team development to work, it must be done by the team, not to the team. The purpose of this step is to connect your team to the high-performance team definition you choose, to build awareness of those non-negotiable practices that must show up consistently for improved performance and to create a renewed sense of motivation and commitment to becoming an even better team.
To get fanatically focused, dedicate 30 minutes at an upcoming team meeting to:
- Introduce the definition of a high-performance team (HPT)
When sharing the definition with your team, include why you believe it’s important for the team to have a clear picture of what high-performance teamwork looks like – e., what’s in it for them? - Connect your team to the definition
In order for your team to see value in the definition, it must be far more than words, team members must derive meaning from it and it must resonate within their everyday work and with the vision of the ideal culture they want to work in.
Ask the following questions to spark a meaningful dialogue:- What part of this definition resonates with you?
- What are we already doing well, based on this definition?
- Identify opportunities for improvement
Once the team has connected with the definition and has spent some time recognizing the team’s strengths, focus the team’s attention on what the group as a whole needs to improve in order to be even better than they already are. Ask:
- Based on this definition, what do we need to do better?
- Choose one area to improve first
It is likely that several opportunities for improvement will be identified. Choose one area to focus on to begin with; otherwise, your team may become overwhelmed. Once that first priority area is chosen, it’s essential to commit to focusing on strengthening it over the coming weeks.
- Develop commitments to action
After one area for improvement is identified, the next step is to identify exactly what the team will do differently going forward. Ask the following questions and identify three to five actions the team agrees to take over the next several weeks:
- What do we need to do differently in order to improve this area?
- How will we hold each other accountable?
Check In Monthly
Coming up with commitments to action once and never revisiting them again will not produce any positive change; in fact, it will likely only lead to frustration and a lack of trust in the continuous improvement process. Dedicate at least 20 minutes every two weeks to checking in on the commitments to action made above. Ask the team:
- What have we lived up to and are implementing well?
- What/who should we celebrate and recognize?
- Has anything fallen off our radar that we need to recommit to?
- What might be getting in our way?
- Has anything else come out of this discussion that we should commit to?
Team development is a process, not an event. Improving team performance requires developing and communicating a clear picture of what exceptional teamwork looks like, then intentionally carving out time to recognize team strengths and discuss what the team must do differently to perform at their very best. And finally, the team must hold themselves accountable to their commitments and keep the dialogue on “How can we work even better together?” alive.
