Research Articles

Team Productivity - Not Just Team Bonding

David Stratford, Managing Principal of Everest Woods Consulting Service Pty Ltd

As teams are now faced with increasingly demanding goals, the emphasis in Team Development Workshops is shifting away from Team Building (with the caricature of two days spent bonding in the wilderness by singing Kumbayah around a campfire) and towards Team Productivity, or a more broadly based and sustained team effectiveness.

This shifts the focus away from a one-dimensional Relationships approach to a more strongly grounded Team Commitment. Placing it on the Blake Mouton Grid (which measures Concern for Results balanced with Concern for People), it reflects a move from a 1.9 score (High Concern for People/Low Concern for Results or the Country Club style) to a 9.9 score (an equally high Concern for both Results an d People or the Committed style).

This emerging approach is demonstrated in a new online team diagnostic profile (the High Performance Team Index™ from Everest Woods Consulting Services, which has just been globally launched on the HRworkbench website. Based on three years' research in multinational teams in the Asia Pacific Region, it measures six key components of high performing teams:

GOALS:
the clarity of team goal definition, and of team commitment to them
PROTOCOLS:
the definition of Operating Guidelines for the team, and the extent of compliance
LEADERSHIP:
the extent to which the prevailing Team Leadership style facilitates the achievement of team goals
ROLES:
the degree of match between team roles and individual talents and aspirations
RELATIONSHIPS:
the authenticity and openness of inter-personal communication
PRODUCTIVITY:
the effectiveness and regularity of the evaluation of team performance

In addition to each team member answering a set of questions related to these issues, they are also invited to contribute unsourced and anonymous recommendations on how team effectiveness can be improved. Their answers are then benchmarked against global best practice standards, so that the current level of team effectiveness can be established, and priorities for Team Development Workshop drawn up.

The total HPTI™ package offers:

  1. Two sets of online questionnaires and analytical reports (one to be taken before the Workshop, and the other six months later, to measure progress achieved)
  2. An online Facilitator's Kit for a two day Workshop, complete with Powerpoint presentation slides (60 pages in all)
  3. An online Participant Workbook (95 pages) which can be copied for all Workshop participants


It aims to provide a streamlined, pragmatic, and line manager friendly approach to Team Development.

To demonstrate the essentially practical nature of the Workshop, here are some randomly chosen examples of Team protocols which were developed in recent Workshops:

  • Three Minute Rule:
    • no team member will speak for more than three minutes without the explicit approval of the whole team
  • Creation of agendas:
    • agendas will be distributed 48 hours before each meeting, and followed
    • strategic issues will be clearly separated from operational issues
  • Inter-personal relationships:
    • destructive criticism will be banned, and constructive criticism expected
    • authentic dialogue will always replace political correctness
  • Individual commitments:
    • I will be loyal to a team decision, once made
    • I promise not to be silent when I should speak
    • I will help all team members to add value

In these days when effective teamwork is a survival skill in most companies, and when we are all members of several teams (both at work and at home), there appears to be plenty of scope to raise the bar on our individual team skills. By doing so, we can both enhance our contribution to society at large, and improve our own quality of life.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM INDEX™ PLEASE CONTACT US: