The following article is an abridged version based upon extracts from Dr. Tom Bagwell’s original work, Defense Acquisition University’s webinar titled “Leading Acquisition Series Optimizing Team Performance 10.5.22” (found at https://media.dau.edu/media/t/1_95wcw1f6).
Optimizing team performance is critical to reaching goals, enhancing employee morale, and fostering a collaborative culture within your organization. This article will provide insights to optimizing team performance, as briefed by the Defense Acquisition University’s Leading Acquisition Series webinar titled Optimizing Team Performance.
Before understanding how to optimize our team’s performance, let’s define high-performing teams. High-performing teams are defined by the Society of Human Resource Management as a group of goal-focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills, who collaborate, innovate, and consistently produce superior results.
Characteristics of high-performing teams
The Forbes Human Resources Council, a collective of respected leaders selected based on the depth and diversity of experience as leaders in the human resources field, found 14 characteristics all teams share. The characteristics range from adaptability and strong communication to empathy and mutual respect. The council shares that “the key is spotting these characteristics and isolating them in order to train employees and identify them in future hires so as to achieve better teamwork.”
The council reconciled aspects of high-performing, cohesive units, and suggested ways teams can achieve the same traits. The characteristics are identified as follows:
- Inclusive thinking
- Diversity
- Mutual respect and trust
- Personal excellence
- Open communication
- Healthy conflict
- Adaptability
- Engagement
- Psychological Safety
- Decision-making flexibility
- Openness to new ideas/innovation
- Ability to surmount challenges
- Behavioral awareness
- Pride in the department/organization
Characteristics of low-performing teams
By contrast, it is just as important to understand characteristics of low performing teams, to identify signs that opportunities for growth exist. Intuition.com, a self-described global knowledge solutions company, identified six characteristics of low-performing teams. Low performing teams hinder the organization’s ability to maximize their production due to the characteristics identified below:
- Poor communications
- Lack of formal training
- Disengagement
- No accountability
- Lack of transparency and visibility
- Excessive meetings
Tuckman’s Model of Team Performance
Understanding a team’s development stage enables us to resolve conflicts, share information effectively, and review outcomes for continual improvement.
Psychologist Bruce Tuckman described how teams move through stages known as forming, storming, norming, and performing, and adjourning (or mourning). Tuckman’s model explains that as the team develops maturity and ability, relationships establish, and leadership style changes to more collaborative or shared leadership.
Forming
- At this stage, no one knows what is expected or who is required to do what
- People are on their best behavior
- Communications are superficial
- Team roles are not defined
- The process of building relationships begin
Storming
- Understand each other’s working styles
- Hierarchical status of positions starts to be understood
- Conflict starts to arise around interpersonal issues
- Authority and leadership tested
- Some power is asserted
Norming
- Roles and responsibilities fully understood
- Sense of togetherness and trust begins
- Disagreements resolved easier leading to cooperation
- Team working together towards common goals
- Focus: processes, objectives, systems, and actions
Performing
- Focus on achieving goals with high success
- Relationships well established
- Issues resolved quickly with team members supportive
- Conflict positive and constructive
- Team characteristics include:
- High performance
- Flexibility
- Collective spirit (we rather than I)
- Shared purpose and vision
Adjourning
- Success is celebrated
- Team members recognized for achievements and contributions
- Members feel strong sense of belonging, connection, and purpose
- New friendships and relationships established
- Team members return to previous jobs or go to new assignments
Team Dynamics
Another aspect to take into account when optimizing team performance is the team dynamics. Team dynamics are the unconscious, psychological forces that influence the direction of a team’s behavior and performance. Team dynamics can have a big impact on:
- How quickly teams start to work well together
- How efficiently and effectively work gets done
- The way the leader and team members interact
- How teams coordinate their activities
- How leadership arises in a team
- The nature of team member participation
- Whether people enjoy their work
- Staff satisfaction
- Team and individual performance
- Organization success
- The reputation of the organization
Strategies to optimize team performance
When seeking to change how teams interact and improve how they work together, we need to understand:
1. Dimensions of Effective Teams
- Goals – clear team goals, shared by all members
- Participation – actively involved, contributions are honored, heard
- Feelings – trusted and respected; free to share comments and points of views
- Diagnoses of team issues – ability to diagnose root cause of problems, and implement a corrective action so they can move forward
- Conflict – treat it as constructive, and have a process to deal with it as an opportunity
- Decisions – work towards consensus on a best path for the end goal
- Leadership – leaders that don’t feel threatened; folks are allowed to step up into the role; delegate shared leadership
- Trust – trust themselves and each other
- Creativity and Growth – flexible, think outside the box; be okay with failure
A Dimensions of Effective Teams worksheet (and survey) can be found on the DAU Leadership Center website at DAU.edu. The tool is useful to rate yourself as a team and talk about the results with a goal to help each other overcome the challenges.
2. Five (5) Dysfunctions of a Team, indicators, and impact
- Absence of Trust – unwillingness to be vulnerable; hiding or falsifying motives
- Fear of Conflict – Artificial harmony; Lack of debate; Guarded comments
- Lack of commitment – continual need for consensus and certainty; lack of buy-in to decisions; lots of second guessing
- Inattention to Results – individual needs take priority over collective team
- Avoidance of Accountability – Unwillingness to call peers out on statements and behaviors; inability to separate personal from team relationship. Source: Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable San Francisco: Jossey- Bass
3. Keep-Abandon-Invent-Reinvent (KAIR)
- Keep what is working well
- Abandon what is a barrier to future success
- Invent new solutions that have not been previously considered
- Reinvent activities that could benefit from improvement
4. Team Charter
Developed to capture the reasons why a team is established, expectations for the team, and their responsibility and authority. Team charter may include:
- Team Purpose
- Goals and SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely)
- Team expectations
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Stakeholders and Spanning boundaries
- Revision of the Charter
- Approval
Additional Resources
Below is a list of additional resources available to help us develop and optimize our performance:
- The Speed of Trust
- Crucial Conversations
- TEDEX: What Makes the Highest Performing Teams in the World | Simon Sinek
- 5 Things High-Performing Teams Do Differently
- Three Tips For Optimizing Team Performance In A Remote Environment
- 5 Steps to Optimizing Team Performance
- Wendi Peck & Bill Casey: Success on Purpose
Closing Thoughts
High performing teams are critical to getting work done. Understanding which stage of the Tuckman model your team is in, can help you focus on how to improve the performance of the team. Team performance can be improved by understanding the Dimensions of Effective Teams and the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. To get team performance on track, use Keep-Abandon-Invent-Reinvent or develop a Team Charter.
The Optimizing Team Performance webcast, and the corresponding tools, were developed based on materials from the Optimizing Team Performance lesson in our Acquisition Leader Development (ALD) program. More information on the ALD courses can be found at www.DAU.edu, search “Leadership Center” to learn more.