High Performance Teams
Take a quantum leap in business results with a high-performance team
High-performance teams (HPTs) are teams, organisations, or virtual groups that are highly focused on their goals and that achieve superior business results. Often in less than a year, HPTs can achieve a quantum leap in business results in all key success dimensions including customer, employee, shareholder and operational value-added.
HPTs were first described in detail by the Tavistock Institute, UK, in the 1950s and gained popular acceptance in the US by the 1980s, with adoption by organisations such as General Electric, Boeing, Digital Equipment Corporation (now HP), and others.
The characteristics of high-performance teams are:
- Participative leadership – Using a democratic leadership style that involves and engages team members.
- Effective decision-making – Using a blend of rational and intuitive decision making methods.
- Open and clear communication – Ensuring that the team mutually constructs shared meaning.
- Valued diversity – Contributes to a diversity of viewpoints, leading to better decision making and solutions
- Mutual trust – Of other team members and the team.
- Managing conflict – Dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up.
- Clear goals – Goals that are developed using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based) criteria.
- Defined roles and responsibilities – Each team member understands what they must do, and not do.
- Coordinative relationship – The bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness
- Positive atmosphere – An overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.
High performance teams have proven to provide superior performance and outstanding results.
