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Master Your Game: Foundation of High Performance Teams - Part 1

Guest post by: Jacque Small

Article Overview: This is the third article in the series on High Performance Teams. Now that you've conducted your self-assessment, here are some suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of your teams. The first three category areas are discussed here. The last four categories will be covered in the next Master Your Game.

Master Your Game: Foundation of High Performance Teams - Part 1

This is the third article in the series on High Performance Teams. Now that you've conducted your self-assessment, here are some suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of your teams. The first three category areas are discussed here. The last four categories will be covered in the next Master Your Game.


Team Charter

Improve your high performance team by setting a team charter that contains the team's code of conduct. If the charter is developed collectively, it will implicitly embody the shared values of each person. To establish the charter, focus on the following areas:
• Vision - the final outcome for what the team could possibly achieve
• Mission - the purpose underlying why the team has come together
• Values - what is important to you about who you are as team members
• Code of Conduct - the ground rules that the team is to operate under


Dialogue

" Dialogue is the interaction between people with different view points, intent on learning from one another. "
Will Phillips, Management Consultant and Author


High performance teams dialogue rather than discuss. Discussing focuses on winning or convincing others that one viewpoint is more valid than others. When we dialogue and work collectively, we welcome differing opinions and find new solutions built on common ground.

Improve your team dialogue by following the principles identified by dialogue experts David Bohm, Donald Factor and Peter Garrett.

1. Silence - allowing a space to exist to give others time to think and respond. It also involves listening to our own inner guidance before speaking.
2. Suspending Judgment - active awareness of how we filter information and the ability to set biases aside or step beyond it. We must also continually interpret what the other person is saying.
3. Focused Listening - listening actively to what is being said and for underlying unspoken messages.
4. Shared Meaning - finding common ground and underlying meaning in others' statements.
5. Reflection - taking time to reflect back to the speaker and the rest of the group a view of some of the assumptions and unspoken implications of what is being expressed.
6. Seeking Understanding - asking key questions that enable us to locate ourselves in the thought of another.
7. Clarifying questions - being curious and asking open ended question that take the thought process to a deeper level.

Research has proven that better communication leads to better business results. If we comprehend and understand each other well then we work more effectively to the same end.


Working Procedures

Effective meeting practices are vital to fully engage team members, physically, mentally and emotionally. Given the number of meetings people attend, there is a huge opportunity cost to ineffective meetings. Improve your team's meetings by reviewing your working practices:

• Do you have a set meeting format? One option is Roberts Rules of Orders based on the old military format, effective at moving through a meeting agenda. However, to solicit a broad range of divergent ideas, a facilitated session format is preferable. Meetings could entail the use of both formats.
• Do you have an agenda? This is the most important aspect of any meeting and considerable thought should be given to it. Creating an agenda is more than making a list of topic areas. It is defining the required information to move forward on any specific topic. The initial question that the facilitator posses will determine the quality of the dialogue and hence the quality of the outcome.
• Is someone responsible for keeping up to date minutes of the meetings and who has made commitments? Do you have a process for following up? What process has been designed for people to report back on their progress?
• Does your group follow a decision making model that allows people to provide qualified votes on proceeding with different actions?

A number of good books are available to help you improve in this area. Alternatively, you might want to engage Catalyst for a few meetings to establish your team's process.

Next issue, I include suggestions for improving your team's score in creativity, diversity, continuous learning and results.

Building solid foundations,
Jacque Small

Related Articles
  How Effective Teams Succeed
  Master Your Game: Introduction
  Master Your Game: Foundation of High Performance Teams - Part 2
  The Hole in The Sum of The Parts
  Permission to Succeed

Article Tags: effectiveness, high performance, performance teams, selfassessment



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