c. Team Norms That Create a High
Performance Culture. Norms are
standards of behavior that begin
to shape the team culture and the
practices and behaviors of team
members. They can be positive or
negative, helpful or harmful, and
can have a significant influence on
the performance and health of a
team. Norms can happen by design
or default, so it is important to
establish norms by design by agreeing
on the norms and what it takes
to create them. It is also importantfor the team to agree on what to
do if team members consistently
operate outside the norms so that
there is an understood process for
addressing issues.
d. Structuring the Team for Results.
Another essential fundamental to
building a high performance team
is to structure the team for results.
Some of the important structural
issues that should be clear and
designed to make the team successful
are: (1) having the right people
on the team; (2) clarifying the
mission of the team; (3) clarifying
the responsibilities of the team, the
team leader, and the team members;
(4) agreeing on a few high
impact, clear, and motivating goals;
and (5) determining how and when
the team will meet and for what
purposes.
e. An Organized Way To Improve
Team Processes. While it is customary
and essential for teams, such
as athletic teams, to continuously
work at getting better at what they
do, this is seldom the case for teams
in organizations. Curiously, it is not
unusual for teams to never spend
time focusing on how to improve
the team and how it functions.
It is important to establish an
appropriate number of times each
year for the purpose of evaluating
what is working and what could be
improved to increase the effectiveness
of the team, and to involve the
team in making improvements. In
efforts to involve team members in
improving the effectiveness of the
team, leaders need to be discerning
about when they should use an
internal or external professional to
facilitate these meetings.
f. An Organized Way to Manage and
Improve Team Results. In addition
to evaluating and considering ways
to improve team processes, teams
should also periodically evaluate
and seek ways to improve team
results. This can be accomplished
by tracking and periodically evaluating
performance measures and
goals the team committed to achieving,
and to making needed improvements
and changes.
5. Provide tools for building high performance
teams. Once leaders have
the right perspective about teamwork
and understand the characteristics
of a high performance team and the
essentials for building a high performance
team, they need a few team
building tools to help them in the team
building process. For example, it is
helpful to provide leaders with: (1) a
team building questionnaire to evaluate
the effectiveness and realities of
the team (see Figure 3 for an example
of a Team Building Questionnaire
based on the Characteristics Of A High
Performance Team shown in Figure 2);
(2) sample team norms they can use
to develop norms with their team; (3) a
simple form to guide them in structuring
their team for results with a clear
mission, clear responsibilities and
expectations of team members, norms
that guide the way the team functions,
a few goals the team needs to accomplish
to be successful, and formal and
informal meeting plans (see Figure 4
for an example); and (4) a form to help
clarify team member roles that could
include, for example, a ranking of
major responsibilities, a list of top three
to five priorities, changes that would
more fully utilize the potential of the
individual, what others could do to help
each person succeed, and what each