When we speak about teamwork and building a high performing team, it can be easy to be lulled into a false sense that it’s a walk in the park. That by undertaking a few team building exercises the group will achieve optimum performance. For sure, team building activities are useful and have their place in helping to break down barriers and creating memorable moments which build connection amongst the team.
If, however, we really want to enter into the realm of high performing teams there are some prerequisites that are far more substantial. First and foremost is making the decision that attaining high levels of performance matters for reasons beyond transactional, commercial targets. Success in these areas are the outcome that will follow but the level of work needed to create sustained high performance across a group requires a commitment to the value and purpose of group work.
The value of group work in itself immediately raises the possibility of conflict for each person in the team as they are called to examine their own need for individual performance and success – their deep identification with their own leadership on an individual level. This too is a vital ingredient, but it needs to be overlaid, we might even say superseded by a deep commitment to the group performance and group purpose. A deep belief that the group is indeed stronger together and that only by entering into a deeper and higher level of commitment can miracles be achieved. Miracles hopefully directed toward the common good.
The second core factor is a willingness to be vulnerable with peers. So much of our leadership development drives towards the traditional qualities of strength and resilience. In truth, we must add more feminine qualities which also build resilience but of a more fluid and, in the longer term, more robust nature. Vulnerability means being willing to open to one’s own uncertainties, fears or confusion. To be able to ask for help…and accept it, to work in a true collective and in a collaborative space, to recognise that one isn’t diminished by admitting to one’s ‘gaps’. In reality, vulnerability requires us to trust our ability to find our way forward no matter what, and to know we are stronger when we can accept the support of others in that journey.
The third essential in building high performing teams is the ability to perceive and create together – to perceive what is needed from the group at any given point in time, what its core task is and to deliver to that, and to find ways to enter creative space – to access the creative tension that’s only possible when we are in relationship with others. Creating is an act of relationship – relationship with an idea, with others as we generate and receive inspiration, new solutions or questions. Being truly creative together enables the ‘fire in the belly’ of a high performing team to move mountains. It also requires a deep commitment, time to develop the fire and a willingness to express with passion.
We might say that in building a HPT there are the transactional and operational levels of good process and good governance and these are important. To access the true power of a team, means accessing and wisely directing the fire inherent in that group. This is where the real work lies and it’s not for the faint-hearted.