Getting Started: Anchor's Away!

Module 1 

Reflecting on Personal Experience:

During the first week of this course, we were asked to document our initial understanding of high-performance teams by reflecting on past experiences.  As I am sure everyone can relate, not all team experiences are positive.  It is much easier to recall bad examples (particularly during our MBA pursuit) than it is to recall positive experiences; however, this exercise forced us to dig deeper to differentiate the two experiences by reflecting on influencers of high-performing teams.  

For example, reflecting on my past experiences, I provided three characteristics of high-performing and low-performing teams. 

High Performing Teams: 

1. Alignment and adoption of shared goals and objectives

2. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

3. Trust and Accountability

Low Performing Teams:

1. Siloed work-streams 

2. Poor Communication

3. Lack of clarity around the team’s purpose

Following this exercise to reflect on strong and weak characteristics, we were asked to develop criteria for evaluating high-performance teams. I completed some independent research and utilized the following insight to inform my initial criteria.

Excerpt from Discussion Post (Module 1):

 

Many common themes are reiterated across the literature when researching the topic of high-performance teams, thus validating this Module’s reading assignments.  Two critical characteristics of effective teams include ensuring the team members possess particular, and often differentiated, skill sets and building trust.  A study performed by Huckman and Pisano in 2006, evaluating over 38,000 cardiac procedures, revealed interesting findings concerning teams.  The study evaluated postoperative survival rates of freelance physicians compared to those participating in consistent surgical teams.  Findings revealed that while individual surgeons improve over time, this only occurred when surgeries occurred in hospitals where they performed most of their procedures.  When these same individual physicians left to perform procedures in other locations, their results were not as strong.  The study found the reasoning to be the presence of a “bonded team” able to elevate the unique talents of each team member, particularly of the surgeon (Lino, 2016).  When the right skill sets converge within a team, each individual’s skills are enhanced to benefit the whole team, and the results tend to be higher quality (Gertenbach, 2022).  

The articles referenced above named trust as the top ingredient critical to the performance quality of teams.  When trust exists amongst team members, reliance on the diversified skill sets represented by individual members is optimized.  Without trust, many other attributes of high-performance teams are likely to fail.  For example, when trust does not exist, open, honest, and transparent communication is not likely to occur. 

Sources: 

Gertenbach, E. (2022, June). 8 Ways to Build High-Performance Teams. Upwork.com. https://www.upwork.com/resources/build-high-performance-teams

Lino, C. (2019, June 19). The Psychology of Teamwork: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teams. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/psychology-teamwork/

Initial Evaluation Criteria: 

1. Team Scope: Does the team have the appropriate number of people and do members possess the right complementary skill sets? 

2. Team Member Participation & Contribution: Teams should keep agendas and records of their collective work to ensure meetings are productive, team members are present, team members are clear of their roles and responsibilities, and contributions are recorded.  

3. Goal Alignment: Do the goals and objectives defined by the team align with the organizational goals and objectives?  Do the key performance indicators align? 

4. Timely Completion of Work: Is the team accountable to timelines?  Are timelines met? Are barriers to achieving the expected due date escalated appropriately? 

5. Quality of Work Product: Does the end product effectively accomplish the goals and objectives defined? 

6. Customer Satisfaction: Whether the team is focused on internal or external customers, what is the satisfaction of the intended audience?