Module1: Team Forming ......Naturally!

The Foundations of High-Performing Teams 

A Reflection on Module 1 Readings

Personal Takeaways & Key Insights: 

• Clarity and alignment of goals
• Establishing an organizational culture that fosters natural team-forming
• Mutual Accountability
• Trust

Summarizing my key takeaways from this module, I touch on the importance of goal setting, mutual accountability, supportive leadership, and most importantly TRUST amongst team members.  

Elaboration

This week's readings set the stage for understanding the foundations of high-performing teams. The example of the naturally developed team was interesting to me and reinforced the need for clarity and alignment around performance goals and mutual accountability. How do teams form naturally? When team members have their eyes set on achieving a common goal, they have an individual incentive to work with team members of varying skill sets to achieve that goal. The goals become more significant than their individual needs for success; however, they are equally fulfilling, individually and organizationally. One of the questions I posed in my introductory video that I would like to understand better is, as a leader, how can I foster an organizational culture that helps breed natural team-forming? While I recognize teams will need to be orchestrated within the organization, particularly around specific projects, how can an organization incentivize this response? 

How does mutual accountability drive performance within teams? More than having a leader hold individuals or even a group accountable is required to drive performance. Teams must define what mutual accountability looks like within the group. Effectively defining team accountability will foster communication and trust among team members. The RACI model is used in my line of work and helps bring clarity to team roles and responsibilities.  

Concrete Examples

I was reminded of a personal experience when I read the story about Fred Mott and the Democrat. The leader worked passionately to fix a situation and needed to change their approach. Adopting the advice of their direct report, the leader stepped back and instead empowered a team of employees closer to the work to align around a clearly articulated performance goal to reduce print errors. I have witnessed leaders struggle to transition from being 'in the weeds' to leading by empowering others to solve organizational problems. Thinking back on these scenarios, most of them stemmed from confusion around the ultimate performance goal. The goalpost continuously moved, causing confusion and leading to avoidable errors and frustrated employees.  

Dual Coding

This image summarizes several themes from our readings this week. The first concept depicted is trust. As the baton is passed, the runner in the front keeps their eyes forward. Both team members are equally committed and focused on the goal, and the front-runner blindly trusts their team members to pass the baton seamlessly. Their communication is paramount to success. Without it, the baton may drop, their timing may not align, and they may not accomplish their goal. They are both strong runners; however, the race is only won based on how they perform together. Each brings a different skill to the table, and they execute the race based on those skills.