12 Rules for High-Performing Teams

Turn your team into a Profit Machine

The most successful companies in the 21st Century have learned they must focus on their employees as much as their customers. As a result, industry leaders hire more High-impact and self-motivated employees and subsequently provide a conducive environment for continuous learning and improvement.

Their team is more competent, capable, and energetic and is engaged in attaining the company’s strategic goals.

Success in today’s work world is more about the team than individual performance. In reality, it is unlikely that an individual can master all the essential competencies needed to ensure their company’s sustained profitability, competitive strength, and brand success. Therefore, a team is necessary to achieve the required mastery.

A team is more than just a group of workers, located together, doing their jobs. Real teams are interdependent. That means they must rely on one another to get the job done.

What is the value of teamwork in the workplace? It takes many forms, including greater workforce efficiency and productivity, increased innovation, higher employee morale, and improved retention. And all those things can translate to real, bottom-line benefits for your company and its customers — further amplifying the value of teamwork.

Many companies pay “lip service” to “Teamwork”, but it’s only a “Paper Tiger”. Their program has no bite, no power. They don’t really believe in it, or they are too lazy to make it real. Unfortunately, people are messy, and some executives just don’t have it in themselves to deal with people’s issues.

But companies that do believe in teamwork promote real empowerment and teamwork and subsequently realize the tangible benefits – better profits.

The Fundamentals of Team Building

• The team’s goal must be clearly identified and agreed upon.
• The team shares responsibility for achieving that goal.
• Team members are empowered to contribute their skills and experience
• The resources to achieve the goal must be identified and agreed upon.
• The right people must be involved.
• The recommended action must be practical and appropriate.
• The right resources must be used.
• The larger context and implications must be considered (Team goals within the context of the Company’s Strategic Goals).
• The time scale agreed upon must be reasonable.
• The results must be used as a basis for further improvement.
• Teamwork is mutual inquiry requiring mutual respect.
• Listening is as essential as talking. Both are interpersonal skills.
• Thinking in a team is difficult without rules of conduct.
• Teamwork is a non-competitive quest to make meaning.
• Teamwork is not a debate with winners and losers.
• Mutual inquiry is an iterative process.

Want to Learn More?

Email us at info@diadconsulting.com and request our complete White Paper, “12 Rules for High-Performing Teams.”

Fill out our contact form to receive the paper, plus 2-hours free consulting via ZOOM or TRAVEL – pass-through travel costs charges may apply to locations outside the Cincinnati, OH area.

Stages of Team Building

Effective teamwork is essential in today’s world, but as you’ll know from the teams you have led or belonged to, you can’t expect a new team to perform exceptionally from the very outset. Team formation takes time and usually follows some easily recognizable stages, as the team journeys from being a group of strangers to becoming a united team with a common goal.

Whether your team is a temporary working group or a newly-formed, permanent team, by understanding these stages you will be able to help it quickly become productive.

Table of Contents

Stages of Team Building			1
	Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing		2
		Helping New Teams Perform Effectively, Quickly	2
	Understanding the Theory		2
	Applying the Concept		3
		Forming	4
		Storming	4
		Norming	4
		Performing	4
		Adjourning	4
	Key Points about Stage Activities		4
Team Charters			5
	Context		6
	Mission and Objectives		6
	Composition and Roles		7
	Authority and Empowerment		8
	Resources and Support Available		8
	Operations		8
		Example: Team Meetings	8
	Negotiation and Agreement:		9
Key Points about Team Charters			9

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success”
– Henry Ford

Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing

Helping New Teams Perform Effectively, Quickly

Effective teamwork is essential in today’s world, but as you’ll know from the teams you have led or belonged to, you can’t expect a new team to perform exceptionally from the very outset. Team formation takes time, and usually follows some easily recognizable stages, as the team journeys from being a group of strangers to becoming a united team with a common goal.

Whether your team is a temporary working group or a newly-formed, permanent team, by understanding these stages you will be able to help it quickly become productive.

Understanding the Theory

Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with the memorable phrase “forming, storming, norming and performing” back in 1965. He used it to describe the path to high-performance that most teams follow. Later, he added a fifth stage that he called “adjourning” (and others often call “mourning” – it rhymes better!)

Teams initially go through a “forming” stage in which members are positive and polite. Some members are anxious, as they haven’t yet worked out exactly what work the team will involve.

Others are simply excited about the task ahead. As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage: other members’ roles and responsibilities are less clear.

This stage is usually fairly short, and may only last for the single meeting at which people are introduced to one-another. At this stage there may be discussions about how the team will work, which can be frustrating for some members who simply want to get on with the team task.

Soon, reality sets in and your team moves into a “storming” phase. Your authority may be challenged as others jockey for position and their roles are clarified. The ways of working start to be defined and, as leader, you must be aware that some members may feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do, or uncomfortable with the approach being used. Some may react by questioning how worthwhile the goal of the team is, and by resisting taking on tasks. This is the stage when many teams fail, and even those that stick with the task may feel that they are on an emotional roller coaster, as they try to focus on the job in hand without the support of established processes or relationships with their colleagues.

Gradually, the team moves into a “norming” stage, as a hierarchy is established. Team members come to respect your authority as a leader, and others show leadership in specific areas.

Now that the team members know each other better, they may be socializing together, and they are able to ask each other for help and provide constructive criticism. The team develops a stronger commitment to the team goal, and you start to see good progress towards it.

There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming behavior: As new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into typical storming stage behavior, but this eventually dies out.

When the team reaches the “performing” stage, hard work leads directly to progress towards the shared vision of their goal, supported by the structures and processes that have been set up. Individual team members may join or leave the team without affecting the performing culture.

As leader, you are able to delegate much of the work and can concentrate on developing team members. Being part of the team at this stage feels “easy” compared with earlier on.

Project teams exist only for a fixed period, and even permanent teams may be disbanded through organizational restructuring. As team leader, your concern is both for the team’s goal and the team members. Breaking up a team can be stressful for all concerned and the “adjourning” or “mourning” stage is important in reaching both team goal and personal conclusions.

The break up of the team can be hard for members who like routine or who have developed close working relationships with other team members, particularly if their future roles or even jobs look uncertain.

Applying the Concept

As a team leader, your aim is to help your team reach and sustain high performance as soon as possible. To do this, you will need to change your approach at each stage. The steps below will help ensure you are doing the right thing at the right time.

To be continued…

Want to Learn More?

Email us at info@diadconsulting.com and request our complete White Paper, “Stages of Team Building.”

Fill out our Contact Form to receive the paper, plus 2-hours free consulting via ZOOM or TRAVEL – pass-through travel costs charges may apply to locations outside the Cincinnati, OH area.