High-Performing Teams

Fundamentals

At their best, high-performing teams have a source of collective energy and synergy which allows them to accomplish their goals with great efficiency and effectiveness. Team members possess a shared sense of purpose; they all pull in the same direction at the same time while taking advantage of complementarities in skills and competencies. In such teams, goals and objectives have been discussed and agreed on openly, so each member of the team pursues the same thing. Such teams stick together through highs and lows, taking both the blame and the rewards as something to be shared by all. The team is a source of pride to its members, who derive great pleasure and satisfaction from working together.

Dysfunctional teams, by contrast, are rife with role conflict and ambiguity, unresolved overt and covert conflicts, poor timekeeping and absenteeism. Teams that cannot reach closure have rigid, ritualistic meetings; uneven member participation; tunnel vision; indifference to the interests of the organization as a whole; and a lack of resources, skills, knowledge, and accountability. Within such teams, there is no genuine collegiality, collaboration, or coordination.

In many dysfunctional teams, blaming and scape-goating are some of the major dynamics stalling the organization’s productivity and creative process. In these teams, members avoid dealing with conflict, preferring to resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments. Taken to the extreme, such teams become toxic and morph into highly constipated, slow decision-making bodies, underperforming and floundering despite all the resources made available to them. Competitive feelings among team members can result in sabotage of each other’s work, unjustified criticism, and withholding of information and resources, contributing to the breakdown of the team’s proper functioning. All these dynamics can be very subtle, but they can be very damaging to the organization and its members.

...