The truth is that high-performance teams achieve remarkable success. As the result of much research over the past several years, a knowledge base of what works and what doesn’t exists.
In the early stages of developing high -performance teams, what appears to be chaos to onlookers and even to the members themselves is a necessary phase. This is when the team members get to know where the real strengths lie and when they begin to organize.
Out of all of this chaos and seemingly disorganization, comes a set of procedures and a path for achieving results. It’s important for the team to work through this initial phase. How does the team maintain success through seeming chaos? The team brings in a coach to facilitate the team’s decision process.
The coach should be selected carefully because she will play a crucial role in the success of the team. She will help the team develop its charter and identify how the team is different from other teams. It’s often useful for the coach to give presentations using examples of high performing teams so team members can learn the elements required for success.
Team members will learn to trust each other as they work together and celebrate their accomplishments, but the coach will observe and make certain trust is developing. For example, an accomplished coach has many tools at their disposal from teambuilding activities to adventure-based exercises to shorten the learning curve and forge valuable understandings.
Once the team hits its stride and the team’s purpose is set in motion, the coach is no longer needed. The teams will have already developed their own norms—operational rules, team interdependence agreements and decision making standards and are on the way to becoming self-directed and empowered if the team is to be in place for the long haul.
Otherwise, the team has what it needs from the expert facilitation of a qualified coach to perform on a project. Once the project is completed, the team dissolves and members return to their department assignments. In both situations, however, team motivation comes from within as team members discover opportunities for extraordinary results in a short time.
