High Performance Teams
Waseem AL Rousan

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

High Performance Teams Content

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Contents
Introduction: ................................................................................................................................................. 2 What is a group ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Team Development Stages: Group Formation Theory (Tuckman’s 4/5 Stage Model) ................................. 3 Group performance theories ........................................................................................................................ 3 The T7 Model of Team Effectiveness ........................................................................................................ 3 Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry Model—The GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness .............................................. 4 Katzenbach and Smith Model—Focusing on Team Basics........................................................................ 6 High performing team case study/Umniah’s IT Infrastructure team ........................................................... 6 Team Performance Measurement and Management .............................................................................. 8 Team Behaviors and Values ...................................................................................................................... 9 Organizational and team Environment ..................................................................................................... 9 Team Identity .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Summary ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 References .................................................................................................................................................. 11 Appendix A .................................................................................................................................................. 12 Appendix B .................................................................................................................................................. 13

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J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Introduction:
When executives and decision-makers in public and c organizations are challenged with critical tasks and initiative, mostly groups, task force or teams will be created and such tasks are assigned to them in order to come down with solutions. The reasons behind creating such groups can be that one individual will not be able to perform such task due to the necessity for knowledge and skill diversity in addition to the need of cumulative experiences in different areas. Other times it is because of the assumption that added human resources within a group will achieve high value outcome or reduce the chances that the outcomes will be failure. Organizations tend to create team oriented roles and structures while in the process of revamping organizational structures, aiming to be more swift, dynamic, effective, efficient and flat. Jobs and projects increasingly becoming more complex, time dependent, and international in scope which makes it difficult for one person to perform it all specially when customer satisfaction is a major business feature, in such organizations the necessity to use teams as basic work unit (e.g., customer service in telecommunication industry, airplane crews)

Successful teams do not just happen and this is a very important key in order to develop a high performance team. Developing High performance teams take much effort and time. Proper direction and guidance in addition to support is clearly provided from the team leader. Such teams need an organizational environment and culture that encourages team work. In order to achieve a high team performance, we must understand what are the factors needed to stimulate team performance and effectiveness.

What is a group
“A team is a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and who are seen by others an intact social entity embedded in one or more larger social systems (for example, business unit or the corporation) and who manage their relationships across organizational boundaries.”[1] Another definition: “A "real" team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”[2] In the above definitions one can notice that there are several elements of a team that can be common between all team members, those elements define how teams perform and they should be managed, such as:  Skills: according to katzenbach there are several level of skill needed in a team, technical and functional expertise, problem solving and decision making skills in addition to interpersonal skills [2]. For members selections there is no need for member to have all skills or even for the team to have all skills, which open doors to empower teams for development to fulfill the gap with specific skills through either team development plans or individual specific development plans. Through this motivated team members can distinguish themselves within a team. Objective: usually teams respond to clear communicated objective by management through shaping a common purpose that defines commitments and responsibilities with clear scope that aims to find solutions through team participation. Performance goals: team understand of objective is translated in SMART performance goals (Specific, measureable, acceptable, realistic and timed) which provide the team with a clear workspace where required contributions from member are known, expected and measured all the way. Shared accountability: with all the above a sense of own responsibility and accountability is developed between team members that drives team execution for outcomes.

  

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Team Development Stages: Group Formation Theory (Tuckman’s 4/5 Stage Model)
In order to understand team performance, it is necessary to realize the stages of team development so that for management and leaders in organization can adapt their leadership style with the maturity level of team, it is supportive to recognize the stages which a team goes through to becoming a high performance team in order to adjust leadership from a more instructional/directive style at the beginning stages of leading a team, to a supportive / facilitative style at the high level of maturity. [3] Team development stages: Forming: This is generally the first stage where team members meet for the first time, or when a new member joins an established team, this stage focus on roles and skills of team members “who fits where”. Storming: at this stage less is achieved, discussions, debates and sign of conflicts are likely to show. Defining the process and how the team can work together occur at this stage. Norming: Execution of process and work is occurring at this stage and reflective practice is used to enhance and improve performance. Team members are getting to used with each other at this stage. Performing: the group now is a team with clear objectives achieved, the confident level in team and share accountability and responsibility is clearly common between the team. Mourning: group usually disbands at this stage.

Group performance theories
Several models of team performance have been proposed through the years in an effort to understand how teams work. Several and different variables are presented in these model that suggest what affects team performance and effectiveness. group structure and interpersonal dynamics are highlighted by some models, while talent and motivation of individual team members is focused on by other models. Through this article, I will present 4 cited team performance models • T7 Model Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger (1995) • Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry Model—The GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness • Katzenbach and Smith (1993)

The T7 Model of Team Effectiveness
In an effort to understand how teams perform, this model represents the key factors that effect team performance of performance which is identified through five internal factors within a team and two external factors outside the

team. [4]

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J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

The five internal team factors include: • Thrust: clear common team objective and purpose • Trust: between team members • Talent: the team members shared a skills needed to achieve objectives • Teaming Skills: required operational and communicational process within the team to enhance team performance • Task Skills: successful execution to achieve objectives The two external team factors are: • Team-Leader Fit – the leader’s skills and management style of the team • Team Support from the Organization –organizational management support which enables and support team performance. All internal and external factors within the team can be described into sub-factors or dimensions as per the following table (see table 1):

Internal factor
Thrust

Sub Factors thrust management thrust clarity thrust commitment truthfull communication trust in actions trust between team members Talent acquisition and enhancement Talent allocation and deployment Resource Management Team learning Decision making Conflict resolution Team atmosphere managing process Focusing Assignment flexibility Measurement Delivering outcomes Table (1)

Trust Talen

Team skills

Task Skills

In order for team to be classified as high performing team, all internal factor must be presented clearly for the team, no to forget mentioning that teams cannot reach high performing state without presence of supportive organizational and leadership. “It does not matter how good a team is on thrust, trust, talent, teaming skills, and task skills, it must have the support from the organization and the leadership fit to be effective” [5].

Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry Model—The GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness
The model is known as “GRPI Model” which is Goals, Roles, Processes and Interpersonal Relationships. The model is present in terms of a pyramid that starts at the top, where a team should begin with defining goals at team level, then tasks and responsibilities. Then as team members works together processes are in place. [6]

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J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

As team work together more, and once team members notice that goals and responsibilities are not sufficiently clear the team will notice the need to redefine them. which enables team members to readjust team processes, such as authorities and decision making, matrix of responsibilities and reducing conflicts in addition to work flow. Through these actions the team will start developing the interpersonal relationships required between team members and team leadership. See Figure 2.

Goal

Roles Processes

Interpersonal Relationships
Figure 2 The defining components of the model are as following[7]: Goal definition: • Clear team purpose • Agreement regarding outcomes • Tasks understanding • Well defined priorities and deadlines • Authorities and boundaries are clear to team members

Role clarification: • Team leader acceptance. • Matrix of roles and responsibilities understood by team members. • Team members individual responsibilities • Team Shared responsibilities

Processes and workflow: • Team processes (e.g., how decisions are made, how the team practice problem solving and conflict resolution, communication) •

Work processes (e.g., standard operational procedures, business processes and work flow)

Interpersonal relationships: • team members relations • Trust • Emotional intelligence between team members • Effective communication • Problem solving Collaboration • Conflict resolution effectiveness

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J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Katzenbach and Smith Model—Focusing on Team Basics
This model states that most people understand the competences of teams, with the assumption that there is a resistance affecting the idea of going beyond individual roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities. Team members do not accept easily responsibility for the performance of others, or value others assuming responsibility on their behalf. In order to make team members overcome such resistance, they are required to understand, accept, and apply the “the basics” of team work, the below diagram (figure 3) shows the basics of team work according to this model .

There are three main goals in the Katzenbach and Smith (1993) model: (a) Collective Work Products (b) Personal Growth (c)Performance Results. These outcomes shown in the angles of the triangle and specify the deliverables of team. The sides and center of the triangle define elements of the team required in order to achieve – Commitment, Skills, and Accountability. “The model contends that successful teams are deeply committed to team goals, approach, and purpose. Members in such teams also are very committed to each other. They understand that the “wisdom of teams comes with a focus on collective work-products, personal growth, and performance results”.”[8] Which indicates that high performance teams always develop after pursuing challenging performance goals at the team level.

High performing team case study/Umniah’s IT Infrastructure team
The IT department within Umniah Mobile Company consists of 4 units, one of the key teams within this department is the IT Infrastructure unit, and this unit consists of four teams where each team has a supervisor leading the team, the teams’ supervisors report to the IT Infrastructure manager. The organizational structure of the team is stated in details as in the below figure:

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High Performance Teams

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

The unit is well recognized by Umniah’s management as a high performing unit, innovative and serving corporate and departmental objectives in an efficient, effective manner. I choose the 4 supervisors of all teams and 6 employees (senior and junior ranks) to perform the team role questionnaire* in addition to one to one 5 minute discussion with each participant regarding the characteristics of high performing teams. I asked the participants to rank the below characteristics of high performance team that the team need or had or practiced, and to mark according to importance and value from 1 – 10, where 1 is the highest importance and 10 is the lowest, the characteristics were randomly listed in as below: Innovative team Understanding and clarity of purpose Leadership of the team Interpersonal relations between team members Team Performance measurement Defined team roles Communication Task Focused Problem Solving Shared Responsibility

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High Performance Teams

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Please refer to appendix A for results of the questionnaire and the marks of each characteristic of the high performance teams used in the questionnaire. Also, I have asked the participants to respond to the team role exercise in order to see if the team shares the same characteristics of High Performance Teams, please refer to appendix B for the collective results. During the interviews and discussions with the participants I noticed the spirit all team members had when responding to the questionnaire, energy, constructive attitude, learning needs, focus on the full picture. One can tell after the interviews that all team members shared the same purpose, and that self-development and reflective practice performed by team members comes to serve the big goal, in addition to that the shared responsibility and sometimes accountability is clearly dominant, team members roles and skills complement each other within the team which affects performance and achievement of the objectives and goal of the team. I believe I can summarize the high performance team characteristics in four main parts, and each part consists of several characteristics:     Team performance measurement and management. Team behaviors and ideals Team environment. Team identity.

Team Performance Measurement and Management
As team management continuously measures the accomplishments of the team compared to organizational objectives through applying the following techniques and tactics: Focus on long term achievement: keeping team’s focus and energy on achieving the full picture, working to achieve the long term organizational objective through clear understanding of team capabilities and approach to achieve goals. Clearly defined team roles: clear well defined team responsibilities for each team member according to their skills, capabilities and specialism aligned with their team roles. Shared leadership among team members: with the existence of strong leadership role, this role is seamlessly delegated to team members to perform some tasks that are normally performed by the leader. Open communication channels: simple style to ask questions, provide feedback in open discussions or meetings and to present ideas on the table and share possible solutions to overcome challenges and achieve organizational and team goals. Utilization of skills and talents within the team: team leadership insures that talents and skills are utilized within the team for the benefit of the overall organizational and team objectives. Regular team's performance evaluation: self-evaluation of team performance, plans, and skills to ensure that the team is on track to achieve goals within the original deadlines and time frames.

Team's shared recognition: Motivational recognition by team leader and organizational management for the team work, shared between all team members at the end of successful projects and mentions. Insuring that all team members receive the proper recognition internally or externally in accordance with the rewarding system within the organization.

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High Performance Teams

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Team Behaviors and Values
Team behavior’s and values that all team members consistently demonstrates and practice even in difficult times: Valued strengths: Team member are recognized and appreciated for their skills, strengths and contribution to the team and team work. Insuring utilization and development of these recognized skills and strengths. High Team morale: high performing Teams usually demonstrate high team morale generated through success and meeting objectives which generates high level of motivation. Honest, open communication: open, honest and transparent communication, people are not afraid to tell what is on their minds in a clear manner. Which results in supportive, problem solving atmosphere focusing on wide range of issues related to goals, problem solving and individual development. Effective Conflict Management: conflicts are handled constructively in a way to improve and enhance team performance. Conflicts are not personalized with focus on end results and goals/performance in order resolve conflicts. Such situations are always seen as learning opportunity for the team and team members. Supportive team members: Team members develop loyalty and support to each other because of the high morale and performance within the team. The overall good of the team always drive team members to support each other and rally to offer support when needed. Respected Team decisions: opinions and decisions of the team and other team members are respected and endorsed even with there is disagreement with it to insure team cohesion. Yet team member convey difference on opinion in open discussions as part of performance review and learning practices. Trust: Team members trust each other implicitly as result of the above characteristics of high performing team, With trust team members will take the initiative to hold responsibility and accountability themselves, due to the strong affinity to the team.

Organizational and team Environment
A supportive organizational environment which encourages high performing teams to achieve can be characterized by as: Adaptability to change: change is usually anticipated or possible respond plans is discussed. Which enable high performance team to affectively adapt and respond in a constructive manner to change when it happens. Representation of the team: Team members can stand up to represent the team at events, occasions without any hesitancy to speak on behalf of the team. Communicate effectively: The combination of open communication channels through organization and the supportive team behaviors enables team members to contribute to team and organizational success. Use of specialized support: when ever needed high performance team don’t hesitate to seek specialized support and assistance within from the organization or even outside the organization to over a come a particular objective, challenge or develop a certain skill.

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High Performance Teams

J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

Team Identity
Team identity is recognized by team members inside and accepted outside the team within the organization, high performance team’s identity can be strongly seen and admired, the identity binds the team together and continually fortifies the team energy and motivation.

Summary
Teams are a powerful performance tools to achieve organizational objectives, in addition to that teams offer team members opportunities to develop their own personal and professional skills and knowledge. In a high performing team with focus on common purpose and trustworthy interpersonal relations, shared responsibility and accountability, team members can become dedicated about achieving, identifying and helping each other through complementing the team’s skills reducing gaps which must be closed effectively. In high performance teams, constructive positive feedbacks and team strengthening activities are the norm, team member’s skill development plans are always preserved seriously. In high performing team’s common purposes, shared responsibilities in addition to shared commitment drives team members to go beyond their personal aspirations and overcome personal challenges and obstacles. To foster and create high performing teams within an organization, considerable organizational attention to leadership and support of such teams need to be considered. Creating the proper organizational environment with the necessary tools, resources and support for high performance teams will encourage the teams to perform and achieve the organizational goals. Such support and focus not only affect team members, but also the role of team leadership of team leaders and managers, which is one of the key characteristics of high performing teams.

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J3 M2 Assessment1 30675904 Waseem Al Rousan

References
[1] Sundstrom, E., De Meuse, K.P. & Futrell, D. 1990, ‘Work Teams: Applications and Effectiveness’, American Psychologist, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 120-133 [2] Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. [3] Smith, M. K. 2005. Bruce W. Tuckman—Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing In Groups, The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Last updated: March 14, 2005. [4] De Meuse, K. P., Tang, K. Y., & Dai, G. (2009). Construct validation of Lominger T7 Model of team effectiveness. Minneapolis, MN: Lominger International: A Korn/Ferry Company [5] Lombardo, M. M., & Eichinger, R. W. (1995). The Team Architect® user’s manual.Minneapolis, MN: Lominger Limited. [6],[7]Rubin, I. M., Plovnick, M. S., & Fry, R. E. (1977). Task oriented team development. New York: McGrawHill. [8] Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. [9] Hucyznski & Buchanan, Organizational Behaviour: an Introductory Text, Prentice Hall. 2004; 2007

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Appendix A
Question: Choose and mark the highest priority the following characteristics according to the importance of it to high performing teams: Innovative team Understanding and clarity of purpose Leadership of the team Interpersonal relations between team members Team Performance measurement Defined team roles Communication Task Focused Problem Solving Shared Responsibility

Results of The questionnaire

Team Members

High performance team characteristics
Understanding and Performance Task Problem Shared Team Defined Internpersonal Leadership Communication clarity of purpose measurement Focused Solving Responsibility Innovation Roles relations

Supervisior 1 Supervisior 2 Supervisior 3 Supervisior 4 Senior team member 1 Senior team member 2 Senior team member 3 Senior team member 4 Junior Team Member 1 Junior Team Member 2 Totals

2 3 1 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 25

1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 12

4 5 7 5 10 10 8 8 9 10 76

3 2 6 2 4 5 5 6 5 6 44

6 9 8 8 9 9 6 7 6 7 75

10 10 9 10 8 8 9 9 8 9 90

7 4 4 6 3 4 2 4 7 3 44

9 8 10 9 7 7 10 10 10 8 88

5 6 3 4 6 6 4 2 4 5 45

8 7 5 7 5 2 7 5 1 4 51

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Appendix B
The results of team response to the team role exercise:

Particpants
Supervisior 1 Supervisior 2 Supervisior 3 Supervisior 4 Senior team member 1 Senior team member 2 Senior team member 3 Senior team member 4 Junior Team Member 1 Junior Team Member 2

Implmenter Co-ordinator Shaper 13 10 9 9 5 11 8 7 12 7 91 6 8 10 9 8 10 6 3 7 3 70 9 9 8 13 4 2 15 7 9 9 85

Plant 6 5 6 6 6 5 6 10 7 2 59

Resource Monitor Team Completer Specialist Investigator Evalautor Worker 2 5 5 7 4 6 6 8 6 9 58 10 8 6 7 6 2 7 6 4 13 69 10 8 9 6 10 10 7 5 13 13 91 4 8 8 6 5 15 7 5 6 2 66 10 9 9 5 21 9 8 19 6 12 108

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