HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

The following are some characteristics of a high-performance teams.
Teamwork is essential to a society grounded in individual accomplishment:

TASK

• share responsibility for results
• ask for what is needed to achieve the team’s purpose
• members have the duty, authority and skills to identify and resolve difficulties
• everyone is engaged in an ongoing feedback, development, and learning process
• recognition of successful task accomplishment and of individual as well as team contributions
• sense of enthusiasm and satisfaction with the work

PURPOSE

• clarity and excitement about team purpose. Including understanding of how purpose supports the goals of the organization
• achieve the results in spite of difficulties
• do the work is important to the success of the organization or community

Process

• clear roles and responsibilities
• everyone contributes and each team member makes a unique contribution to team functioning
• clarity in agreement about how work gets done
• meetings are used to deal with important collective issues
• shared responsibility for team effectiveness
• have self-correcting mechanisms. Members are willing to examine processes and take corrective action

Relationships

• members feel they have a duty, authority and skills to confront each other without rank when issues arise
• members value and enjoy teamwork and interdependencies
• members interact, consult, persuade and confront each other—including the leader—with trust and without fear of repercussions
• members strive for trust and understanding
• members effectively manage differences. Conflict is related to issues rather than personalities