Teaming is the ability to assemble teams that work effectively together very quickly. The Performance Teaming Flywheel is a great framework for achieving this.
At its heart lies the ‘informing’ stage which counters the classic performance dip highlighted in Tuckman’s ‘storming’ stage of team development. The ‘informing’ stage itself is served extremely well by the Performance Canvas, which enables teams to collectively develop a complete sense of why they exist, who they are, what they need to achieve and how they want themselves and others to experience their team vibe. The Performance Canvas addresses this through the exploration of the 7Rs, outlined below.
Reason
At the core of all teams lies their purpose. This is the Reason the team exists. All organisations exist to create value for a set of stakeholders. Teams contribute to the organisation, so the teams themselves will be required to create some specific value for some specific stakeholders.
The more inspiring the team purpose is for the team members (e.g. the bigger the contribution it makes to the world) then the more committed team members will be to it.
Who are your team’s stakeholders? What value do they need you to create for them?
What is the difference your team makes to the world?
Results
All teams tend to have ‘business as usual’ goals that invariably have to be met on a daily basis. In addition, there are also improvement goals to help service, productivity and quality to keep pace with the increasing demands of customers. Finally, most teams are also challenged with transforming some aspect of what they do to create a breakthrough shift in performance and results.
The clearer these Results are in terms of measurable milestones, capacity required and prioritisation, the easier it will be to achieve them on time, to specification and in budget.
What results does your team need to deliver to serve:
Day-to day business-as-usual goals? Performance improvement goals? Long-term business growth goals?
Roles
Roles are the collection of steps and tasks (e.g. thinking, decision-making and actions) that we need to take to serve the team’s Reason and fulfil the team’s Results. Fulfilling our Roles requires us to effectively deploy the team’s collective Resources and support productive Relationships with all stakeholders.
The clearer the Roles are defined and allocated, the more efficient the team will be.
What data is required, what thinking needs to be applied, what decisions made and what actions must be taken to achieve your team’s day-to-day, improvement and growth goals?
Responsibilities
Responsibilities relate to the ‘how’ of what we do and what we are. They span the standards we set for our behaviours and the values we live that guide our thoughts, decisions and actions.
Ultimately, regardless of our circumstances, our Responsibilities provide the framework that helps us to do the right thing for the right reason.
What values does your team live by?
How well do these values serve the fulfilment of your Reason, Results and Relationships? How might they benefit from adjustment to enable you to succeed even more?
Relationships
Relationships reflect both the self-esteem of the team members and the humanity within the team. Invariably the two are linked. Great humanity helps build self-esteem while poor humanity can deplete self-esteem. The greater the self-esteem and team humanity, the greater is the engagement, wellbeing and performance of the team.
Relationships also extend beyond team members, stretching out to touch all stakeholders. The more positively these ‘other’ relationships are nurtured, the greater will be their effectiveness.
How productive and compassionate are the relationships within your team? How productive and compassionate are the relationships with stakeholders outside your team? What actions might be taken to further enhance both?
Resources
In all areas of our lives we build experiences, insights, strengths and skills that serve our needs in different ways at different times. Often, neither we nor others are fully aware of the full depth and range of our Resources, and many of us are often under-utilised compared to our true capabilities.
The more useful we feel and the greater the contribution we make to the team, the more fulfilled we become.
Understanding, acknowledging, effectively deploying and nurturing the development of our Resources is a critical contributor to team performance.
What are the strengths, experiences, skills and passions of each of your team members? What strengths, experiences, skills and passions can you access outside of your team? How can you make even greater use of these Resources to create even more success?
Reflection
Learning lies at the core of all new growth and the better we learn, the stronger we grow.
Intentional learning comprises 3 key stages of Reflection:
Reviewing what happened after the activities to glean as much insight and understanding as possible
Planning learning expectations ahead of activities, which primes our brains to look beyond their normal filters and be open to noticing other things that are happening
Being aware of what is happening in the moment so learning can become as ‘real time’ as possible.
While many teams activate stage one of the above, very few activate stage 2 and even fewer engage stage 3.
The more intentional a team’s learning practice becomes, the more powerfully it learns to learn, and the greater will be its development, performance and growth.
How can you build effective learning, that contributes to sustainable excellence, into your teamwork?
Learn More
The Performance Teaming Flywheel and the Performance Canvas are the core frameworks that support the Performance Teaming programme. The programme explores each of the 7Rs using a breadth of tools and explorations that create a deep shared understanding within the team and helps develop a true sense of belonging.
The Performance Teaming programme can be experienced as a 2-day facilitated programme or as an online programme with coaching support. You can explore the Performance Teaming programme here.
The Performance Teaming Flywheel©, Performance Canvas© and the 7Rs© are the copyright of The Performance Learning Company.
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