A New View On High Performing Teams

If you are in business, you have probably heard the term ‘High performing teams’.   This is about enabling your team to perform better, be more creative, take responsibility and ultimately, be more productive and of course, more profitable.

There are numerous experts and methodologies on the perfect way to create a high performing team.  Some seem to be effective; some seem to fall at the first fence.

In my role as a coach, speaker and facilitator, I work with lots of teams where the key objective I am given is to get the teams engaged, empowered and high performing.  For many organisations, this is a last attempt after poor engagement results or badly managed change projects in the past.  Others wish to introduce new change initiatives and organisational excellence concepts so are keen to make sure their teams are involved and engaged.

I think it is fair to see that I am not the standard type of facilitator.  My workshop sessions often include magic wands and loo paper.    I don’t have a strict agenda and run workshops on the reactions of the group ahead of me rather than a ‘proven methodology’. As an expert in human behavior and fears, I believe you often need to spend more time listening than speaking, or reducing the fear around new initiatives that you do raving about how wonderful they will be.   I often call this initiative ‘You can’t put ice cream on top of poo’

So back to high performing teams.  What works? 

In my experience (and also the feedback from my clients), it’s about clearing the poo first.  It is also about making sure that your team has an objective and vision which ties into their individual values.  Or, to use my own concepts, it is making sure your team are in a canoe heading down stream – in the flow, feeling good, tuned in, tapped in and turned on  and allowing the natural momentum of the stream to build momentum towards pre-defined goals.

Many organisations are more about ‘upstream’ these days.   As a result, it is more about putting a canoe in the river and forcing it to go upstream.   Usually the result of this is exhausted teams and managers and ultimately, not really getting anywhere fast!

For client recommendations and more details, please see my linked in profile. au.linkedin.com/in/lphillips1

Photo Credit: https://www.eestrategy.com/category/talent-management/