High Performing Teams – It is Possible (Part 1)

In the corporate world today, all the rage is the future of work, digitalization, virtual teams, and employee burnout & wellness. Due to the pandemic, the chemical industry has been solely focused on securing our supply chains.

I would like to address a different topic, which is important no matter what the current pressures or fads are. That is, the pursuit of getting teams to work together to reach high performance. How can we work together to be more creative, productive and pursue our common goals?

Well, I have been gradually working more and more on this idea in my career in coatings and the specialty chemical world at Polytex Environmental Inks (my family’s business), Evonik Industries (a major specialty chemical producer) and now at Business Challenges Consulting (my consulting business focused on individual and team performance).

Many of the concepts I will introduce here in this three-part article have been around for several years including models around high performing teams, using visual cues and thinking in group meetings and agile thinking. I have broken this topic into three distinct parts; they are: Part 1 – Understanding the Team Performance Model; Part 2 – Implementing the Team Performance Model using Graphic Facilitation Tools; and Part 3 – Making Teams more Agile.

Bringing these three concepts together creates a winning combination where teams can accomplish great things making your organization meet any challenge it faces with a high probability of success.

What is the Team Performance Model?

Allan Drexler and David Sibbet spent 10 years refining a comprehensive model of team performance that shows the predictable stages involved in both creating and sustaining teams. The Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model®[1] illustrates team development as seven stages, four to create the team and three to describe increasing levels of sustained performance. [2] This powerful tool can be used as a framework and common language for supporting a team-based culture.

David Sibbet is the founder of the Grove Associates. (Grove and others have some great tools which I will bring forward in Part 2). In the Drexler/Sibbet model, there is a concept of a bouncing ball (think physics). Each step or stage represents a group of predictable issues that a team must recognize and master to become a high performing team.

I will take you through the seven steps of creating high performing teams. At each step there are questions in a team member’s brain. The seven steps are: Orientation, Trust Building, Goal Clarification, Commitment, Implementation, High Performance and Renewal. In the Orientation stage typically a team member is thinking to themselves “Why am I here?” You need to answer that question and “What are we trying to do together? What’s the team’s purpose or identity?” These are all fundamental questions you need to address very early on in the team’s formation.

The second stage is Trust Building; here a team member is thinking “Who are the people on our team?”. At this stage, you need to address the concept of building trust, mutual regard, and reliability. The third stage is Goal Clarification; the team member is asking “What are our goals? What’s the shared vision?” The focus at this stage is doing vision exercises. In the fourth stage, Commitment, a team member will ask “How are we going to get there? What are the things we’re going to do?” In this stage you need to outline the roles and responsibilities, and the resources required. It is important to have management involvement, so you get their commitment, as well.

In the fifth stage it is all about Implementation. “Who does what when and where?”  Once you begin implementation and have the team aligned through the other stages, your team is entering stage six, High Performance.

Not all teams get to this stage. It takes a committed implementation leader, aligned team members and management support to get the sixth stage. In this stage, a team member is thinking “Wow we are really doing great things. We can finish each other’s thoughts.” There is spontaneous interaction. In addition, there is synergy where the team surpasses the results that they thought was possible. The team’s processes are aligned, and they are disciplined in their execution.

The seventh stage is when the project is over or needs to be revitalized. This is called Renewal. In the Renewal stage, you need to answer, “Why are we continuing or not?” You must recognize your teammates and celebrate your wins.

Understanding the Team’s Psychology

These 7 stages are interconnected and are very useful to understand the team psychology and dynamics. Some people like to use an older team performance model from psychologist’s Bruce Tuckman called “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.” The Team Performance Model is a further enhancement from this Tuckman model with corresponding tools that can be used for each stage of your team’s development.

The role of the Implementation Leader is to be aware of what is in team members’ heads at the different stages so that s/he can be prepared to address the team’s fundamental questions. In Part 2 of High Performing Teams – It is possible, I will talk about Implementing the Team Performance Model with Graphic Facilitation Tools to help teams work on answering these fundamental questions as well as implementing their project goals.

Footnotes
1. More about the Team Performance Model from the Grove https://www.thegrove.com/methodology/team-performance-model
2. Business Challenges Consulting video about the Team Performance Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXe9R9EFDG4&t=67s).
3. Bruce Tuckman, “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing” https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm

Bio
Jeff Landau is the founder and principal of Business Challenges Consulting. The company focuses on building better individual and team performance through executive coaching and strategic marketing projects. Jeff has been in the specialty chemical and ink & coatings businesses for 30-plus years. Jeff has held Marketing Management, Consulting and Training roles at Evonik Industries and prior to that worked in the Landau family business, Polytex Environmental Inks, where he had roles in Sales, Product Development (Ink Chemist) and Technical Service.

He can be reached at Jeffrey.Landau@BusinessChallengesConsulting.us; www.businesschallengesconsulting.us