What type of team do you belong to?

What makes a high performing team?

A high performance team is a self-managing, multifunctional group of people organized around a whole process and empowered with full authority for their success. Characteristics include:

• A shared mission or purpose that motivates and inspires members
• Autonomy and authority for task performance
• Interdependence and shared leadership
• Broadly-defined jobs and many responsibilities
• Meaningful participation in decision making
• Higher performance than individuals not organized into teams

All teams do not fit the same mold.

Although all high performing teams share certain characteristics in common, there are also some important distinctions between them.  Organizations need to recognize these distinctions. If you take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to teams, you very likely will experience some problems such as:

• Poor performance as team members try to use a structure that doesn’t fit with the nature of their work processes.
• Frustration at the difficulty of working together productively.
• Disillusionment with the team concept as relationships grow difficult and people thing fondly of the “good old days before those nuts in management put us into this crazy team.”

​For example, these are four very different types of teams. Each type is differentiated by their need for specialization and coordination.

​Key Points for each Type:

Type 1 – Swim Team: high specialization and low coordination. Work is divided between various specialties. Each specialty consists of a distinctive set of skills. There is little coordination needed between specialties.  Examples:  Geriatrics team providing care for elderly, High School Teachers.

Type 2 – Football Team: Made up of people from different disciplines. Requires a high degree of coordination. Examples: Product Development Teams, Hospital E.R., Executive Leadership Team.

Type 3 – Bowling Team: Low in both specialization and coordination. Team members share same skill set but have little need to coordinate or communicate. Examples: Telephone operators, Bill Collectors, Bank Tellers.

Type 4 – Volleyball Team: Members share common skills. High need for coordination. Generally organized around completing a “whole task” and cross-trained to do one another’s jobs.
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What type of team do you belong to?

What about the other teams that you interact with? Are they the same, or different? How might the way you approach each differ?

Are you part of a team that needs alignment? Ask us about our 1/2 Day Team Alignment Workshop.