This slide show highlights how teams succeed and why they succeed as well as when they do not work.

1. “PEAK PERFORMING TEAMS”
THE SCIENCE OF
PERFORMANCE
PerformanceVertical Consulting, LLC

2. "NOBODY'S PERFECT, BUT A
TEAM CAN BE."
Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld

3. "WE WEREN'T THE MOST TALENTED TEAM IN
THE LEAGUE LAST YEAR AND WE WEREN'T
THE BEST TEAM, BUT WE PLAYED THE RIGHT
KIND OF FOOTBALL AND DIDN'T PANIC WHEN
ADVERSITY HIT. THAT'S THE MARK OF A
GOOD TEAM."
-- BILL COWHER, PITTSBURGH STEELERS
HEAD COACH
Bill Cowher, former Pittsburgh Steelers head
coach

4. “Peak Performance is…
…the ability of the individual,
team and/or organization to attain
a consistent and sustainable level
of high performance.”

5. What do these sports franchises have in common?
 U.S. Woman’s Soccer Team
 New England Patriots
 New York Yankees
 Chicago Bulls
 San Francisco 49ers
 Dallas Cowboys
 Atlanta Braves

6. Team Profile
 Icon or Inspirational Players
 The Greatest Challenge
 Constant Renewal of Challenge
 Raising the Bar
 Passion
 Family
 Innovation
 Commitment to Excellence
 Awareness of The Zone

7. Team Development Overview
 Definition of a Team
 Litmus Test for Teams
 Collective Work Product
(taken from Jon Katzenbach, The Wisdom of
Teams)

8. Definition of a Team
A small number of people interdependent on
their complementary skills, who are committed
to a common purpose, performance, and an
approach for which they hold themselves
mutually accountable

9. Discipline of Teams
 Simple, basic concepts
 Small number (6-12)
 Complimentary skills
 Meaningful purpose
 Clear performance goals
 Common working approach
 Mutual accountability for results

10. Types of Teams & Performance
Units
 High Performance Team
 Pseudo Team
 Performance not required
 Real Team
 Structured
 Lacks effectiveness or efficiency
 Compromise Unit
 Lack of mission or roles
 Single Leader unit
 No sharing of leadership
 Working Group
 Relies on Individual performance

11. Identification of Purpose of a Team
 Recommend things
 Make or do things
 Run or manage things
 Transformational
 Innovation
 Problem solving
 Operational
 Improvement teams
 Capabilities
 Effectiveness

12. Litmus Test for Teams
 The group focuses on shaping collective work
products of clear value to the company
 Members learn to shift and share leadership
roles
 Members are mutually accountable for the
group’s results

13. Collective Work Product
 The tangible results of the group applying
different skills to produce a performance
improvement not achievable by any members
of the group working on their own
 Requires a collective sense of urgency in
order to justify group’s attention and diversion
of time from primary responsibilities

14. Myths of Teams
 Teamwork = Team Performance
 Cooperation + Sharing = Results
 Top Teams need to reach consensus
 One person can not make good decisions
 Team leaders need to change their particular
leadership style
 Top teams always function as a team
 Top teams must set the example for the entire
organization

15. Trade-offs of Teams
 Speed or efficiency vs. performance
 Collective vs. individual work products
 Team vs. single-leader units
 Situation vs. “on-going” team opportunities

16. Metrics (Campbell-Hallam TDS)
 Time and Staffing  Individual Goals
 Information  Empowerment
 Material Resources  Team Assessment
 Organizational  Innovation
Support  Feedback
 Skills  Rewards
 Commitment  Leadership
 Mission Clarity  Satisfaction
 Team Coordination  Performance
 Team Unity

17. THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS
OF A TEAM
Patrick Lencioni

18. Five Dysfunctions
Inattention to Results
Avoidance of Accountability
Lack of Commitment
Fear of Conflict
Absence of Trust

19. Implications
Status and Ego
Low Standards
Ambiguity
Artificial Harmony
Invulnerability

20. Absence of Trust
 Conceal weaknesses  Waste time and energy
and mistakes managing their
 Hesitate to help or offer behaviors for effect
constructive feedback,  Hold grudges
outside of their  Dread meetings and find
department reasons to avoid
 Jump to conclusions spending together
about intentions or
aptitudes
 Fail to recognize or tap
into others’ skills

21. Members of Trusting Teams
 Admit weaknesses and  Appreciate and tap into
mistakes others’ skills
 Ask for help  Focus time and energy
 Accept questions and on important issues, not
input about their areas of politics
responsibility  Offer and accept
 Give the benefit of the apologies with hesitation
doubt  Look forward to
 Take risks in offering meetings and other
feedback and assistance group activities

22. Teams that fear conflict
 Have boring meetings
 Create environments where back-channel
politics and personal attacks thrive
 Ignore controversial topics
 Fail to tap into all the opinions of the team
 Waste time and energy posturing and
managing personal risk

23. Teams that engage in conflict
 Have lively, interesting meetings
 Extract and leverage ideas of all the team
members
 Solve real problems quickly
 Minimize politics
 Put critical topics on the table for discussion

24. Teams that fail to commit
 Create excessive ambiguity among the team
about direction and priorities
 Watch windows of opportunity close due to
excessive analysis and delay
 Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure
 Revisits discussions and decisions again and
again
 Encourages second-guessing among team
members

25. Teams that commit
 Create clarity around direction and priorities
 Align the entire team around common
objectives
 Develop the ability to learn from mistakes
 Take advantage of opportunities before
competitors do
 Move forward without hesitation
 Change direction without hesitation or guilt

26. The team that avoids accountability
 Creates resentment among team members
who have different standards of performance
 Encourages mediocrity
 Misses deadlines and key deliverables
 Places an undue burden on the team leader
as the sole source of discipline

27. Teams that hold one another accountable
 Ensure that poor performers feel pressure to
improve
 Identify potential problems quickly by
questioning one another’s approaches without
hesitation
 Establish respect among team members who
are held to the same high standard
 Avoid excessive bureaucracy around
performance management and corrective action

28. Teams that are not focused on
results
 Stagnates/fails to grow
 Rarely defeats competitors
 Loses achievement-oriented employees
 Encourages team members to focus on their
own careers and individual goals
 Is easily distracted

29. Teams that focus on collective
results
 Retains achievement-oriented employees
 Minimizes individualistic behavior
 Enjoys success and suffers failure acutely
 Benefits from individuals who subjugate their
own goals/interests for the good of the team
 Avoids distractions

30. PerformanceVertical Consulting
(404) 357-7335
www.performancevertical.com
Luis Valdes, Ph.D. – President & CEO