Building Value Creating Teams
High achieving teams enjoy a 23% boost in performance compared to under-performing teams.
Heidrick & Struggles
In 2015 culture and engagement was rated as the most important overall issue facing HR professionals.
Deloitte
95% of millenials believe that culture is more important than compensation.
Deloitte
Why?
The aspiration of High Performing Teams is a myth.
We believe the idea of becoming a ‘High Performing Team’ is starting the journey with the wrong premise and the wrong starting point.
All teams are distinct in terms of their purpose, their people, their context and their goals. Defining ‘High Performance’ becomes a hypothetical exercise at best, and at worst, potentially results in unintended consequences for the performance of teams around us – ultimately negatively impacting the wider organisation and society.
The real focus of team development is the creation of added value for all the team’s stakeholder groups, with the ultimate aim of creating value for the organisation as well as wider society.
“A team is value creating when in consistently creates beneficial value for all their stakeholder groups”.
This means any starting point for real team development is understanding ‘what the world needs’ that your team is uniquely positioned to deliver. This means understanding your stakeholder’s needs today, as well as your stakeholders needs for the future.
“Team development should be ‘Outside-In’ and ‘Future-Back’”.
What!
Stretch People Development typically work with teams in three different ways – Team Bonding, Team Development, and Team Coaching – with all three approaches underpinned by systems thinking principles.
Team Bonding
Team Bonding Workshops are usually one-off interventions typically between ½ a day and 2 days in duration – working with intact teams – virtual or real.
Team Bonding workshops have a clear focus on helping the team bond on a more relational level – getting to know each other as human beings – and starting to figure out ways of working together more effectively and getting the best from each other.
They typically use psychometric tools to support the development of a ‘common language’ that can underpin ongoing open dialogue with-in the team.
They are upbeat, fun and energising and are often used as a ‘first foray’ into exploring team dynamics.
Team Development
Team Development Workshops are typically 2-4 days in duration, usually delivered over separate interventions, and often underpinned by a robust diagnostics process.
They are more appropriate for teams that have potentially identified a specific area of focus for development such as creating team values, creating team purpose, understanding roles and responsibilities.
These are typically bespoke interventions and often need a robust diagnostic phase, usually including the team lead, team sponsor. team members and team stakeholders. This diagnostic phase is essential to ensure the right data is available for the session and the right area of focus in under scrutiny.
These events tend to also be high energy, fun and engaging and are also often challenging, require introspection and may risk opening up unspoken team dynamics – as such the process, whilst well defined, may well be emergent and require re-contracting throughout a session.
Team Coaching
Team Coaching interventions are usually designed to run over 6-9 months, with multiple interventions at a team level, and usually underpinned by individual coaching with each team member.
These are for teams that recognise they have the capacity to co-create more value for their stakeholders, but are collectively unsure what is really blocking them from reaching that next level. They may already have engaged in some team development and recognised the interventions haven’t had the hoped for impact, or may have experienced individual coaching and recognise the (often) more emergent nature of coaching and are willing to commit to a longer term development program where the outcome is defined but the journey might be vague.
There is usually a recognition that without a shift in the team there is a strategic risk to the organisation that can be defined and quantified.
This style of work is underpinned by robust systemic thinking principles, with each intervention being designed according to the needs of the team. A rigorous diagnostic process is essential, that needs to involve team leader, team sponsor, team members, and a range of team stakeholders. This is to ensure we really engage in a true ‘’Outside-In/Future-Back” approach and draw on all the available data.
These interventions can be very emotionally and intellectually challenging. They require high levels of trust in the team, the ability to be vulnerable and the willingness to actively engage in a long term process that may be very emergent in nature.
Contact us here to discuss individual or group coaching.