Advance Consulting, Inc.

JANUARY 2006

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Creating a Team Culture Where Everyone Wins

QUOTE
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Andrew Carnegie
A major enabler of High Performance Teams is the Team Culture. Creating a “Team Culture” goes beyond communication, trust, and teamwork. While these are necessary components, creating a truly successful team culture is more complex and involves addressing the needs of two different groups—the organization and the teams.
Teams perform best when they have control over their projects. Organizations are often uncomfortable empowering teams with this level of control because of their own need for control and visibility. A system of checks and balances needs to be in place that will provide executives reassurance in handing over control. The ultimate goal when creating a Team Culture is to empower and support teams to do their jobs while establishing mechanisms that provide the organization with appropriate visibility and control around the projects. How can this be done? How do you create a win-win situation? To address these issues, we must appropriately serve the needs of both groups.

The Team: For teams to feel supported and empowered the organization needs to provide them with:

Authority and Responsibility—High Performance Teams are given the authority and responsibility to execute their missions. The teams are unencumbered by the dynamics of the larger organization and are allowed to work autonomously.

Budget and Staff Control— High Performance Teams are responsible for their results and own the budget for all people, activities, and materials related to their project. They do not have to beg for resources.

The Organization: The following mechanisms help create the necessary checks and balances:

Project Governance—A company’s portfolio of projects is governed by executives within agreed upon protocols and criteria. These protocols and criteria are used to review projects at pre-defined “decision gates” and make go/no-go funding decisions based on specific evaluation criteria.

Planning and Delivery Process Framework—To make project governance work, the organization must define the standard phased process for planning and delivering projects. Executives need assurance that project teams are following standard processes and are producing expected deliverables between the gates.

Reporting Processes—The organization must establish standard reporting processes where teams provide key, relevant information and project status to senior management. High performance teams know how to measure, track, and report project status to provide appropriate transparency into project operations. This also builds trust with executives, stakeholders, and customers.

Strategic and Operational Alignment—High Performance Teams take responsibility for providing information to executives that demonstrates alignment. Their project plans communicate a clear connection with and support for strategic goals, values, and organizational processes.

Each of the components above plays a necessary part in creating a culture that fosters and empowers High Performance Teams. Addressing the needs of both the team and the organization allows each group the visibility and control required to be successful. If you would like to read our new article which provides additional detail on this topic, visit our website at www.advanceconsulting.com or contact us at 831-372-9444.

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Advance Consulting is a professional development company that provides state-of-the-art consulting services, workshops, seminars, and speaking engagements throughout the U.S. and internationally. Find out more at www.advanceconsulting.com, send us an email at advanceinfo@advanceconsulting.com, or call us at (831) 372-9444 for more information.