5 Foundations for Team Success

31 May 2023

5 Foundations for Team Success

The right people on the team
A clear purpose
Collective responsibility for achieving an outcome
Agreed ways of working
A support system

THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE TEAM – The right people on the team means having a cross section of skills, abilities, and personalities that will be able to work autonomously to get the work done. For me this is about being able to answer the questions – Does the team have the capability to achieve it’s purpose?

A CLEAR PURPOSE – Purpose is all about knowing what the team is there to achieve for its customers and stakeholders. And being able to prioritise the most important ‘jobs’ that need to be done. Inherent in this is the ability to make decisions about what is or isn’t important – and having the will to make it happen.

COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACHIEVING AN OUTCOME – Making it happen is driven by collective drive – the members of the team all want the same thing and are willing to put aside ego and personal agendas to make it so!The ways of working are often reduced to tools but this is more than that. It’s about how the team agrees what is ok and not ok, about how they will make decisions and what protocols they will work to.

AGREED WAYS OF WORKING – The key word is agreed – this doesn’t mean there won’t be disagreements about how they achieve tasks. It’s more about agreeing how they will disagree – a topic for another post.

THE SUPPORT SYSTEM – The support system in which the team works is perhaps one of the foundational conditions. If the environment is not set up to help the team work autonomously and doesn’t provide direction and guidance it will be a tough job for the team to succeed. It’s not impossible for teams to be successful in unsupportive environments but it is hard for them to sustain performance.