Ask any team member about how their performance is assessed and the answer is unlikely to surprise you. Teams are often focused on metrics like sales targets, the bottom line and the amount of new business generated. These are results or critical points of interest that need to be achieved within a certain timeframe.
However, what companies take for granted is the team’s ability to work as a team, which is a critical component of how teams deliver results. Teams which do not operate on a shared value system are likely to suffer more disruption. Companies which see the value of optimizing team performance tend to invest heavily in team bonding. While important, the investment is slightly misplaced.
Typically, team bonding is an infrequent one-off event which companies hope will yield results over the year. Companies don’t leave sales targets or business development to chance, do they? Why, then, leave this aspect to chance and hope? Having a framework that allows teams to see how they have performed, over a time period, yields better returns; better returns in the form of tight-knit and mature teams that are motivated to achieve results.
Guidelines to Implement
Define the team values: Initiate this framework by establishing how the team operates when they are trying to get work done. It usually boils down to the simple tenets of human interaction. Define the values (such as respect, trust, cooperation, empathy, development, transparency or honesty) which the team thinks are fundamental to how they work together. It is not meant to be complex and a common sense approach is best. It is essentially figuring out what areas of cooperation need improvement.
Make the value trackable: The team should then score how they are performing on a particular value. The team can score it on a scale of 0-10 or 1-5 . For example, if the value being tracked is respect, and the team now has a score of 4/10. They can then decide they wish to make it a 6/10 within the upcoming half-year mark.
Set up guidelines for interaction: Teams should next develop certain guidelines for interaction or the ways in which they should work together. The team needs to agree upon certain actions to take: For example, turning up on time for meetings or providing notice if they’re going to be late are actions that convey respect for the other person(s) involved. At the half-year mark, the team should score themselves again and evaluate whether they’ve gained/ lost or maintained the same score since the last evaluation.
Choose a sensible rhythm for evaluation: A good cadence is to have one team performance evaluation every quarter or half-year. Conducting the evaluation too frequently, like at every team meeting, would be too intense, deep and draining. Furthermore, if this becomes part of the day-to-day, it could lead to an imbalance between focusing on optimizing the work process and the business goals.