1. Building a High Performance Team
Instructor: Manfred Huber
Partially adapted from Mike O’Dell

2. What SD Students Say (about team/projects)
Nobody wants to work with someone who will not pull their load.
Most want to work with someone who thinks and works like they do.
Everyone wants to work on a "meaningful", or "real world" product.
Most want their project to be a success.
Most would like to work on a project that is directly relevant to their future/current job.
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3. What SD Student Say (about team/projects)
Everyone wants all of their teammates to be honest, trustworthy, and hard-working.
Only a few of you want to be a team leader.
Many of you don't understand why you need to work on a team - i.e., with other people.
Not everyone is a “technical expert”.
Many of you are nervous about your presentation/oral communication skills.
Each of you has a unique set of skills that can contribute to your teams/projects success.
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4. Team Productivity
Studies have shown that productivity of teams can vary significantly1
As much as 5 to 1, in studies where backgrounds and experience varied between teams
Typically 2.5 to 1 between teams with similar backgrounds and experience
1 Boehm, 1981; DeMarco & Lister, 1985; Weinberg & Schulman, 1974; Boehm, et. al., 1984; Valett & McGarry, 1989
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5. Characteristics of High-Performance Teams
Case Study: Amish Barn Raising (pp )
The movie “Witness” illustrates an Amish barn raising where an Amish community builds a barn for a member in a single day.
Team structure
Team dynamics
Other team characteristics
Why did it work?
What are potential problems?
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6. Characteristics of High-Performance Teams
Case Study 12.1 (pp )
In the Giga-Quote 2.0 project 5 team members work together under an informal team lead with decisions made by consensus.
Team structure, dynamics & characteristics
Why didn’t it work?
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7. Characteristics of High-Performance Teams
Case Study 12.2 (pp )
Team of actuarial consultants fresh out of college working for a startup company.
Team structure, dynamics & characteristics
Why did it work?
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8. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a shared, elevating vision or goal
Buy-in… every single member of the team
Streamlines decision making on smaller issues
Provides focus and avoids wasted time
Builds trust… and cooperation
Small issues stay small… focus is on BIG GOAL
The vision MUST be important to the organization, and create challenging work
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9. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a sense of shared identity
A sense that you belong together
A way to distinguish your team from others
Shared sense of humor
Satisfaction in teammates’ accomplishments
“WE,” instead of “I” in your team language
Competitive FIRE!
Thoughts/ideas on how you go about building this shared identity for YOUR team?
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10. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a results-driven structure
Organized with max. development speed and efficiency in mind
Clear, and clearly understood, roles for everyone
Accountability for each individual
Effective communication system & rules (up-down, down-up, across)
Performance monitoring/measurement
Decisions are based on FACT, not opinions or mandate
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11. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have competent team members
Teams are a blend of individuals, each with different key competencies and skills
Key Competencies
Strong technical skills in relevant areas
Strong desire to contribute
Strong collaborative skills
Mix of roles… every team must have:
Organization and Leadership
Communication capabilities
Specific technical capabilities
But… Flexible, not Rigid
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12. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a common commitment to team
Involves personal sacrifices for the team (that you may not make for the larger organization)
Calls for a commitment of your personal time and energy… everyone!
Each member must know and buy-in to exactly what you and your team are committing to…
VISION… CHALLENGE… TEAM IDENTITY
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13. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They trust each other
Four components of trust:
Honesty
Openness
Consistency
Respect
Breach just one… trust is gone!
Trust is learned, not mandated
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14. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have interdependence among members
Understand and rely on each other strengths
Everybody gets to contribute… in the way(s) that they are best qualified to do so
Everybody gets to participate in critical decisions that affect the team
Everybody looks for ways to make other members successful
Result: everyone gravitates to the role in which they are most productive!
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15. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They communicate effectively
Establish preferred ways to communicate
Stay in touch with each other
Establish their own “team language” based on mutual understanding (Recall Case Study 12.2)
Express true feelings, without any fear of retribution or embarrassment
Even (or, maybe, especially) the “bad news”
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16. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a sense of autonomy
Feel like you can do whatever you need to do to make the project/product successful
Based on trust within the organization (a.k.a. management)
No micro-managing
No second-guessing
No overriding tough decisions
Full support in those “impossible” situations
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17. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They have a sense of empowerment
The organization gives you the power to do what is right for your team
You can make decisions, within the context of your project, and not have them over-turned
You can make a few mistakes, and not have them held against you
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18. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They are “right-sized”
Small enough to communicate effectively
Small enough to work efficiently
Small enough to bond as a team
Large enough to form a group identity
Large enough to get the job done
Large enough to include the right key competencies and skills
Larger projects can usually be broken into smaller, more efficient, teams
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19. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
They enjoy what they are doing
Not every enjoyable team is a high-performance team… but
Every high-performance team is enjoyable!
Shared sense of humor, secret hand-shakes, team vocabulary, secret jokes… done in good taste, these things can be FUN.
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20. An Effective Team Is not an individual, or two
No “geniuses”
No “heroes”
Everyone contributes equally
Need not be experts on anything
Must have a leader
Must have a balance of key competencies
Must have a balance of relevant skills
Must have identity/cohesiveness
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21. Individual Capabilities
A good team is made up of individuals who have the following basic skill sets:
Organizational
Communication
Technical
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22. Organizational Capabilities (e.g.)
Planning
Personnel management
Scheduling
Tracking
Reporting
Ability to stay on track
Ability to keep others on track
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23. Communication Capabilities (e.g.)
Written reports/presentations
Clear and correct English
Proper format
Timely
Good with presentation/visual aids
Verbal
Oral reviews/team meetings
“Sales” presentations
Training
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24. Communication Capabilities (e.g.)
Critical Analysis
Reviewing materials, plans
Reviewing/evaluating customer and sponsor input
Clearly conceptualizing difficult ideas/issues
Understanding and integrating other approaches/opinions
Considering alternative design approaches
Objective, open-minded, clear-thinker
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25. Technical Capabilities (e.g.)
Requirements analysis
Architectural design
Detail design
Test design
Coding to meet specifications
Test supervision and execution
Product packaging
Hardware interface
Source control
Change control
Knowledge of specific languages
Knowledge of specific technologies
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26. Team Capabilities… are the union of individual capabilities
BUT, a team must have (develop) a sufficient level of ALL required capabilities.
NB……
A high-performance team maximizes its capabilities AS A TEAM.
A high-performance team matches individual skills with the job(s) to be done.
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27. Projects and Team Structure
Kinds of teams:
Problem-resolution teams:
Team focused on solving complex, poorly defined problems. E.g.: Software team to diagnose new showstopper defects.
Creativity teams:
Team tasked with exploring possibilities and finding new ways to address issues. E.g.: Software team breaking new ground in terms of applications.
Tactical-execution teams:
Team focused on carrying out a well-defined plan. E.g.: Software team working on sell-defined product upgrade.
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28. Kinds of Teams Problem-resolution team:
Team focused on solving complex, poorly defined problems. E.g.: Software team to diagnose new showstopper defects.
What features should this team have ?
What team member characteristics are important ?
What structures would be useful
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29. Kinds of Teams Creativity team:
Team tasked with exploring possibilities and finding new ways to address issues. E.g.: Software team breaking new ground in terms of applications.
What features should this team have ?
What team member characteristics are important ?
What structures would be useful
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30. Kinds of Teams Tactical-execution team:
Team focused on carrying out a well-defined plan. E.g.: Software team working on sell-defined product upgrade.
What features should this team have ?
What team member characteristics are important ?
What structures would be useful
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31. Team Models Business team:
A team of equals headed by a team lead. Team lead serves as technical coordinator and is usually chosen based on technical expertise. Team lead is responsible for most communications with management.
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32. Team Models Chief-Programmer Team:
A team built around a “superstar” who handles most of the technical specifications. Other team members specialize according to their strengths with a focus of keeping administrative tasks away from the chief programmer.
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33. Team Models SkunkworksTeam:
A team that organizes itself internally (without management interference). Management is only kept informed of overall progress; everything else stays inside the team. A team lead is either assigned internally or arises over time.
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34. Team Models Feature Team:
A team that has specialized members/subteams, each one reporting in their area.
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35. Team Models
SWAT Team:
A team that has specialized members and is highly trained together so every member knows the strengths and weaknesses of every other member. Has well established structures.
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36. Team Models Athletic Team:
A team that has specialized members where each one takes on a specific area. Has well established structures.
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37. Projects and Teams Case Study 13-1: Mismatch
Characteristics of the team?
Why it failed?
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38. Projects and Teams Case Study 13-2: Good Match
Characteristics of the team?
Why it succeeded?
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39. Building Your Teams

40. Self-Assessment Form Complete using the form on the website
Clearly mark your answers on the form
Keep a copy of the form, turn in the original on the due date
After completing your form, get together with potential partners and evaluate the possibility of forming a competent, high performance team
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41. Ratings on the Form Rate yourself from 1 to 5
1 – definitely not a skill that you possess
2 – classroom/limited knowledge only
3 – ok: can do it, but not really well yet
4 – one or more successful team projects where you used this capability
5 – professional. This is what you do for a living
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42. Assignments
Submit a short paper that identifies your proposed team (due September 2).
Key points:
Each team must have 4 or 5 members
No close friends/significant others on same team
CpE, CS and SwE students will be equitably (as evenly as possible, given enrollment) distributed among the teams (per diagram in “Day 1” slides)
Must have a strong leader on each team
Consider times of availability, travel, project choices, etc.
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43. Assignments Due at beginning of Lab next Friday:
Individual Assessment Forms
Make a copy for your and your teams use and reference later
During the Lab, each new group will:
Prepare and turn in a Team Assessment form
Recommend preparing duplicate for team to keep
Select top 3 projects in order of preference
Verify/identify your team leader
Begin the process…..
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44. Team Assessment/Needs
In our next lab period, you will begin to evaluate your proposed team using the team assessment vehicle.
Total score in each skill for all team members is the team score
You may need to assess other skills than those listed on the form for your team’s project
If your team score is low in some areas, you will need to be sure your planning includes additional education
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45. First Lab After Teams and Projects Set
First Team Status Report
Team name!!
Preliminary roles and responsibilities of individuals
Team weaknesses identified and plan to resolve
Early assessment of risks associated with your project
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