1. Building a High Performance Team
Instructor: 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. Characteristics of High-Performance Teams
Discussion: Amish Barn Raising (pp )
Team structure
Team dynamics
Other team characteristics
Why did it work?
Discussion: Case Study 12.1 (pp )
Team structure, dynamics & characteristics
Why didn’t it work?
Discussion: Case Study 12.2 (pp )
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5. 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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6. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
Goals and objectives. The team’s ability to understand and agree on commonly understood goals.
Utilization of resources. Team member resources are recognized as well as utilized.
Trust and conflict. The degree of trust among team members, and ability of team to handle conflict openly.
Leadership. Sharing of leadership roles among team members.
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7. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
Control and procedures. Effective procedures for team functioning that team members support and use to regulate team function.
Interpersonal communication. Communication between team members is open and individuals participate.
Problem-solving/decision-making. Established procedures for group problem solving
Experimentation/creativity. Ability to try new or different ways of doing work as a team.
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8. What Makes a High-Performance Team?
Evaluation. The frequency with which a team examines their own functions as a team.
Cohesion. The level of enjoyment of working together as a team.
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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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19. 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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20. 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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21. Effective High-Performance Teams

22. 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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23. Key competencies and relevant skills…
Organizational
Communication
Technical
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24. Organizational Competencies (e.g.)
Planning
Personnel management
Scheduling
Tracking
Reporting
Ability to stay on track
Ability to keep others on track
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25. Communication Competencies (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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26. Communication Competencies (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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27. Technical Competencies (e.g.)
Requirements analysis
UI design
Product design
Test design
Coding to meet specifications
Test supervision and execution
Product packaging
Hardware interfacing
Source control
Change control
Knowledge of specific languages
Knowledge of specific technologies
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28. Team Competencies…
are the union of individual skills and competencies BUT, a team must have (or 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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