Boost team performance in 2023

Over the past few years there has been abundance of capital in the market and a “growth at all cost” mindset. Many companies opted to grow their teams in hopes of faster growth, many neglecting to invest in their existing team performance. In 2022 many organizations realized that early productivity gains driven by the shift to remote work did not scale along with the aggressive headcount growth. Salesforce is just one example of this, as recently became public. As markets corrected and capital dried up, many companies entered hiring freezes and layoffs which will continue into 2023.

As we kick the year off, many teams are being asked to do more with less. The key? boosting team performance! Since we started building Spinach.io we learned a lot about improving team performance in remote/hybrid environments - with our team internally as well as from the hundreds of teams using our app daily. He are some tips we picked up along the way, hope you find them useful with your team:

1. Plan your days - spend a few minutes every morning deciding what it is that you plan to accomplish today. Not just what you plan to work on, but what you actually plan to complete. Ask yourself the question: if I could only accomplish one thing today - what would it be? Internally we call this our “Big Rock” for the day, and it helps you focus on completing the #1 priority for the day. Just as important - it gives you the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment when you’re able to cross that off your list and helps build positive momentum.?
2. Create more flow time - we’ve all been amazed by how much we're able to accomplish when we get a block of uninterrupted time. The challenge at many organizations is that those are hard to come by. Be intentional about creating long blocks or even full days of flow time for your team. Set recurring meetings only in specific days or times blocks during the week to reduce context switching and give your team longer stretches to do focused work. Read more about this here.
3. Get together in person - even in a remote first environment in person time is critical. Being together is where relationships form, trust builds and creativity sparks. It’s where the magic happens. Experiment and see what the right setup and cadence is for your team. We landed on a four day Spinach Summit every quarter. We plan, we brainstorm, we workshop, we have spontaneous breakout chats, and we have fun together. In addition, subsets of the team get together a few more times throughout the quarter.
4. Build a culture of candor - the best teams took time to build up momentum and become high performing. The process to get there is accelerated the more open and transparent team members are. Demonstrate candor and foster a culture of transparency and openness, you’ll be amazed by the huge productivity gains this leads to. Thanks to Debra Sunderland for introducing us to The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership and helping us practice this!

What tips and hacks have you found with your team? Please share your tips in the comments!

Wishing everyone a healthy and productive 2023!