High Performance Teams

At Qnit we deal with digitalization projects every day. We found, there are two crucial success factors to digital product and service development: high perfomance teams and automation.

Taking a look at one basic condition for High Perfomance Teams at a time: Control.

Once in a while it's my turn to bring my children to school. I used to ask them what they want for breakfast and how they want their sandwiches for school: The result was always something like this: "Dad, you made it wrong! I said Cheddar cheese. you took the wrong kind. I am not going to eat that". Stuff wasn't eaten when i opened lunch boxes at the end of the day. As a loving father i tryed to pay special attention to listening very attentively: "Did you say Cheddar? Did i get that right?". Still no improvement: "I know i said Cheddar but i changed my mind". My next attempt was force: "You said Cheddar. Now you are going to eat that!". This ended the morning discussions but i still got the lunch boxes back with uneaten sandwiches.

I then remembered how this was done in my childhood: Everything for breakfast and school was put on the table and everybody was taking care of their own food and making their own choices. Said and done: I told everyone i was only going to supply sandwich components and not going to do anything else. The children made their own sandwiches. They made them just the way they liked and had no one to blame for the food but themselves. The result was a pleasant and constructive atmosphere at the breakfast table and empty lunch boxes at the end of the day.

Giving control to your team instead of controlling them is the #1 basic condition for high performance teams. Everytime you tell someone what to do or just as bad, do it for them you disrespect their human creativity and motivation. Even worse: You are actually slowing down your team: When people have the feeling someone else (you) is in charge and is taking care of things they lean back, stop paying attention and start to only do their job. You would do the same thing: If your boss told you what to do, there is a feeling of "then just take care of your own shit". It's killing creativity, motivation and responsibility. Everything we actually want for our team.

Try something else instead: Communicate the vision / the requirement and make success factors transparent. If you don't know them, develop them together with the team. In the end get some kind of affirmation from the team (commitment) that they got it and are going to take charge. And just be surprised where that will take your team...