High-Performance Teams
What is a high-performance team?
A high-performance team is a concept within organization development referring to teams, organizations, or virtual groups that are highly focused on their goals and that achieve superior business results. They outperform all other similar teams and they outperform expectations given their composition.
In this article, we will look into learnings from Google’s various studies on this concept and come up with the keys to building high-performance teams
Google’s Project Aristotle
Over the years, Google has done multiple studies, collected endless amounts of data, and spent millions trying to better understand its people. One of their interesting initiatives, code-named Project Aristotle, was to understand the dynamics of high performing teams. Specifically, Google wanted to know why some teams excelled while others fell behind.
Interestingly before this study, like many other organizations, Google execs believed that building the best teams meant compiling the best people, engineers from top schools, MBAs, PHDs! But later they realised they were dead wrong!?
They spent 2 Years studying 180 Teams, conducted 200 Interviews and analyzed over 250 team attributes.?
5 key characteristics of high performing teams
Psychological Safety
We've all been in meetings and, due to the fear of seeming incompetent, have held back questions or ideas. It is like you're in an environment where everything you do or say is under a microscope and you are being judged!
Now think of a situation in which everyone is safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and ask judgment-free questions. A culture where managers provide air cover and create safe zones so employees can let down their guard. That's psychological safety.
Dependability
Team members get things done on time and meet expectations
Structure & Clarity
High-performing teams have clear goals and have well-defined roles within the group.
Meaning
The work has personal significance to each member
Impact
The group believes their work is purposeful and positively impacts the greater good
Google’s Project Oxygen research
Project Oxygen was to understand effective managers! The idea was to determine what makes a manager great at Google.?
Here comes an interesting twist - First, a research team tried to prove the opposite: that managers actually don’t matter, that the quality of a manager didn’t impact a team’s performance. This hypothesis was based on an early belief held by some of Google’s leaders and engineers that managers are, at best, a necessary evil, and at worst, a layer of bureaucracy.
The analysis was based on two quantitative measures:?
This data quickly revealed that managers did matter - teams with great managers were happier and more productive!
Keys To Building High Performing Teams
High performing engineering teams don’t just happen. They’re created. Here are seven keys to building an excellent team
High-Performance Leadership
High performing teams start with high performing engineering leaders. As a leader, it’s up to you to define exactly what high performance looks like, establish the protocol to achieve it, and then ensure that your team is moving consistently toward that high performance. High performing engineering teams have a clear definition of purpose and performance, which allows them to create high-quality objectives. This allows the team to realize exactly the goals they are working toward and holds them clearly accountable if they do not accomplish those goals
Hire The Right People
Hiring well is not just about getting the most talented people, but getting the best people for your team. Bring people who are a good fit with your company culture, but also encourage diversity and inclusion on your team. Being a good fit doesn’t mean that everyone has to be exactly the same. High performing teams usually have people from different genders, experience levels and lifestyles.
As a team leader, never feel threatened by engineers who have skills that you don’t have. Find people who are smarter than you. Find those who have abilities you personally may lack. When these people want to come and work for you, this is a representation of your success.
It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. - Steve Jobs
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A bad hire can have a significant impact on your team’s morale and culture, as well as the bottom line of your company. It takes an enormous amount of money, time, and energy to replace the wrong person. Instead, take your time in the hiring process and focus on attracting the right people
Attract the right people
High performing engineering teams are able to hire the right people because they attract the right people
Psychological safety is defined as the comfort level team members feel in regards to taking risks and looking vulnerable in front of each other. Basically, it’s about how comfortable your team feels in working together. High performing engineering teams feel comfortable taking risks and failing in front of each other.?
One way in which you can build a safe working environment is by building a blame-free culture. The best teams have to take risks. That’s how they evolve and grow. But how comfortable would you feel taking a risk, knowing that, if it fails, you’ll be blamed for it?
Instead of blame, create an environment where you can learn from each other’s mistakes. Carefully examine “failures” or “mistakes” as learning opportunities. Take the time to dissect what went wrong, and how you can fix it for next time. When you create this blame-free environment, your team’s tendency to take risks will naturally increase. Sure, you won’t always hit a home run, but you’re likely to find many new and innovative solutions in a culture of creative risk-taking
In addition, high performing teams are made up of people who feel engaged in what they are doing. One way to create engagement, other than having clearly defined goals, is to listen to your team members. Truly take the time to engage with the individuals on your team and hear them out.
Goals
High performing engineering teams are able to perform consistently at a high level because they are clear on what is expected of them in every area.
For teams to truly perform at the highest level, they must have clearly defined goals. One way to do this is through the use of SMART goals, defined as:?
Not only do the best teams have clearly defined goals, but they also have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Each team member should have an understanding of what is expected of them in terms of skills, as well as the responsibilities for each sprint or project.
The Culture Of Success
The best engineering teams expect to be successful. And this culture starts at the top. It begins with you as the team leader or project manager setting a high bar for success with each word and interaction you perform. Once you plant the seeds of success, you’ll start to see it grow throughout your team.?
Setting a high bar for success doesn’t mean setting unreasonable goals. This often leads to overwork, burnout, loss of confidence, and loss of quality employees. Instead, it means interacting with your team, listening to them, and discovering what they’re capable of. When your team starts to have some responsibility for their own goals, they’ll feel more engaged
Measure - The Right Metrics
It has been said, what you measure is what you get!? So, if you’re measuring lines of code, you’ll get more lines of code. If you’re measuring support case closures, you’ll get more closures. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get more satisfied customers
Here are a few examples of what high performing engineering teams may measure
Velocity
How much work can your team complete in a given sprint? This is the definition of velocity. Having an average velocity allows you and your team to more accurately predict how much work they can complete in a given sprint and this allows you to plan accordingly. When your team’s velocity increases or decreases suddenly, this opens up the door for conversation. What changed? How can we correct it for the next iteration?
Work Distribution
Do you ensure that you divide the work equally amongst everyone on the team? Unbalanced work distribution can lead to an unbalanced team. High performing engineering teams take time to carefully examine who works on what during each sprint.?
Peer Feedback
Occasionally during the year, high performing teams may evaluate each other in areas like professionalism, collaboration, and team commitment. If a teammate receives negative feedback, it may call to light an area that they were not aware of and encourage them to engage more fully with their team. Team leaders can use this feedback to see where their team stands as a whole. Again, create a safe environment to give this feedback, and use it only as a learning tool. High performing engineering teams are comfortable working with each other.???
Build - Measure - Learn (Continuous Improvement)
Finally, high performing engineering teams are not afraid to change things when they are not working. After all, as software developers, that is a large part of what we do. We build software, look for problems, and fix them systematically. The same should be done within your team.?
High performing engineering teams are always looking for ways to improve their performance. Attracting and hiring the right people, creating clear goals and objectives, instigating a culture of success, and measuring the correct things are all keys to creating high performing engineering team
Reference
Cybersecurity Engineering leader at Microsoft, responsible for preventing Identity compromise and fraud using AI/ML.
3 年Good one Siddharth!!