Developing High Performance Team

Katzenbach and Smith (1993a) recognise teams as the basic units of performance in organisations and identify a team as '...a small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.'

Team members must also be respectful of one another, welcome diversity, and establish both trust and accountability within the team. All team members must be willing to decide how they will work together by jointly developing a code of conduct, ground rules, or team principles. These should support the team mission and drive the team toward accomplishing its goal. Banutu-Gomez (2011) indicated, “Also, all the members of an effective group need to be committed to the group’s ideas, goals, and decisions or the team will be unable to get any work done” (p. 60).

Team norms are a set of rules or guidelines that a team establishes to shape the interaction of team members with each other and with employees who are external to the team. Team norms can be developed during an early team meeting. More norms can be added as the team sees the need for additional guidelines.

A successful team can be represented by various characteristics which include respect for one another, a sense of purpose, commitment to the aims of the team which are demonstrated every day by each team member and regular communication between team members.

A team is a type of organizational group with independent members. They share common goals and work together to meet these goals (Northouse, 2016). The organization where I work has teams at various levels for maximizing the success. These teams include, core teams, coordinating teams, patient aligned care team (PACT), contingency teams, ancillary teams, support and administration teams (Veterans Health Administration [VHA], 2015). Some of these teams have interdepartmental members while others have intradepartmental staff. Successful teams have a concrete blueprint and that contributes to their effective functioning. There are several factors that affect these teams irrespective of the level. The factors comprise the presence of a clear task, separation from non-team members, authority, and stability. The factors like working conditions, team process and bridging the gaps are concerns for the executive level. The complexity of the task, individual skills and their diverse specializations affect the selection of the team members. The team’s meaningful interactions decide their success. Independent teams can help promote friendly competition within the organization and lead to better staff performance. An efficient leader can design and launch an effective team through careful planning and selection of the right members. He/she keeps the factors that affect the success of the team in mind when designing the teams. The patient care units

An effective team which performs at the highest level, whilst completing their work efficiently to the best of their ability. An effective team will always consist of certain features enabling effective team performance. Some of these features are as follows; develop goals and plans, i.e. an effective team will always devise a development or goal plan, which will describe the specific purpose for the team. The team will work towards implementing plans to achieve the set goal. Team member should also be clear about these goals and their priorities and consistently work in ways that will support the team’s

| “The top 10 features of an effective team are: * clear purpose; * open communication; * constructive conflict; * effective problem-solving and decision making; * defined roles, responsibilities and accountability; * strong relationships; * systems and procedures; * experimentation and creativity; * measurement and self-assessment; * shared leadership.” For a team to be effective, they need to have clear

Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties persist. Cliques form and there may be conflict and power struggles. The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues. Compromises may be required to enable progress. The leader coaches.

All team members will respect the ideas and views of the other members even if there is disagreement. Team members will encourage each other and help each other along through the course so that the end goal can be achieved.

3.1 One way to ensure your personal and team gaols aligh with the organisations goals and plans is to have a team performance plan. The purpose of this is to ensure these goals are clearly linked to the organisations goals and objectives. Consulting, negotiating and agreeing the objectives in the team plan before the work is allocated supports achievements of expected out comes. An effective team performance plan links goal achievement by the team and individual team members to organisational goals and objectives. Rewards linked to team rather than individual performance, such as certificates of achievement and team of the year awards, promote high team performance.

Introduction: In the given statement "simply put, teams will be the primary building block of performance in the high performance organization of the future. As a result, effective top managers will increasingly worry about both performance and the teams that will help deliver it" (p. 239, The Wisdom of Teams). Authors Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith conversed with several individuals in more than thirty organizations to figure out where and how groups function best and how to upgrade their adequacy. They uncover: The most critical component in group success who exceeds expectations at group authority. Furthermore, why they are infrequently the most senior individuals Why company wide change relies on upon groups. Furthermore, more comprehensive and demonstrated compelling, The Wisdom of Teams is the fantastic first stage of making groups an effective apparatus for accomplishment in today 's worldwide commercial center.

In today's society some corporations have achieved success by replacing the hierarchical boss-subordinate relationship with that of an empowered work team. Many corporations know the value of a high-performance team. A high-performance team has a great deal to offer to the organization. In a team environment, people are not managed, controlled or supervised. They are led by their mutual vision of the organization's purpose and goals. Teams surpass individuals working alone, especially when performance requires several abilities, verdict, and active involvement...

Once people can mesh well into a great high-performance team, they will fit right into the business world. As today's extremely competitive and ever changing, business world is not meant for the slow growing or for the unprepared. It is now the goal of every organization to create a high performance organization. The high performance business is the one that can create a balance between performance, quality, customer relations and profitability. High performance organizations need high performance team savvy employees. Why is this? It is because; high

Commitment and involvement- the team should be able to understand the goals and should be committed in achieving them

that their individual job and overall team goals are met while being able to put trust into the other