High Performance Teams

What is a "High Performance Team" (HPT)?  At what point does a team become one?  Can a team change?  Do all the members of the team need to be "superstars"?

According to Wikipedia, high performance teams are groups that are "highly focused on their goals and that achieve superior business results.  High-performance teams outperform all other similar teams and they outperform expectations given their composition".  That last part is probably the most important and it is the part that is hardest for organizations to understand.

In a traditional organization staff are known as "resources", hence the term Human Resources for the department that deals with staff.  Within many organizations staff (aka resources) are interchangeable.  If you have an SA3 on your project and they won the lottery you get another SA3 to replace them.  Most project managers think this way as well.  In many respects human resources are thought of as interchangeable Lego pieces.  If, according to the plan, you need a 4x2 full height brick, you look for a 4x2 full height brick.  This makes a single assumption that is at the root of the problem:  people are interchangeable like Lego bricks.

People aren't interchangeable, however.  Lego bricks are, on the other hand, because the manufacturing process has extremely tight tolerances for deviations from the standard. (Up to a 0.02 millimeter variation is allowed)  People?  Well, as they say, no two people are alike.  That individualization is what makes substituting one person for another not as simple as what you might expect.

An HPT needs to fit together like Lego bricks.  If one member of the team leaves, their replacement may not fit properly.  Conversely, if you don't have an HPT and you replace someone on the team you may end up with one in the long run.  Is there a science involved in creating an HPT?  People have tried for years and have been completely unsuccessful.  What they have been successful at doing, however, is identifying when a team has become an HPT.  Once you have such a team you need to do what you can to keep that team together.  Their success as a team can have an impact on the success of the organization. 

This doesn't mean that you let them run wild.  Every team needs guidance, but instead of putting a chain around their neck and leading them where you want them to go, you point in the direction of where you want them to go and work with them so that they not only understand where you want to go and why you want to go there, but the benefits of going there.  An HPT requires more openness than other teams because that is part of why they are as effective as they are:  open and honest communication.

One of the biggest fallacies, however, is the idea that if you break up the team then each member can start their own HPT and you will have even more teams.  It doesn't work that way.  Some of the reasons for the team to be so good at what they do includes the fact that they trust each other, they respect each other and they are all aligned with regard to their work goals.  Putting five people together in a room does not make people trust each other.  It does not make people respect each other.  It does not align their work goals. 

An HPT is an organic process that cannot be predicted nor can it be forced.  It can, however, be nurtured and sustained.  If you want to be successful, just step out of the way and grab on to the coat tails of an HPT because the ride is going to be fast and frightening, but you're going to go places.