Characteristics of High Performing Teams

What factors build a team’s developmental culture?

In 2019, several members of the Global Research Team were tasked to answer this very question. To do so, members of three ministry teams having a reputation for strong team development were interviewed. From these interviews, three major factors were identified that contribute to a team’s development - Including one surprising practice that enhances a teams effectiveness. Read more to learn about this surprising practice.

1. Strong Interpersonal Relationships.
Strong interpersonal relationships among team members create an environment of mutual respect, commitment and trust where members are open to learning from one another. Healthy interpersonal relationships manifest themselves by spending time together outside of task-oriented conversations and meetings, recognizing the importance of mutual respect on a team, and desiring to learn from one another.

2. Effective Team Leaders
Effective team leaders foster a culture of ongoing personal development. Those interviewed remarked that their leaders were first of all good role models. They themselves modeled lifelong learning, encouraged and showed mutual respect within the team, and exhibited an inquisitive attitude of “How can we improve this?” Leaders also encouraged those in their team to:

  • explore new areas of learning or subjects immediately relevant to their ministries;
  • take advantage of training opportunities;
  • share responsibilities or leadership.

Effective leaders encourage and bring out the best from their team members.

3. Team Activities that Build a Developmental Culture
In addition to good interpersonal relationships between team members and effective leadership, these high performing teams identified four activities that contribute to team developmental culture:

  • Team retreats that are carefully planned to include relationship building and a learning component.
  • Informal (but intentional) discussions to share things that team members are learning.
  • Reading and discussing books together.
  • Debriefing.

One team in particular emphasized the benefits of debriefing. So we went back and asked them to share their best debriefing practices. These are their best debriefing practices:

    Best Debriefing Practices
    1. Plan designated time after every major team event to get feedback and suggested next steps—in person or by email.
    2. Discussion questions could include:
    • What went well?
    • What did we/I learn from the experience?
    • What could be improved?
    • What was missing, needs to be added or dropped?
    • What are the short-term and long-term outcomes?

    3. Collect these thoughts, summarize them, and save them for future reference.

Debriefing is the surprising practice emerging from this study. A team can use debriefing to learn from common experiences and improve performance.

So in summary, high performing teams have effective leaders, strong interpersonal relationships, and take intentional steps to build a developental team culture.

What from this article can be applied by teams you work with?

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