Characteristics of High-Performing Teams
Creative continuous improvement
Dissatisfaction with the status quo leads to a constant flow of new ideas, experimentation, and a quest for progress
Clarity of core competence
Extraneous activities and deflections from the team's core mission are given low priority
Specific, shared purpose and vision
Individuals don't work for themselves; they work for one another in pursuit of the shared purpose
Creative continuous improvement
Large scale innovations as well as never ending small improvements characterize the team's processes and activities
Blurring of formal distinctions
Team members do whatever is needed to contribute to the task, regardless of previous positions or titles
High credibility and trust
Team members trust one another implicitly, defend members who aren't present, and form interdependent relationships with one another
Blurring of formal distinctions
Team membership and team roles are more predominant than outside status
Extraordinarily high quality
Teams produce outcomes above and beyond current standards of performance
Performance outcomes
Teams produce something; they don't just discuss it
Extraordinarily high quality
Teams surprise and delight their various constituencies with quality levels not expected and never before obtained
Performance outcomes
Without accomplishment, teams dissolve and become ineffective over time
Inefficiency leading to efficiency
As the team develops, because they come to know one another so well and can anticipate each other's moves, they become much more efficient than single people working alone
High credibility and trust
Personal integrity and honesty characterize team activities and team member interactions
Coordinated, shared work roles
The desired output is a single group product, not a set of individual products
Specific, shared purpose and vision
The more specific the purpose, the more commitment, trust, and coordination can occur
Mutual, internal accountability
The sense of internal accountability is far greater than any accountability imposed by a boss
Clarity of core competence
The unique talents and strategic advantages of the team and its members are clear
