Teamership: When results matter, teams matter.

Everywhere that results matter, team performance matters. Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

In general, very few leaders and organisations say that they don’t want high performance in their teams.

At the same time, very few leaders and organisations actually commit to doing the work that supports high performance in their teams.

This suggests that for many, high performance in teams is actually viewed as desirable, but not essential.

In other words, for many of us, it would be nice to have high performance teams, but it’s not necessary in order to achieve the results that we are after.

It won’t surprise you to hear that I think this type of thinking is flawed. The evidence supporting the value of high performance in teams is all around us.

Everywhere that results matter, team performance matters.

When the stakes are high, leaders and organisations invest not only in having talented individuals, but they invest in making sure that talented individuals can work together to produce outstanding results. Here are a few examples of places where results are at a premium (often a matter of life and death) and in each there is an explicit investment in team performance:

• Military
  From Army Rangers to Navy SEALs and SAS units, in the highest pressure environments the cost of entry is being an elite soldier. Nobody gets considered for these unless they have the requisite skills and capabilities. That’s not enough. Those that get selected and excel in these teams are those that demonstrate that they can earn the trust of others, communicate clearly and prioritise the outcomes of the mission.

• Surgical teams
  Surgical teams with higher levels of cohesion consistently demonstrate better outcomes - less errors and more lives saved. This is primarily because of two factors - they have learned to work together and they have an environment where risks are identified early and often.

• Elite sport
  The best teams and organisations have sustained success by having great players who operate in an environment that promotes collective outcomes over individual brilliance. They invest in the environment, have high expectations and drive sustained excellence.

• Emergency management
  Fire crews, ambulance and police are regularly required to work together under intense pressure. They practice not only their skills (fighting fires, managing injuries or dangerous situations), they also have well established, well drilled ways of coordinating their work - within and between teams.

• Air travel
  It’s easy to underestimate how well flight crews manage thousands of flights every day. Often the crew have never met each other beforehand. They can work well so quickly so often because they have established ways of working together that airlines spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours into.

In all of these cases, the impacts of the results are incredibly high. In all of these cases, the leaders and organisations invest in team performance. They don’t leave it to chance - and they don’t do it because it’s light and fluffy or “soft”.

The inverse is also true. Most often when there are huge failures - often with tragic consequences - it is not the fault of one individual. It is the cumulative errors in communication and coordination that mean that the knowledge and intelligence that is available for a situation isn’t fully utilised.

I find this observation fascinating.

Teamwork is strongly correlated to the results that we seek.

We are rarely as committed to high performance teams as we are to the outcomes that we are after. It’s a huge opportunity.

Here are some questions to consider this week:

• Do you have an example of a scenario where results have high stakes, but teamwork is not important?

• Is high performance in your teams desirable or essential?

• What are the activities that you invest energy, attention and time in that reflect your view of the importance of teamwork?