By David Newby (Copyright 2020)
The Team Performance Model is a simple tool to help you understand how you are doing in your school or organisation. As a leader you will be required to manage four elements of team performance and the extent to which you are able to do this will affect the extent to which your school or organisation is successful.
The team performance model has been adapted from the Fieldbook of Team Interventions (Eggleton and Rice:1996)
There are 4 key elements needed for effective team performance viz Goals, Roles, Processes and Relationships. Each of them is an essential element of the 4 legged pot. We cannot say that we will focus on just a few of them or that we do not regard one or more of them as being important. They are interconnected and each is vital to the performance of the team. What follows is as relevant for teams within the organisation as it is for the organisation as a whole.
- Goals
- Relevance: How relevant are the goals of the team to the needs or demands of the context?
- Goal clarity: To what extent are all team members clear about the purpose of the team and what it is trying to achieve?
- Goal commitment: To what extent are team members committed to team goals?
- Leadership and direction: To what extent is team leadership present to set direction and manage the team?
- Measurement: Do we know what we want to achieve? Do we know how we will measure this – indicators and measurement tools
- Roles
- Role clarity: To what extent are the roles and responsibilities of each team member clear to themselves and to others on the team?
- Role commitment: To what extent does each person have a “stake” in the work of the team and a commitment to his or her role?
- Role competence: To what extent are members of the team able to perform their assigned roles competently?
- Performance Management: Are team members held accountable to perform their roles according to set measures and standards
- Processes
- Norms and values: To what extent do group norms and values shape how the team operates?
- Decision-making and problem-solving: To what extent do the team’s decision-making and problem-solving efforts contribute to goal achievement and ongoing effectiveness? There are 3 types of decision making processes. It is important to be clear about which process the leader is using at any given time
- Unilateral – the leader makes the decision without consulting
- Consultation – the leader makes the decision after a process of consultation
- Collaboration – The group makes the decision through a process of consensus building
- Communication: How effective is communication in the team? Do people have enough information to feel included but not so much that they feel overwhelmed?
- Relationships
- Trust and openness: To what extent do team members express their ideas, opinions, and feelings, openly and with mutual trust?
- Mutual support: To what extent is the team characterised by the absence of hostility or indifference, and by the presence of care and mutual support?
- Influence: Does each member of the team feel that they are able to influence others on the team and is each open to being influenced by others
References
Eggleton,C Harry and Rice,Judy C. 1996. The Fieldbook of Team Interventions, Amherst MA: HRD Press,