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| 1 | +!! title: The Building Blocks for High Peforming Teams |
| 2 | +!! slug: high-performing-team-building-blocks |
| 3 | +!! published: 2025-07-18 |
| 4 | +!! description: A discussion on a framework to manage for high performance. |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +--- |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +It is coming up on my anniversery of away from the software industry. I miss managing. I miss the |
| 9 | +intersting organizational problems. I miss collaborating across teams to drive goals in something |
| 10 | +bigger than myself. I miss supporting my team and watching them deliver extraordinary results: my |
| 11 | +personal wins being their professional wins. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +As I slowly enter back into the industry and get resituated, I am reminded of an "equation" from my |
| 14 | +management coach for cultivating and maintaining high peforming teams: |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +> High performance = purpose + expectations + feedback (continuous) |
| 17 | +
|
| 18 | +Before this equation can be effectively deployed into a team, the team has to be ready. High |
| 19 | +performance requires psychological saftey in the team. I have discussed these in parts elsewhere |
| 20 | +over the years, but have yet to bring them all together with how I think about cultivating them. |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +## The Building Blocks |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Each of these could be--and has been--a post of its own. Today I want to run through these at a high |
| 27 | +level and discuss how I cultivate each of these on my teams. We'll start at the bottom and build up |
| 28 | +from there. |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +### Trust |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +The foundation of high performing teams is trust. Google discovered this for themselves in their |
| 34 | +two-year study of what makes a high performing team |
| 35 | +[[1](https://www.acc.af.mil/Portals/92/Docs/ACC%20Bridge/Physcological%20Safety/HBR%20Harvard%20-%20Psych%20Safety%20copy.pdf?ver=PZYHiFFdxHXHSm39BAxisQ%3D%3D)]. |
| 36 | +The Navy SEALS would rather have a moderate operator with high trust than a high operator with low |
| 37 | +trust [[2](https://simonsinek.com/books/leaders-eat-last/)]. If you do not trust that your manager |
| 38 | +or teammates have your back, Maslow's first and second levels of needs are at risk. An individual is |
| 39 | +going to be expending energy to meet those needs. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +### Psychological Safety |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +Building from the theoretical foundation of trust, we get to the tactical implementation in the way |
| 45 | +of cultivating psychological safety. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +Simon Sinek has an idea called "the circle of safety" |
| 48 | +[[3](https://simonsinek.com/stories/the-circle-of-safety/)]. Every individual in an organization has |
| 49 | +a circle in which they feel safe, where they know that all threats are outside the circle. The best |
| 50 | +case scenario is the circle ending at the boundary between the organization and the rest of the |
| 51 | +world. Everyone in the company is for and supports everyone else. Individuals' energy is spent |
| 52 | +pushing the company's mission forward towards their vision. The only threats to safety is from |
| 53 | +outside the organization. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +If the boundaries of the circle is around the team, the team has each others' backs. Every team |
| 56 | +member knows that every other member is for them instead of against them. It is imperative to |
| 57 | +cultivate a team culture where members are not against each other. Every individual has strengths |
| 58 | +and weaknesses. Individuals on high performing teams use their strengths to support their teammates |
| 59 | +weaknesses so that the team moves forward as a strong unit. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +The leaders of such teams lead by example. I think of trust in a relationship as a bank account. |
| 62 | +Every action or inaction either adds or removes trust. If I say I'll do something and I follow |
| 63 | +through with it. A little trust goes into the account. If I fail to follow through with what I said, |
| 64 | +a little trust goes out of the account. If I fail to follow through, but then take full |
| 65 | +responsibility, trust may flow out but then maybe some will be added back. The dangerous dynamic to |
| 66 | +always keep in mind is that withdrawing trust can be done in large amounts where adding trust is |
| 67 | +only possible through small deposits. |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +Tips: |
| 70 | +- Persistently cultivate the "circle of safety" at the team boundary (at the very least) |
| 71 | +- Think about trust as a bank account |
| 72 | +- Trusting first builds trust more quickly (rather than making someone earn your trust) |
| 73 | +- Cultivate trust at all costs |
| 74 | +- Team performance is reflective of the team leader |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +### Purpose |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +The motivation of teams and individuals are driven from their purpose. Purpose is directly tied to |
| 80 | +Maslow's third and fourth level of needs. Teams and individuals need to know where the belong, and |
| 81 | +purpose is the main connector in an organization. With purpose understood, individuals have a clear |
| 82 | +path to achievment and recognition in Maslow's fourth level |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +The purpose of a team is derived from where the team fits the company's strategy in executing the |
| 85 | +mission. It is a mistake to think that a team's purpose is static. As a company's strategy in |
| 86 | +executing their mission changes, a team's purpose may change as well. It is extremely important to |
| 87 | +continuously align the team's goals with the company goals. Anything else causes dysfunction in the |
| 88 | +organization. |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | +Tips: |
| 91 | +- Continuously align the team's goals with the company's goals |
| 92 | +- Understand where the areas of responsibility are between teams (and own them) |
| 93 | +- Well defined purpose empowers teams to autonomously solve problems and deliver extraordinary |
| 94 | + results |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +### Expectations & Feedback |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +Expectations and feedback are a self-feeding loop. I have found that feedback is the best way to set |
| 100 | +expectations within an existing relationship. In a new working relationship when someone is joining |
| 101 | +the team, something more formal like a code of conduct document may be used to set general |
| 102 | +expectations. Current team culture may implicitly set social expectations when joining the team. |
| 103 | +However, when I find that my expectations have not been met, but neither have I explicitly |
| 104 | +communicated those expectations, feedback is still the best way to set those expectations. |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +To deliver feedback, I use a modified SBI model: **P**ermission, **S**ituation, **B**ehavior, |
| 107 | +**I**mpact, **Q**uestion. |
| 108 | + |
| 109 | +**Permission:** First ask permission to give them feedback. This allows the individual to prepare |
| 110 | +themselves to receive feedback. Or it allows them to communicate that it isn't a good time to |
| 111 | +receive feedback. They may not be in the right head space to accept the feedback. |
| 112 | + |
| 113 | +**Situation:** Set the scene with the specific situation where the observed behavior took place. |
| 114 | +This helps anchors the conversation in reality and allows the individual to remember what was |
| 115 | +happening and what their specific thought processes were. |
| 116 | + |
| 117 | +**Behavior:** Describe the behavior that you _observed_. An observation is central to the observer |
| 118 | +and cannot be argued with, but at the same time allows for the observation to be incorrect. It is |
| 119 | +important to avoid using the word "you" in these conversations. This risks assigning the behavior of |
| 120 | +the individual to their identity. If they disagree with your externally assigned identity, it is |
| 121 | +essentially the same as a death threat [[4](https://charlesduhigg.com/supercommunicators/)]. |
| 122 | + |
| 123 | +**Impact:** The focus of the feedback should be on the impact of the behavior. This helps the create |
| 124 | +understanding and updates the information used in the individuals decision making loops in a similar |
| 125 | +situation in the future. It also helps communicate where the observer's concern is coming from. |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | +**Question:** There are two types of questions: requests for explicit behavior change or requests |
| 128 | +for more information. In a remote environment, behavior may be harder to directly observe. Reverse |
| 129 | +engineering behavior from impact is challenging and can land the observer in some sticky situations. |
| 130 | +However, those impacts cannot go unaddressed. Taking on a perspective of curiosity, sharing the |
| 131 | +situation and impact and asking about what happened can often help reveal the behavior that needs |
| 132 | +adjusting. These conversations are more challenging because they are so dynamic. But through |
| 133 | +practice over time the skills can be refined. |
| 134 | + |
| 135 | +Effective feedback is a critical skill to continuously develop. When done improperly and without |
| 136 | +psychological safety, feedback can trigger existential threats all the way down to the first level |
| 137 | +of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: the loss of food and shelter through the loss of a job. |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | +A culture of continuous feedback feeds into building more trust. Individuals know that their manager |
| 140 | +is there to support them and their growth, rather than to take advantage of them. When a continuous |
| 141 | +feedback culture is developed between teammates, it tightens the bonds that hold the team together. |
| 142 | +Everyone knows that everyone else is supporting them in their growth as well. |
| 143 | + |
| 144 | +Tips: |
| 145 | +- Approach every conversations with open curiosity (especially in a remote work setting). |
| 146 | +- Avoid the word "you" at all costs. |
| 147 | +- Cultivate a team culture of continuous feedback |
| 148 | + |
| 149 | + |
| 150 | +## Conclusion |
| 151 | + |
| 152 | +Teams of people are like gardens. They require loving cultivation to bear the most fruit. These |
| 153 | +building blocks are the foundations that I use to cultivate high performing teams. Trust is |
| 154 | +absolutely paramount and must be built at all costs. All of the other actions feed back into |
| 155 | +creating trust. |
| 156 | + |
| 157 | +--- |
| 158 | + |
| 159 | +## Resources |
| 160 | + |
| 161 | +1. https://www.acc.af.mil/Portals/92/Docs/ACC%20Bridge/Physcological%20Safety/HBR%20Harvard%20-%20Psych%20Safety%20copy.pdf?ver=PZYHiFFdxHXHSm39BAxisQ%3D%3D |
| 162 | +2. https://simonsinek.com/books/leaders-eat-last/ |
| 163 | +3. https://simonsinek.com/stories/the-circle-of-safety/ |
| 164 | +4. https://charlesduhigg.com/supercommunicators/ |
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