HARMONY IS THE HANDBRAKE TO HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS
By Craig Johns
Why are high performing teams as elusive and rare as finding a needle in a haystack?
Many people experience poor to medium team performance, with some having the opportunity of being part of a good team. We can spot low performance in a heartbeat. On the contrary most people don’t really know what a high performing team looks like, as they haven’t experienced it.
A lot of what we read on how to create a high performing team is characteristic of what is needed for a good performing team. Respect, trust, goals, communication, inclusion and psychological safety are likely some of the words that you will read. They are all important and the foundations of performance, but not likely to produce a high performing team.
The characteristics that enable one team to be high performing may be totally different from another. There is no simple formula to developing a high performing team. If there was, everyone would be creating one.
WHAT IS IT THAT CREATES HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS?
Is it harmony, accountability or even ownership? Before we dive into what does, let’s unpack a few things first.
I was very fortunate to be a part of New Zealand’s most winningest sports team, where the Stratford Premiere Men’s Field Hockey Team went unbeaten for 272 games. Yes you read that correctly, 16 years without a loss. It may even be a world record unbeaten sports streak. What is even more impressive is that the team only lost once in 21 years.
Coming from a town of 5,000 people we were up against teams with a population of more than 20x the size, teams that were younger and even teams that had more talent. There were some characteristics that remained consistent and other things that varied from game to game and season to season.
Teams may experience short term exposure to what it’s like to be high performing, not many get to do it consistently, year after year. What we achieved was simply extraordinary. This experience led me to ask the question, what does it take to create high performing teams that last.
THE FOUNDATION OF HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS IS TALENT
A diverse group of talented people who are aligned to the desired outcome and attitude. These people will not necessarily connect individually, but as a whole complement each other. They want to have the space to do what they do best and be supported in areas they are not so strong or energised by.
They enjoy being united in achieving something together but not necessarily fueled by working in a harmonious environment. There will be some very small pockets of harmony, however it will not be the focus.
WHY CAN HARMONY BE A HANDBRAKE TO HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS?
A desire to achieve team harmony requires compromise, keeping the peace and can stunt creativity and passion. In the short term harmony can work, but it is very difficult to maintain when striving for high performance. Over time harmony can create an environment of mediocrity, lead to outbursts of frustration and foster quiet quitting.
In the hope of happiness, building harmony and avoiding conflict, we run the risk of minimising each individual’s self worth and the power of diversity, creating unhealthy tension.
We know diversity and inclusion are important for performance and can support achieving better outcomes. Approaching both from a perspective of achieving harmony is most likely to lead to a suppression of the diversity and an increasing exclusion over time. The more we try to create harmony, the greater the division.
Why, because many people feel like a handbrake has been applied to their natural talents, what they do best and the speed to achieving an outcome. Their perceived level of importance drops, which can hinder their individual contribution to the team.
IF HARMONY ISN’T THE ANSWER THEN WHAT IS?
If harmony is the handbrake to high performing teams, over the long term, then what is it that is required? Unity. It’s a commonality in all high performing teams. Unity in both the desired outcome and the principles of behaviour to achieve it. If we want diversity of thought and true inclusion we require unity. A unified vision and way of working together.
Harmony is the handbrake to high performance. Focus on building a unified team.