Developing teams in the workplace to their full potential can be a challenge! If you have ever been frustrated at not knowing how to keep your team growing and taking on more higher duty tasks and performing at higher levels, then this could be the answer for you!

You have probably realized by now that developing your team to self-reliance (or if you prefer self-managing) is something that happens over time.

How many of you have taken your team to hang off ropes on the side of a mountain ... expecting this type of activity will bring you closer together and build the foundation for better teamwork and performance back in the workplace? Well, these types of activities are lots of fun and they definitely have their time and place, but rarely do they translate into long-term, sustainable and successful development of high performance teams in the workplace.

Below is a process that I have successfully used with several organizations to help teams in the workplace to grow and develop, over a sustained period of time toward more self-reliance. It is a process that provides structure to what ... for many organizations ... is a rather haphazard approach to team development.

Developing High Performance Teams In The Workplace Using Team Pillars

General descriptions of behavior (as described in the Stages of Team Development article) are important and valuable, however ... when you want to add a real power punch to your team's growth and development ... then take the time to work with your team to develop a team pillar, for each of the functions that are critical to the successful operation of your business.

What Is A Team Pillar?

A Team Pillar is a description of the types of behaviors you expect to see exhibited, for a specific function, (both by the team members and their leader) - at each of the four stages of Team Development - along with the types of results you would anticipate from a team at that stage of development.

If you go over to this page you can download eight sample pillars (in pdf format) that a leader of a team might use to assess the stage of development for his or her team. The sample pillars you'll find on this page are for each of these 7 functions:

1. Business Literacy
2. Managing Team Performance
3. Managing Learning
4. Maintenance
5. Improving Individual Performance
6. Managing Meetings
7. Managing Safety

Here is a screen shot of the type of information you will be able to download for each of the functions listed below: (sorry the quality isn't that good, but trying to fit a full sized screen grab into this small space was tough!)

You can develop pillars for any function that is important to your business. I've chosen these samples simply because they are fairly generic across many businesses. We have developed team pillars for all types of functions - for example, for a consulting firm we did pillars on analyzing data, proof-reading documents, business development ... really you can create team pillars for any function that is important to your business.

How You Use Team Pillars To Develop High Performance Teams In The Workplace

Listed below are the steps to follow when creating (and then using) Team Pillars.

1. Identify the critical success functions for your business
2. Work with your team to create a team pillar for each of these functions
3. Assess the team's stage of development for each function
4. Identify and agree on the improvement efforts needed, (within in a specific time frame e.g. 6 mths, 1 year, 5 years etc) to move to the next stage of development
5. Understand the behaviors the Team Leader and Team Members need to develop and exhibit to transition to the next development stage

Okay, so now you have the overview let's take a more detailed look at each of these steps:

Identifying The Critical Success Factors

Initially keep this process simple. Only identify the top six to eight functions that are critical to your business success and that your organization would benefit from your team becoming more highly capable within.

Depending upon the 'political' environment in which you find yourself, you may decide to (initially) choose the functions that won't cause you to ruffle too many feathers outside your own department ... until you have some proof positive of how they system works to help convince the naysayers. (See my story below on how we had to convince the finance department that the team pillars weren't going to send the company broke, rather that we expected it to make money for us).

Create Team Pillars For Each Of The Critical Functions In Your Business

As indicated above, and what is probably blindingly obvious ... start with what you feel will be the easiest/less controversial function/(s) first. For example, say Safety is one of your important functions - this is often a fairly easy team pillar to get going with in terms of both creating and implementing.

Once you have done this, you should have a document that looks similar to the samples I have provided you with. Speaking of those samples ...they are exactly that ... just samples. What I have in those sample pillars may very well not be appropriate for your business environment or describe the behaviors you expect at each stage that works for your organization. Never ever just use them or hand them across to your team and say this is how we are going to develop as a team - you will fail miserably.

One of the most critical elements in creating team pillars is that it is done with your team not for your team by a bunch of leaders in a backroom. Do that and you may as well not even implement the process.

The development of the team pillar by the team is critical because it is one of the best (and cheapest) training and development activities that you will ever invest in and you can do it yourself! Why? Well ...

• Your team members more fully understand ... as they grapple to articulate the difference, say, between a Stage 2 and a Stage 3 team ... what the behaviors of success look like.
• They begin to realize where they both as individuals and as a team are doing well ... and where improvement could happen.

• During the process they have to negotiate and at times get personal agendas out on the table, they will laugh, they will battle ... there could even be tears.
• They will learn, they will discover, they will be exposed to new thinking.
• It plants seeds that helps them to appreciate that staying where they are means they are stagnating (both personally, professionally and organizationally)
• They have to work together to come to an end result that will profoundly change how they work together

... all in all everything you want in an exceptionally successful team building and training program and not a rope in sight!

How Long Does It Take To Create A Team Pillar?

Yes, it is an investment of time ~ and yes there can be lots of it. I have worked with teams that have been able to develop a team pillar within 4 hours ... and I have worked with a team that took 15 hours to develop one pillar.

The length of time taken depends upon the team's development, (how used they are to openly discussing and negotiating) and the 'heat' within the pillar. For example you will find that when it comes to creating a team pillar around 'improving individual performance' people's agendas can come to the fore and this can bog the process down ... you will need your best facilitation skills on that day!

Don't Frighten The Dickens Out Of Them!

You will also find that if a team is closer to a Stage 1 team in the general descriptions of team development than Stage 4 they will be less adventurous/extravagant in how they describe the behaviors of a Stage 4 team. It isn't because they are being obtuse. It is because they often can't see that far out ... even if you can ... because up to this point they haven't been trained to think this way.

My recommendation is tread carefully to begin with. You don't want to frighten them by something that they aren't ready for. If you begin describing a Stage 4 team to them which you see 10-15 years down the track (which the best analogy I can find is of describing university to a kid about to go to kindergarten) you will frighten the dickens out of them and they won't want to come on the journey (just as describing university to a kindergartener will have them telling you I DON'T want to go to school!). It can be a case of too much too soon and can overwhelm even the brightest and most willing of team members.

Simply understand this is a dynamic document that will change with time. So certainly stretch their thinking ... but don't frighten them. You may well have to settle for letting them describe a Stage 4 team ... as what you may well have described as a Stage 2 or 3 team ~ knowing that in the future you will work with them again to broaden their outlook on what behaviors describe a Stage 4.

Assess The Team's Stage of Development for Each Pillar

Once you've got your team pillar documented now comes the fun part. Again, working together, you and your team will assess which Stage of team development best describes their performance level.

Generally, if 90% of the team are exhibiting the behaviors described for that stage more than 80% of the time, you can safely assume they are operating at that level.

If you thought you had had vigorous debate as you were developing the Team Pillar, well assessing your team's stage of development can be even more rocky. Do make sure that you make use of team norms to ensure that conversations don't become personal attacks ... which they can quickly degenerate into if you don't facilitate well ... I have often seen pent up frustration at under-performers quickly come to the fore ... so do make sure that you are prepared to handle this well.

Teams Develop At Differing Speeds For Each Function.

Generally teams in the workplace very quickly become results focused and can be relied upon to achieve performance targets - often moving quite rapidly through Stage 1 to Stage 3-4 in terms of "Team Productivity".

However, most teams take a very long time to move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 in terms of "Improving Individual Performance". As a leader you would probably agree that one of the most difficult tasks that confronts you is managing the under-performance of individuals - it seems to be a task that most people find difficult.

Consequently, it is quite feasible to have a team who is performing as a Stage 3-4 team in terms of their capability to manage team productivity but very much at Stage 1 in terms of improving individual performance. For example as a group they can easily hold each other accountable for achieving team performance outcomes (say exhibiting Stage 3 behaviors in the function of "Managing Team Performance"), but when it comes time to address the under-performance of an individual they expect the team leader to do it (Stage 1 behaviors in the function of "Improving Individual Performance").

Plan Out Development Activities

Use a matrix like this so you and your team can quickly get a picture of where they stand for a series of functions:

Function	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4
Learning & Development
Safety
Maintenance
Team Performance
Scheduling
Problem Solving
Business Literacy

Using a grid like this helps you to begin to plan out where you need to focus and you can begin to turn your attention to how you will help your team develop to the next stage.

And this doesn't just mean training programs.

It could be the development activities that need to take place in order for the team to be able to progress along the team development continuum could be things like working to change restrictive policies and procedures, it could be creating new systems, it could be freeing up the information flow. (So many teams in the workplace are hindered by such restrictions ... which came about because of fear and the old style thinking of trying to control everything.

One of the benefits of using team pillars is that it does help to lessen the fear of those old-school, wary decision-makers (who often sit in corner offices!) because they can see there is a process that systematically enables people to take on more higher level decision making responsibility and not a free-for-all which will enable anarchy.

Changing Behaviors

Following the assessment it will be very clear to you the style of leadership you are currently using and where you, the leader, need to grow and shift your style to effect long term changes in the team, as well as where you need to focus on a daily basis in order to help your team shift along the team development continuum toward being a self-reliant, empowered team.

This can be most challenging - because you have to step out of your comfort zone and release the reins. But if you aren't growing, learning and developing ... then how can you expect to grow and develop your people? The growth of teams in the workplace often directly correlates to the growth of their leadership. The simple fact that you are member of this site tells me that you are committed to being at your best and bringing your people with you, so I'm confident that you and your team will experience the success you are ready for.

It is fairly obvious that a leader who can only exhibit the behaviors of a Stage 2 leader can never grow and develop his or her team through to a higher stage. So in order for you to develop your team you need to be starting to use the behaviors at the next level.

Negotiating Roles

You will at times have to negotiate how you lead your team. You can expect to be challenged by your team members that you aren't acting as a Stage "x" team leader etc - don't let that worry you. Keep doing your best and regularly refer to your team pillar for inspiration on the types of behaviors you need to be role-modelling.

You can see an example of how I used team pillars with an under-performer to negotiate the behaviors we needed to see in order for him to be treated at a higher level.

Team Pillars will become one of the power tools in your team development activities. When teams in the workplace use Team Pillars higher performance generally follows.

Deepen Your Learning with the Interactive Online E-Course

Take the interactive online e-course to sharpen your skills at Assessing Stages of Team Development. In this course you will assess a team using these four team pillars

• Safety
• Managing Team Performance
• Meeting Management
• Improving Individual Performance

Test Your Understanding with the Team Pillar Quiz

Once you have read the articles in this series and taken the interactive e-course above, then why not test your learning by taking the Team Pillar quiz to see just how well you have integrated the knowledge.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more about how I can help you implement the use the Pillars within your organization.

Leave Teams in the workplace and go to align-lead-inspire home page

Go to the Sample Leadership and Self Improvement Resources Directory