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High-performing Teams

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High-performing teams refer to much more than the mere association of a number people who are linked by common interests or work purposes.  These teams are integrated in such a way that their results transcend those of a typical work team, generating superior products and services.

Members of high-performing teams have profound relationships.   Members have agreed to take common objectives and goals that require coordination of efforts and continuous interaction.  Their roles are clearly identified and their work process is designed to attain optimal results.  In addition, they develop a particular dynamic that generates synergies and extraordinary results.

• Development of work teams

• Personal motivation

• Team building activities

• Constructive management of conflict

     Development of Work Teams

A work team is a work group with a higher grade of evolution.  Its members group around shared needs and objectives, and their interaction generates norms, roles, cohesion, processes, a climate, and conditions for their good performance and goal attainment.  An effective work team is a clear example of human’s capacity for transformation.  It reflects the evolution of simple to more complex states of relationship to achieve goals and transform concrete realities.

The team development processes varies according to different cultural elements, heterogeneity, flexibility, action orientation, and capacity to harmonize before established goals.  For this reason, it can be said that “each human team is a world”, and it needs to be seen and analyzed both in its particularities and in its context.

Most modern organizations seek to execute many managerial and operational tasks through teams.  However, developing high-performing teams is not easy and it does not always occur naturally.  Often, negative conflicts and a loss of energy result of a wrong conception of integration and development.  When high-performing teams are achieved, companies jump to the forefront and take advantage of the human potential and resulting synergies.   Hence, they attain a superior productivity.

The team development process includes:

• Evaluation of the existing teams utilizing structured instruments and participative methodologies

• Learning about elements that determine high-performing teams

• Adjustment of existing teams utilizing those elements

• Coaching and feedback for team integration and development

     Personal Motivation

Motivation refers to the intensity, direction and persistence of the efforts that individuals contribute to achieve their group’s goals.  Personal motivation is a vital factor in teamwork dynamics.  We could say that the life of a team depends on the energy that its participants supply.   As a human organization, a group generates results through its synergy, which comes from the individual contributions of those who make it up.   Motivation generates passion for what one does or lives.  Motivation transforms!

It is important to understand that motivation does not occur by accident.  It implies emotional connections between internal individual factors (needs, goals, desires, ideals, values, among others) with the goals, vision and organizational plans.    Motivation increases to the extent that both interests are blended, which engenders a rational and organized process that translates into actions y concrete tasks.

Obviously, an organization’s effectiveness and productivity depend on the motivation of its people to a great extent.   Motivation is a complex and multi-factorial phenomenon; however, those managers who are able to trigger motivational process among their people take better advantage of human potential and creativity.  They reach their organizational goals better and faster, and as a result, increase the profitability of their operations.

The motivational programs we offer include the following aspects:

• Diagnosis of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors existing in the work done by individuals and teams

• Understanding of the profile and dynamics of individuals who make up the organization to understand their motivations

• Management and supervisor training on work motivation

• Participative design of programs intended to increase organizational motivation and productivity

     Team Building Activities

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They foster continuous improvement in teams and departments, improving communication processes, motivation, and change in attitudes and behaviors. 

They also advance the desired organizational culture and integrate individual’s goals with the company’s strategic direction, attaining better results and an increased sense of belonging.

Team-building events also have a high diagnostic value for the organizational climate.  They reproduce the internal dynamics and the unconscious organization.  For example, when a work team has communication problem, it becomes evident in a team building exercise.   They also permit the visualization of leadership potential that might go unnoticed in the organization.  In addition, they accelerate team maturity, increase cohesion, align individuals to common goals, and instill motivation and enthusiasm.  Teams make rapid progress during these events, with the corresponding increase in productivity and performance.  

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The following process is followed in a team-building event:

•  Diagnosis of the team’s needs and potential problems

•  Design of the activity, selecting the best exercises to attain the desired objectives

•  Team building event execution

•  Feedback on the observed dynamics provided to the managers and teams

•  Identification of actions to strengthen and consolidate the initiated processes

     Constructive Management of Conflict

Conflict is a catalyst of change.  If it is managed in a constructive way, it can generate constructive forces in an organization and in each individual.  Unfortunately, conflicts are often mismanaged, which turns into a power struggle in which some win and some loose. 

When a conflict is transformed, it turns into a space for creativity and development.  New organizational knowledge legitimates conflict, since it can be used for high-value purposes and creative tasks.  It can lead a group into a learning and empowerment process beyond the traditional reactions of destructive judgment and punitive behaviors.  Conflict management seeks to find new business opportunities based on collaboration, leadership and a shared vision that elicits new opportunities.

Through conflict, an organization can confront ideas, explore possibilities and initiate changes in activities and mental models.  When a conflict is transformed, it can turn into a learning and development platform, instead of an obstacle for business activities.   However, if conflicts are not dealt with appropriately, they can be destructive, decrease productivity, diminish commitment and team cohesion, and eventually, cause failure.

To work in this area, we include:

• Training in constructive transformation of conflicts to position the right attitude in the solution

• Training of conflicting parts on dialogue processes, assumption understanding, and frame of references of all involved participants

• Early identification of conflicts for its effective management

If needed, negotiation and arbitration techniques can be utilized.