Introduction to the Conversations of Successful Teams

We all know what good teamwork looks and feels like and how uncomfortable and unproductive it is when teamwork is missing.  However, it is not always clear what is missing in a team that is underperforming or how to replicate the ‘secret sauce’ of successful teams.  One approach we can take is to look at the agreements that teams make with their customers and with each other through their conversations.  Then determine whether these lead to commitments that support or detract from the ability of the team to deliver on its goals.  We can ask whether the team’s conversations are producing the level of teamwork required to generate the required level of performance.

Teamwork as a set of Conversations

Teams are formed to deliver a product; a process change or services for a customer.  Teamwork arises through the different skills, expertise and capacity each member brings to the team and the challenge is to harness this variety of resource to deliver the agreed output for a customer.  We call the overall output of the team the team’s promise.  A promise is a commitment made by a team to satisfy an agreed set of customer needs.  It follows that a critical conversation for a team is to agree on what exactly will be delivered to the team’s customer and how that commitment will be achieved. 

In the best teams, all team members actively contribute to these agreements and to owning the resulting commitment.  Arising out of this team commitment, we can then ask a number of questions, such as:

• How well is the team staying in touch with the needs of the customer?
• Has the team made all the agreements necessary to deliver the overall goal?
• Does each team member feel ownership for the overall team goal – or are they only focused on delivering their own actions?
• How well does the team deliver on its commitments and is the quality at the level required?
• How well does the team plan its activities and respond to unexpected problems?
• What is the prevailing mood of the team and is it conducive to achieving the goals?
• Do team members trust each other and is the team benefiting from a high level of trust?
• Does the team have a set of standards for the way it operates, and if so, does it live by those standards?
• Is the team operating in a way that contributes to the future wellbeing of the organization, the team and the individual team members?

Learn about the Team Conversation Survey

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