High Performing Teams are a prerequisite for sustainable success. High Performance starts with trust and safety.
Inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s pyramid, which describes the five layers of optimally functioning or dysfunctional teams, this is the starting point for our team development approach.
All underlying layers in the pyramid must be sufficiently supported before sustainable upward construction can take place.
Trust is the foundation for every High Performing Team. Each team member must be able to assume that the other will do what can reasonably be expected. Psychological safety is of great importance: being able to confide in the good intentions of the other person, which allows you to be personally and professionally vulnerable and dare to speak out without fear of negative consequences.
A lack of trust and safety limits the extent to which we can engage in conflict constructively, while that is precisely what makes a team High Performing: wanting and being able to make each other better through constructive feedback on content and behavior. If the foundation is based on trust and safety, we dare to have the real conversation. This paves the way for clarity and growth to arise.
When we don’t experience trust and safety and conflicts are avoided, an environment is created in which ambiguity and fear dominate. The result is that we say yes but do no, and we don’t (dare to) make decisions. In other words: we make no real commitment. The openness created in layers 1 and 2 allows us to commit to joint agreements and goals and creates the motivation and drive to fully devote ourselves to it.
Without trust, conflict and commitment, a culture arises in which we duck for responsibilities and point fingers when things don’t go well. Through clarity and joint commitment, we dare to keep ourselves and each other sharp and accountable, without going on the offensive or defensive.
In a High Performing Team there can never be individual success without collective success. Only when the lower layers of the pyramid are in place, we put aside our ego for the sake of the team’s interest and the top stone can be laid: focus on achieving collective results and celebrating them together.
All teams need maintenance or renovation from time to time. We guide teams in all kinds of phases: new or reorganised teams, teams that are ready for the next step, or teams with internal hassles that urgently need intervention. In all these cases we can help realise breakthroughs. We specialise in developing management teams, boards, supervisory boards, partnerships, start-ups and scale-ups.
Our approach follows the steps of The TransformationDialogue. During the process we use various effective models and interventions, such as 360-degree feedback, Management Drives, Mediation and Team Transformation.
Team development benefits ideally from a setting in nature, in which walks foster in-depth conversations. Nature humbles and connects us, which creates understanding and deeper insights that lead to team transformation. The most powerful intervention here is a multi-day trail in unspoiled nature.
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