Team Metrics

Resources for Measuring and Improving Team Performance

Mike Woodcock

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780566086403, 9780566086403
• eBook ISBN: 9781351547055
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Mike Woodcock and Dave Francis are two of the most influential writers and designers of materials for team development of the last 30 years. This collection of Team Metrics brings together some of their very best material for measuring aspects of team performance. The collection includes a variety of audits, questionnaires and surveys, which can be used in a training environment or as real-time team interventions. The 27 items in the collection cover team and team leader skills, team development, team motivation, team roles, team culture, climate and communication, making this a must-have collection of team development materials for trainers, facilitators and team leaders. A CD is supplied with every manual which provides a Powerpoint slide presentation for each of the 27 metrics.

Metrics for Assessing Team Strengths and Blockages

METRIC 3.1

Team Values Audit

Introduction

This metric provides an opportunity for teams to explore the values that they have adopted. It can lead to a profound reassessment of the team’s way of operating. Team members often develop closer relationships following participation in this audit.

Objectives

• To provide a format for assessing team values.
• To provoke a discussion as to where existing team values are functional or dysfunctional.

Set-up

All participants will need a copy of the ‘Questionnaire’, together with ‘Scoring’, ‘The 12 Values of Teamworking’ and ‘Exercise’.

Method

The facilitator should ensure that participants complete the questionnaire as directed, read the explanatory material and complete the exercise as suggested.

Time required

Approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Questionnaire

This questionnaire asks for your opinions about a specific team or cluster of teams (for example, all of the teams working on a complex project). Before you begin, define the team that you wish to review and write an unmistakable definition in the box below. (When several people from the same team complete the survey together, they should ensure that they are all using the same definition of the unit being assessed.)

The team being assessed is:

Answer the 60 items on the following pages only in relation to this definition of the team being assessed. Please give your opinion on each item. Even if you do not have enough information to make a definitive judgement, answer each question to the best of your knowledge. Allocate points as shown below.

The statement is:

Scoring

On the grid there are 60 squares, each one numbered to correspond to a statement. Copy the scores from a completed questionnaire. Be careful not to miss a statement. When you have copied all 60 scores, total the numbers in each horizontal column.

The 12 Values of Teamworking

Interpreting the questionnaire

Now that you have scored the questionnaire you are, no doubt, wondering what it means. Scores for each of the 12 values are shown on the right-hand side of the answer sheet. High scores suggest a values strength; low scores suggest a blockage. Now you have completed the Team Values Audit you will have an idea about which are the peak values in your team.

The Team Values Audit argues that the foundation of successful teamworking is the active and persistent pursuit of all of the 12 values reviewed by the questionnaire.

The first core issue – team management

Because many teams are multidisciplinary, specialist functions must be integrated in order for the team to operate successfully. Only team management can direct and coordinate the team. To achieve success, team management must be well defined, well selected, well trained and well motivated.

Three sub-issues need to be addressed, as described below.

Use of Hands-On Power

The team manager has the authority and position to decide the mission of the team, shape the way that resources are used and take decisions. The successful team manager understands the inherent power of its position and ensures that the team is well constructed and operates efficiently and effectively. In mature teams, it is not necessary for the team manager to use authority overtly, but it remains necessary to be willing and able to step in if team problems occur. It adopts this value: The team must be managed.

Support for Elitism

The quality of people who fill team roles can be extremely important. An inadequate team member can wreak havoc – both by sins of commission and by sins of omission. The successful team understands the vital importance of getting the best possible candidates into management jobs and of developing their competence continuously. It adopts this value: Only the best will do.

Reward for Excellence

Teams need to perform consistently and energetically in pursuit of the wider organization’s goals. The successful team identifies and rewards success. It adopts this value: Performance is king.

The second core issue – managing the task

Work in teams can be dull, gruelling, demanding, challenging and worrying. In the final analysis, every team should be concerned with output, not with the toughness of the task. This means that the job must be done, and done well. It requires focusing on clear objectives, working efficiently and conserving resources. We call this process ‘managing the task’.

Three sub-issues need to be addressed, as described below.

Emphasis on Effectiveness

Focusing on the right issues must be a constant concern. A successful team is able to focus resources on activities that get results. It adopts this value: We do the right thing.

Pursuit of Efficiency

It has been said that good teamwork is about doing hundreds of little things well. All too often a small error has a disproportionate effect on the quality of the whole. The drive to do everything well gives a sharp edge. The successful team searches relentlessly for better ways to do things, and it builds pride into the job. It adopts this value: We do things right.

Adoption of ‘Economy Everywhere’ Principle

It is a great deal easier to spend money than to make it. Lack of effective cost control is a common cause of waste. The discipline rendered by a profit-and-loss account endows the wise team with the ultimate measure of success. Every activity costs money; someone, somewhere has to pay. The successful team understands the importance of facing economic reality. It adopts this value: There are ‘no free lunches’ here.

The third core issue – managing relationships

Senior management often expect that teams perform to a very high standard; they demand hard work, loyalty, skill, care and honesty. If people are to give their best, they need to be treated with compassion, to feel valued and to feel that they are part of a well-structured process. We call this: ‘managing relationships’.

Three sub-issues need to be addressed, as described below.

Concern for ‘Fairness’

One of the greatest compliments paid to a good teacher is that they are firm but fair. What the members of teams do and how they relate to each other, has a major impact on the quality of life of team members. Adopting an ethic of compassion and fairness builds trust between people and commitment to the team. The successful...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Metrics for Auditing Generic Team Effectiveness
• Metrics for Assessing Team Leadership
• Metrics for Assessing Team Strengths and Blockages
• Metrics for Assessing Top Team Performance
• Metrics for Facilitators