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Change management

The basic assumption underlying a team (department/division/organisation) performance improvement project is that, given the right work environment (including skills/knowledge) then 97% of the population of large technical organisations will perform.

The work environment can be divided into various components which we term the basic components of team performance:

A unified sense of direction strategy or long-term goals outputs and performance measures targets performance feedback training (skills/ knowledge) reward systems structure and job design communication, and systems and processes.

The basic components of team performance are simple, commonsense elements strongly evident in all high-performance teams. All teams will have the components to some degree, but the better developed these components are, the better the team's performance. These key components must be examined, and opportunities to improve them sought. However, we don't fix what is not broken, we work only with those components of team performance which need improvement.

Once identified, a culture in which the basic components can be implemented can be created. These essential components can then be systematically built into everyday activities, ensuring that performance is continuously improved. The philosophy is simple: do the basics as best as you can, all of the time, and you will inevitably improve. With these basics anchored into the workplace culture, performance will continuously improve, and the improvements will be sustained in the long term.

Experience shows that with a minimum standard on each component improved team performance is virtually assured. Thus the aim of a team performance improvement project is to engineer into the workplace these components at a minimum standard thereby implementing a continuous performance improvement system.

Different combinations of these components form different systems. The diagram below shows the components of team performance and the systems to which they relate.

Our model diagram (below) is another way of representing how we approach OD: The total system, which would deliver Success through Team Performance is made up of all the basic components of team performance. They are combined in different groupings to form different sub-systems.

Measuring the Basic Components of Team Performance

Measures and auditing systems can be introduced during the implementation of the basic components of team performance to monitor progress of the implementation and of the systems of which the components are a part.  Minimum standards can then be developed for each step for auditing purposes.

Sacher Associates has developed measures to determine the extent to which the basic components of team performance have been implemented into the work environment. Our team environment measures contain standards and can be used for the purpose of target setting, benchmarking and as an overall productivity improvement tool. Click on employee surveys to find out more.