However, the best teams do exactly this and are, therefore, more able to adapt quickly and perform to a higher level.

Building a truly high performing team takes time and discipline and the only really effective way to develop team performance is to work with real teams. Which is why our Developing Team Performance programme is designed for intact teams. The aim is to enable the team raise its overall level of performance by helping it achieve clarity, alignment, accountability, focus on learning and delivering results.

The programme can be configured in two ways - either to work with established teams who want to raise their game, or newly formed/restructured teams that need to hit the ground running. Both programmes comprise three stages.

The first stage is for the team to complete our Team Evaluation Questionnaire, which assesses how team members perceive the team’s performance against the different factors in our model for high performance teamworking. Upon completion of the TEQ we meet with the team manager to review the results and agree areas to work on during stage two. In addition, we review the capability of each team member with the team manager, identifying strengths/contributions to the team and areas for development. This not only maximises learning transfer, as it means the team only works on things that are relevant, but it also secures commitment from the team manager to address any people issues there might be within the team.

Stage 2 is a series of workshops depending on whether the team is established or newly formed.

For established teams we run a one-day workshop designed around the model for high performance teamworking. We challenge the team to review its performance against the model using the TEQ results and we work with them to identify areas for improvement and agree actions. We also challenge team members to provide each other with feedback based on their experiences of working together. We then run a half-day follow-up workshop to measure repeat TEQ results and plan further actions.

For newly formed teams we run a series of workshops designed to allow the team to work on implementing actions around each area of the model over time. All workshops are highly practical and the aim is to ensure that the team are committing to, and implementing, actions that result in measurable improvements in performance.

Learning new stuff is one thing, but applying it is another! Stage 3 aims to maximise the transfer of learning from the workshops into real-life. Following each workshop we review and discuss the issues identified with the team manager. We discuss the manager’s role in supporting the team and agree specific actions that the manager commits to. After 6 months we can also repeat the TEQ process to review progress and identify further areas for improvement.