This journey started with one workshop, delivered by three of us: Teresa Carnall, Hector Riva-Palacio and myself. It was a collaboration on the workshop about procrastination and a trial project to see how useful this kind of workshop could be for delegates.

The feedback was excellent and we enjoyed working together. That was a starting point for us becoming a team.

We were effective on our first project, but we want to be a High Performing Team.

On the quest to become a High Performing Team, we have to rate our team against three vital criteria, as described by P. Hawkins*:

1.’Whether the performance of the team met or exceeded the standards of the people both inside and outside the organisation who were most affected by the team’s work.’

The feedback from one of the delegates was: “I learnt from this workshop more than from any time management workshops ever before”. I think our approach was innovative with action-learning techniques. The feedback here shows that we met ‘the standards of the people outside the organisation.’ Within the team it was the talk on improvement – working on certain points regarding the workshop, it could be more effective with this or that extra tweaks. In the following workshop, we implemented all desirable changes with a better outcome.

2. The second criteria – ‘How well members worked together to enhance – rather than undermine – their capacity to work together in the future.’

Due to having such a positive feedback, we decided to expand the previous model into the whole training day. This progress is based on shared commitment, collective skills, and smart working strategy. From the experience of the previous workshops, we have become adept at detecting and correcting errors and noticing and exploring opportunities.

3. On the third criteria, we excelled. ‘Whether the group experience contributed positively to the learning and personal development of individual team members.’

All of us are running our own businesses and we know, that initial collaboration is always a trial with some unexpected factors. The first attempt either could be the last or could lead to more projects. With our collaborative team, it was the beginning of the journey together with new challenges and a scope to grow.

To read more about Leadership Tool for High Performing Teams click:

* P. Hawkins is Professor of Leadership and the author of several books on leadership including ‘Leadership Team Coaching in Practice.’