There are many choices in customized and ‘off the rack’ team assessments. The 4-D system by Charles Pellerin is very well-supported and well researched. There is a simple 25 question assessment in ‘Games Teams Play’ by Lisa Bendaly (McGraw-Hill Ryerson). The Internet provides many free assessment tools (e.g., Mind Tools, Team effectiveness assessment). Most are based on team members’ self assessments and scoring of a number of team attributes. In this era of metrics, you may wish to find statistically robust measurement tools.

However, I personally think that there is also value in teams developing their own self-assessment tool through a carefully guided process that includes going through an exercise to define what a great team and great teamwork mean to them. They can then develop a descriptive list of key behaviours that relate to such areas as trust, communications, responsibility, etc. and a scale for scoring.

Regardless of the tool you use, a single assessment yields only a snap shot taken at a moment in time. To get real value, report results promptly to team members, debrief and discuss them, create action plans and provide workshops on key areas for improvement. Repeat the assessment to measure progress and, once again, report the results. People need to know they are making progress, and so does your organization.

Risk is something we all face every day. We take actions and make decisions that could have bad consequences. Many of these consequences might affect other people, and most of us don’t like to feel responsible for another’s grief (or for a project’s failure). It is especially difficult to make decisions and take action in a culture where people are quick to shine the spotlight of blame. Though no one likes blame, the act of blaming often arises from a fear of being blamed.

High performance teams have a blame-free culture. That is not to say that people fail to take responsibility. On the contrary, people are willing to take responsibility for their role in any failure, look at it objectively, and take steps to draw learning from it so it’s not repeated. Team mates remain supportive of each other and refrain from personal attacks. Think what a team can do when there is no blame.

Charles Pellerin identifies ‘complaints’ as a related issue. Complaints are not the same as feedback. They are not productive. A complaint often starts out as an angry or negative voice in our head that eventually finds its way out to a variety of people who are usually powerless to address the issue. When we complain, we are usually blaming others rather than looking for ways that we can contribute to a solution. We assume the role of victim. The opposite, of course, is to take responsibility and do what we can to rectify a situation that concerns us.

Responsibility is a key individual ability for all team members. Each member acknowledges and accepts his or her role in the workings of the team. Each one exercises initiative and leadership to ensure it happens.

In your team, to what extent do people fear blame? Do they play the role of victim, or do they feel empowered to address issues that concern them? To what extent does each person take responsibility for their tasks and for the overall success of the team?

At the end of the day, and after the tough discussions are complete, high performance teams commit to a course of action. Every single person walks out of the room supporting the plan and is prepared to do their best to achieve success for the team.

Commitment is about knowing what to do, accepting responsibility for one’s role in a project and actually caring deeply about the outcomes.

Commitment also frees us up to be creative. We no longer need to waste energy thinking about whether or not we should ‘go for the prize’. That’s already settled. We can concentrate on being creative about how we’ll achieve success. In the process we inevitably set all kinds of events in motion and recruit others to our cause, all helping to make it a reality.

One of the best ways to gain commitment in a team setting is through consensus-based decision making. (Consensus means that everyone feels heard and supports the decision, not necessarily that everyone is complete agreement.) When people feel heard, they generally feel the decision is theirs too.

Ask your team: Do they feel they have a genuine say in decisions? To what extent do they care about and feel committed to the work of the team?

In How NASA Builds Teams, Charles Pellerin addresses the team behaviour of keeping agreements. At Summit Group, we often describe trust as the foundation of a team; without it, you cannot build a solid, high performing team. Stephen R. Covey has written and lectured extensively on trust and has even developed a model likening trust to a bank account. Certain behaviours are like deposits to our trust account with another person, others are like withdrawals. High performing teams have team members who keep a healthy balance in all of their trust accounts.

It is important to specify that team trust is based on much more that intent and effort. The quality of the outcomes is also important.

There are specific behaviours that we recognize contribute to trust. Keeping our promises is one of the most important. This includes ‘inferred’ promises such as meeting project/reporting deadlines, being prepared and prompt for meetings, following up on actions we’ve committed to and, basically fulfilling the responsibilities of our own jobs in order that our colleagues can do theirs. In a high trust environment, people also spend fewer wasted hours second-guessing and generally fretting that others may not come through for them.

Sometimes, breaking a promise is unavoidable and understandable. Serious family matters, weather events and technology failures can contribute to missed deadlines or late appearances. Here is where a timely ‘heads up’ and a sincere apology come in. Your ‘trust account’ may take a small hit but, if the balance is healthy, trust will remain high, particularly if you take steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Trust is also about loyalty. Leaders and team members that go to bat for one another create loyalty. Those who act or gossip behind the backs of their colleagues create suspicion and mistrust.

So, do your team members enjoy a climate of high trust? Do they keep promises with each other, with partners and with clients? Do they feel strong loyalty to the team, the leader and their partners?

I’ve been writing about Charles J. Pellerin’s book, “How NASA Builds Teams”, and measureable team behaviours he identifies as important to effectiveness. This behaviour that Pellerin describes is also related to how much people are made to feel that they “belong”. Though many people, particularly technical people, like to think they are independent, they need to feel appropriately included in the important workings of the organization and team.

What is appropriate inclusion? It is far more than sending out information willy-nilly. We all have in-boxes stuffed with information that should not concern us. Ideally, people feel they get the important information they need to do their jobs and to remain tuned into the big picture, but not so much that they are overwhelmed by incidental detail.

One of the best ways to gage if a person feels included is to find out if they feel heard, and if they believe their opinion matters to their team and to their leader. On high performance teams, people do feel their opinion matters, and so they will go to great lengths to put their best ideas forward. Imagine what great creativity, not to mention critical thinking, can be contributed from all those brilliant people you hire when everyone believes their ideas matter.

Appropriate inclusion should also be considered in your decision making, and this can go beyond simply soliciting input. Are there situations when your team can make meaningful consensus-based decisions?

Thoughtful inclusion is also important when it comes to celebration, reward and other forms of recognition. It is often difficult to remember all the people who may have contributed in some way to the success of a particular project but if someone feels overlooked they can become demoralized and hesitate to put that same effort forward the next time.

At this moment and on your team, can you measure to what extent do people feel included in the important affairs of the team? To what extent do they make the effort to appropriately include other team mates, clients, partners and customers?

A high performance team has a culture that meets the emotional and intellectual needs of all the team members. People are inspired to do their very best every day while caring deeply about the welfare of their colleagues. They also feel that their colleagues and the organization itself care about them. People know what to do, they are equipped to do it and they feel they have the power and support to move forward. So what does this culture look like in terms of measurable behaviours?

In How NASA Builds Teams, Charles J. Pellerin describes a number of team behaviours that he has determined are key to creating the type of culture where people can be most effective. (Pellerin has developed this into his 4-D Assessment Process.) The descriptions alone are very insightful.

A key behaviour relates to “Expressing Authentic Appreciation”. As Pellerin points out, this behaviour helps to address our emotional need of belonging, something that Abraham Maslow identified as fundamental to human motivation. When we feel we belong, we are happier and free to focus more fully on the tasks at hand. One of the important aspects of appreciation is that it must be felt and offered genuinely. Another is that we are appreciated for the things that we ourselves value. I will get less satisfaction from your appreciation of my coffee-making ability that from your appreciation for my leadership ability. (Well that’s only partly true.) Also important to note, High performing teams exercise authentic appreciation for others, such as clients, partners and customers. They do this even in high stress situations, framing negative events and perceptions in constructive, appreciative terms.

So, at this moment and on your team, to what extent do people feel appreciated for the contributions that they feel are important? To what extent do they express the positive aspects of a situation or relationship?