High Performance Teams… All About Communication
When we think about measuring business performance, we most often look to the metrics but we now know that the way our employees feel about the teams they work in, how they interact and communicate with each other, impacts on their engagement, their level of job satisfaction and consequently their productivity … leading us back to the impact on business performance. The more high performing our teams are, the greater the impact on business performance.
Numerous studies and surveys by CIPD and other management organisations point to the fact that where the level of performance within an organisation or team is high, a high level of job satisfaction can also be found.
An interesting piece of research carried out in the USA set about finding out why some call centre teams in a particular bank performed really well, whilst others struggled. The answer seems to relate to the interaction within the team, particularly at times when the team come together informally. This was even tested by synchronising coffee breaks to give more social time. The outcome was a 20% reduction in average call handling time for the lower performing teams in the call centre and an overall reduction of 8% across the whole call centre. Implementing the same simple change across 10 call centres has had significant impact with job satisfaction rising in some cases by more than 10%. A finding such as this highlights the need for leaders to focus and harness the strengths of a team, over trying to fix the weaknesses.
The same researchers also identified three aspects of communication that have an impact on the performance of a team:
1. Energy
The exchanges between members; at its most effective no-one in the team dominates conversation, or is left out of communication
2. Engagement
The distribution of energy in the team
3. Exploration
The extent to which a team interacts with other teams to find inspiration and innovation. High-performance teams are aware of their role in the wider business context, rather than just focusing inwardly. Lower performing teams are seen to argue much more and focus on their own tasks rather than being concerned with others.
It is a lesson worth learning then for leaders that in seeking to develop a high performing team, attention should be paid first and foremost to opportunities for communication, not just formal but equally informal, within the team.
cHRysos HR supports organisations with a whole range of organisational development initiatives including managing team performance and effectiveness. To find out more Email Us at info@chrysos.org.uk or Call Us on +44 (0)1302 802128.
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