Evolving Together: The Journey from Groups to High-Performing Global Teams.

high-performing teams

"Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people."

– Steve Jobs

Collaboration is a unique process for each group of people, and as a team manager, you can take steps to foster it so it becomes more effective.

These steps can look markedly different for groups, teams, high-performing teams, and global high-performing teams. For high performance, your team’s collaboration needs to evolve. It involves a) understanding the differences and recognising where your team is right now and b) moving through each stage.

This blog post will explore the distinctions between the four stages: what exactly is a group, team, high-performing team, or global high-performing team? Once you understand them, you can better appreciate their value and importance in the evolution of collaboration as you develop practices for your team.

Groups:

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

– Michael Jordan

A group is the fundamental unit where teams start from. It consists of individuals who come together for a specific purpose or goal. While group members may work independently, they share a common interest or objective.

Groups can be informal or formal and vary in size, structure, and commitment. However, they do not necessarily exhibit a high level of collaboration, communication, or interdependence.

To understand why your team needs to evolve from the group level, consider this simple example:

A group of students in the classroom is working on the same problem individually. Once one of them finds the solution and shares it with the others, the remaining students can also solve this problem and arrive at the solution faster.

Being part of the group has advantages, but you rely primarily on individual talent or thinking. Even if one of the students finds a mistake or thinks the solution is biased, they might feel uncomfortable sharing it with the group that has accepted the original resolution.

Coming together is enough to form a group, but creating a team plays a critical role in improving performance and reaching business goals because:

Hiring and retaining individual talent is challenging in the modern world.
Research has found teams are generally more effective and make better decisions than individuals. (Read more about How To Improve the Efficiency of International Teams Without Hiring New Talent)
The support and tools that lead to high-performance teams differ from how you might nurture and reward individual talent.

Teams:

“A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.”

– Simon Sinek

A team is a step beyond a group, which involves more collaboration and interdependence among its members. In a team, individuals work together towards a shared goal, pooling their skills, expertise, and resources.

Teams are characterised by:

A clear and common purpose
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
Effective communication and decision-making processes
Trust, support, and accountability

Why should teams be supported in evolving the collaboration within the team even further?

Sports teams offer one example of a team and what that might look like compared to groups and individual talent. One key takeaway here is that teams require you, the manager, to take steps to direct your group and the evolution of collaboration within the group.

The sports example also offers a glimpse into how important it is to guide the evolution of your team and support them in moving from one stage of collaboration to the other: have you heard of cases where players who are superstars in their teams perform poorly for the national team? Forming a high-performing team requires more than simply being surrounded by other talented individuals. Having the proper support and roles around the individuals matters. Having a common mindset and shared goals is essential.

To build a team, you have already taken some steps to form shared practices and objectives for the group. Why should you invest in further developing collaboration, practices and problem-solving skills within your team?

Reach business goals: it is not the teams with the most talent that are consistently found to be more successful and productive, but the teams that exhibit high levels of psychological safety, clarity of roles, and goal alignment (For an example, see results from Google’s Project Aristotle.)
Motivation: when goals and values are genuinely aligned and shared within the team and organisation, it increases motivation within the team.
Support your team using its full potential: create an environment where everyone feels encouraged to express their ideas and views, use the hive mind, and improve your team’s creative problem-solving.

High-performing teams:

"The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team."

– Lewis B. Ergen

High-performing teams are those that consistently achieve exceptional results. They are the kind of teams that could be showcased as an example of outstanding team performance, and they display the highest levels of collaboration, communication, and effectiveness.

High-performing teams are characterised by the characteristics detailed above for a team, but THEY ALSO HAVE:

A strong sense of shared ownership, motivation and commitment to team goals
High levels of trust, respect, and psychological safety
Openness to different perspectives, feedback, learning, and continuous improvement
A focus on achieving results through collaboration and innovation

What does a high-performing team look like in practice, and where can you find them?

When discussing high-performing teams, articles often mention examples like the up to 400,000 strong backup team that made the Apollo 11 moon landing possible. The workers producing parts for the Apollo missions had the astronauts visit their factories, which emphasised the importance of their work: mistakes could cost the life of a person whom you had met.

While it is a great way to demonstrate the sense of shared ownership, commitment and motivation, your team doesn’t need to take on actual rocket science to become outstanding in their field. In reality, many high-performing teams are taking on tasks and tackling business problems that are much more down-to-earth than that.

As a team leader, it is essential to realise the type of active collaboration and drive high-performing teams have arisen from the practices and environment that support those qualities. The management team around them is investing time and resources to create outstanding results.

In today’s world, you might not reach this stage before you come into contact with some degree of diversity. Our teams often work internationally or even globally, and we work with people from different backgrounds, even when teams work locally. The next step of the evolution helps you make this your team’s advantage rather than a challenge:

Better decision-making and problem-solving: well-managed diverse cross-cultural teams perform exceptionally well compared to mono-cultural groups (Read more about Why are some cross-cultural teams outperforming?)
Foster the potential of a diverse team: the effects ripple through every aspect of your team's dynamics, productivity, and overall performance.
Equip your team to work effectively with everyone (including international clients and stakeholders): problems in communication and misunderstandings created by different expectations cost time and create friction.

Global high-performing teams:

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

– Phil Jackson

Working with people from diverse backgrounds, whether part of your team or customers and stakeholders, creates unique challenges for teams and managers. Global high-performing teams are at the stage of the evolution of collaboration, where they effectively use the diverse cultural backgrounds of team members and locations they have access to.

The ability to turn cross-cultural work into a strength provides them with the diversity of thought that supports the team’s performance. As a result, they have the components to strive in global competition.

These teams truly leverage their diversity to achieve exceptional results on an international level, overcoming challenges such as language barriers, time zones, and cultural differences within the team, with their global clients and stakeholders.

Global high-performing teams are characterized by the elements of high-performing teams listed above but THEY ALSO HAVE:

A strong and inclusive team culture that truly embraces diversity
Effective use of technology to facilitate communication and collaboration
Agile and flexible approaches to working across different time zones and locations
A shared understanding of and respect for cultural differences and nuances
Ability to exceed the needs of multicultural clients and other stakeholders

For one example of a team that falls into this category, think of an outstanding customer service team with team members from different cultural backgrounds dealing with customers from several continents across time zones. Another would be a team where some team members are based in one time zone while others start work in a different time zone as the first team members finish their work for the day.

To reach this stage, a team has to go through the journey from a group to a high-performing team, adding more tools and practices along the way. As the manager, you have the key role of building the environment and practices supporting this collaboration evolution.

What key conclusions should managers take away from this article?

The journey from a group to a global high-performing team represents the evolution of collaboration in today's increasingly interconnected world. Understanding the different stages and harnessing the advantages of having a high-performing global team is a real game-changing advantage in today’s competitive business world.

By fostering a culture of collaboration, clear communication and embracing diversity, organisations can build and maintain teams that consistently achieve exceptional results, regardless of location or cultural background.

What next steps will help you do that in practice?

You don’t have to solve every problem, face each conflict alone, or wonder what next step would make a difference for your team.

Meet with our team development strategists to identify a personalised plan for your team’s performance in 30 minutes. No Catch. No surprise pitch.

Simply real honest advice from global team experts.

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You might also enjoy reading this article on cultural competence: