How this team rolls

High performing teams know the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that will help them win and they know how important they are. So they work hard at them and practise them a lot. They win a lot too.

This tool is about making sure your team is clear on the attitudes and behaviours essential for success and knows how it will practise them – your team’s “How”.

Reading time: 3 minutes

What will it do?

This tool is about making sure your team is clear on the attitudes and behaviours essential for success and knows how it will practise them – your team’s “How”. It’s one of the things that any team can choose to control 100% and it makes a big difference to performance.

Depending on the size of your team and who likes doing this stuff, you can complete it together or get 1 or 2 people to draft it and bring it back to the team to nail it.

This tool focuses more deeply on Step 3 from the tool “Create powerful team goals that really work”. It’s not something most teams do even though it’s essential. Complete it as early in the team’s development as possible and keep them high on your team agenda.

Three steps to take

Get focused on the things that will make the most impact for you

1. Have a team conversation about how the team should operate.

While team members likes or dislikes matter, this is much more about how the team needs to operate to ensure success.

Capture everyone’s thoughts and views, making sure you’re hearing from every member and covering what attitudes and behaviours the team needs to practise, as well as what processes it needs to follow.

Write these down, keeping them to 5 or 6 things in total.

2. Now go to the dark side.

Talk about the attitudes and behaviours that the team can’t afford to tolerate if it’s going to succeed. Too many teams focus on encouraging the good stuff and forget to stamp on the bad stuff. If you don’t stamp on the bad stuff it becomes acceptable and then the good stuff loses its power.

List the behaviours you don’t want to see and add the detail like in step 1.

3. Now take the things from Steps 1 and 2 and put them together so the team has a clear sense of how it’s going to roll in real life.

Use this by referring to it in meetings and conversations. Use it to give and get feedback and play with it. For example, you could choose one behaviour to focus on each month to encourage or stamp on and see how good you can get at it.

The good stuff – how we roll
Headlines and detail		 The bad stuff – we stamp on
Headlines and detail
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Your plan

Get a plan Stan. The basics you need to have in your plan are set out below.

Plan basics

  1. What are you going to do? This bit is easy – it’s the 3 things listed above. No 3 is particularly helpful here. If there’s anything else you need to do, jot it down here.

    My actions:

  2. When are you going to start? You don’t have to be great to get going, but you better get going if you want to be great.

    My start date:

  3. How often will you be doing it? Getting great has a lot to do with making things a habit.

    Check in dates:

Get serious

The difference between having a plan and making it work is about action. So get this in your diary now. Tell the people who need to know so that they can support you and won’t just think you’re being weird. Do it now.

Remember, it’s progress not perfection. You’re looking for gradual improvement, not for Rome to be built in a day.