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High performing teams

Teams are the engine room for organisational life, the catalyst for change, and where we most often experience ourselves and others in work. How teams function can determine whether our work is frustrating or fulfilling, mind-numbing or meaningful, purposeless or productive.

And yet we often set up, work in or lead teams without pausing to reflect on what the ingredients are for high performance. Why do some teams flourish while others flounder?

In our experience, a genuinely high performing team rarely happens organically – it takes both heart and science to create the conditions to thrive.

So, drawing on academic research, industry best practice and more than seven years of experience in supporting teams to improve, we’ve identified eight characteristics that we know enable teams to do more of their best work – in any circumstances.

If you are setting up a new team, your team has experienced upheaval or change, or even if it just doesn’t feel like you are all on the same page – these characteristics will help you to grow and achieve high performance together.

Download ‘How to build a high performing team’.

Our approach

  • Meets you where you are. Our work is contextual, so we start with curiosity about and compassion for your unique circumstances. We build from there.
  • Is owned by those who do the work. Co-design is non-negotiable. If you and your team(s) don’t feel this is owned by you, it won’t stick. We guide, you lead.
  • Is deliberate and planned. We are rigorous and evidence based. Change is complex and a systematic approach means nothing is left to chance.
  • Happens through real work. We engage with real issues you need to work on and build capabilities for those – doing together and developing together is key.
  • Prioritises progress today. We focus on the possibility and power of achievable, measurable change today, not the myth of ‘transformation tomorrow’.
  • Requires curiosity, courage and accountability. We bring high psychological safety, high challenge and high standards to our development partnership.

About us