Staffing
A successful game plan
How to build a high-performance team to solve business challenges
By Marcia Passos Duffy
Smart Business Houston | January 2009
Jim Scholes
Vice President of Human Resources
Talent Tree
Is your business going through changes?
Has it recently acquired a company,
merged with another business, or is it in need of some cultural adjustments to
address the downturn in the economy?
The best way to address changes within a
business is to gather the best and brightest
members from each department to work
on the crafting and implementing of new
goals.
“High-performance teams help create
business game plans that make sense and
address the big picture,” says Jim Scholes,
Vice President of Human Resources for
Talent Tree, a staffing company based in
Houston.
Smart Business spoke with Scholes
about the advantages of creating high-performance teams and how to create such a
team in your own business.
What are some of the top scenarios where it
would be wise to create a high-performance
team?
A major change in organizational culture,
such as a merger, acquisition or a decision
to take a business to the next level; new
product or service offerings; new corporate
direction, such as taking a business nationwide; budget cuts, downsizing or poor economic times; and major capital expenditures or changes in funding or revenue
stream.
How does creating a high-performance team
help a business get through these challenges?
By including key leaders from your company’s departments, it is more likely that
the team will understand and act on the bigger picture. Working collaboratively this
way helps to promote cooperation and
commitment and, in the end, will improve
the quality of a product or service because
everyone has ‘bought in’ to the changes.
It also creates common goals that are
agreed upon and make sense to the team’s
members, which helps it work collaboratively toward those goals.
Using the high-performance team
approach, by the way, isn’t an indication
that the company is in financial trouble or
under stress. It is a great technique to use
whenever the company is undergoing any
kind of change — even positive change,
such as a new marketing image, or a new
product or service offering, or during
expansion. A high-performance team can
be assembled and come in quickly to effectively put a plan together that is more creative and addresses many more different
elements than plans made with only C-level
executive input.
What does a high-performance team look
like?
It is a small group — from about seven to
12 people from all levels of the organization, from the hourly front desk employee
to the CEO. It should also include leaders
from your sales, marketing, human resources and finance departments.
The team, however, needs more than good
will and a desire to get things done. It should
also include a coach or a moderator who
has experience building high-performance
teams and has the tools and knowledge to
move the team toward its goal. The coach
can be hired from the outside or be an internal employee with this kind of experience.
What are some other key components to a
successful high-performance team?
The participants need to understand what
the shared goals are and the desired end
results. The team shouldn’t be created privately or in secret, since the rumor mill in
your organization will form its own
assumptions — often not positive — if
employees are not told the truth. Communicate openly with your employees about
why the group is being formed and the
desired outcome. This will generate good
will and will avoid rumors that can be counterproductive to your goals.
What happens once the high-performance
team has reached its planning goals?
Then the CEO has to decide if the company needs a separate team for implementing the goals. The implementation team
can consist of the same members of the
planning team, but keep in mind that sometimes implementation requires a different
skill set. Once the goals are met, the role of
the high-performance team is not over.
Today’s business world climate requires
constant improvement within an organization. The team’s work is never done and it
must meet periodically to tweak and
improve its goals.
What are the downsides to not creating a
high-performance team to address challenges or changes in a company?
Well, you can bet your competition is creating these teams and benefiting from it.
With our economic circumstances at the
moment, you can be sure that there will be
fewer businesses when we come out of the
other end of this economic crisis.
Companies that create these kinds of
teams and tap into the potential of their
entire work force will be the ones, I believe,
that will survive.
JIM SCHOLES is Vice President of Human Resources at Talent Tree, a staffing company based in Houston. Reach him at (713) 789-1818 or jim.scholes@talenttree.com.
