Developing High Performance Teams

 Write 3 pages about the positives aspects of the case Consider the positive factors listed below about Karen’s team (info about Karen’s team attached) and find supportive references why these are positives and how these recommendations will work for developing a high performance team. Karen’s team is a team who works in a software development company. The company has the following goals:1) To lead industry standards for high-quality software 2) To interact effectively with our customers and with each other, focusing on strong working relationships and effective communication 3)To have the right people in the right places at the right time for effective processes, procedures, and outcomes 4) To be ethical in all our transactionsThe team consists of a diverse array of individuals who fill the roles of coders, engineers, systems developers & one clerk. The team has an even mix of genders and a wide range of ages, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. Six months ago, Karen began meeting individually with her team to get to know her team members. Karen has also instituted weekly meetings to review goals and work assignments with her team. The team has made progress over the last six months, but there is still room for improvement. The team still lacks unified team goals, understanding of the company mission, significant team cohesion and member interoperability (team members able to fill in for others in the event of an emergency). The following gap analysis will identify the causes of the team’s limited performance/growth. The gap analysis will also identify corrective actions. Positive Aspects: 1) Prior to her promotion and based on the company grapevine, Karen heard the previous supervisor of her team had moved on because of something that happened in the group. Employees who knew about an event that had precipitated the departure of the supervisor were few. Karen understood that information from rumors can be unreliable, so she cannot and will not rely on any of the stories. She understood that her responsibility was to develop a team that worked together well, successfully completed assignments, and contributed to goals of the company. 2) In the first 2 weeks, Karen held one-on-one discussions with each team member, so she could get to know each ask them about what they felt the team did well and what needed improvement. This helped her focus on each employee’s specific skills and areas in which they could contribute as well as giving her a full picture of problem areas. 3) Karen established weekly team meetings to review goals, discuss the relationship between the work assigned to the team and the mission of the company, review the project’s status, and improve communication in general. She also has obtained permission from her manager to hold 2 training sessions, one day each, and the rest of the developmental/training time will be included in weekly team meetings, not to exceed 30 minutes of the meeting time. 4) Although this was later than she planned, Karen implemented her training plan about four months ago. She made all the necessary arrangements for time off from project work, met with an internal consultant from human resources and developed goals, reviewed the content of the team building sessions, and decided how she was going to measure outcomes. She used simple questionnaires containing three questions (What went well? What could be improved? What else should be included?) for the training sessions, and comments were submitted anonymously. 5) She received mostly positive comments related to people getting to know each other and observed a friendlier atmosphere in the workplace because people interacted more, asked questions of each other and offered solutions more frequently. She also noticed team members offering to help each other meet deadlines and believes this to reflect positive progress for the team. Karen plans to have the team members fill out the Team Effectiveness Questionnaire (TEQ) as part of her plans to assess their progress.