The Super Teams Pack

1. The Super Teams Pack The pack for clarifying the team’s strengths, story and road to success

2. Contents * Introduction. * The Team’s Strengths. * The Team’s Chosen Way Forward. * The Team’s Story, Strategy and Road to Success. * The Team’s Road Map. * The Team Member’s Contributions to achieving The Picture of Success. * The Team’s Progress towards achieving The Picture of Success. * The Team’s People.

3. Introduction Super teams are special. They often start by building on their strengths, setting specific goals and clarifying their picture of success. They then translate this into a clear story, strategy and road to success. Everybody knows what mountain they are climbing, why they are climbing it and how they will reach the summit. They know who will be delivering what and by when. Super teams are made up of people who want to be positive, professional and peak performers. They choose to opt in and make clear contracts about their best contribution towards achieving the goals.

4. Super teams then perform superb work and find solutions to challenges. They do whatever is required to achieve the picture of success. ---------- The following slides provide a framework that you can use to continue to build a super team. Please take the material and use this in your own way.

5. Super Teams Super teams often start by building on their strengths and clarifying their picture of success. They then translate this into a clear story, strategy and road to success.

6. The Super Team’s Strengths

7. Introduction Super teams build on their strengths and their successful style of working. They clarify their perfect customers and how they can help these people to succeed. This section provides tools for clarifying the team’s strengths. It starts with the Success Stories and then clarifies its Strengths. Some teams skip this step and move straight to the story. That is one option. But clarifying your strengths can provide the foundation for achieving success.

8. There are many tools you can use to go through these steps. The following slides illustrate one approach you may wish to consider. It invites you: * To clarify the specific activities in which the team delivers – or has the potential to deliver - As, rather than Bs or Cs. * To clarify the team’s ‘perfect customers’ and the challenges these customers face. * To clarify how the team can use its strengths to help these customers to succeed. Here are the exercises on these themes.

9. The Super Team’s Strengths Learning From When It Performs Brilliantly

10. So how can you find a team’s strengths – where it delivers As, rather than Bs or Cs? One approach is to explore its positive history and when it has performed brilliantly. The team’s talents can be found in a combination of ‘What’ it delivered, ‘How’ it was delivered and to ‘Whom’. These provide clues to the team’s strengths and successful style. So when has the team performed brilliantly? What have been its success stories? What did people do right then to perform outstanding work? What were the principles they followed? How did they translate these into action?

11. Try tackling the exercise on this theme. * Describe the specific times when the team has performed brilliantly. * Looking at each example in turn, describe the specific things that people did right to perform great work. Start by focusing on: - The specific strengths they showed. - The specific strategies they followed. - The specific skills they used. Describe the specific things they did to translate these into action and deliver great work.

12. The specific times when the team performed brilliantly were: 1) When The specific things that people did right then to perform brilliantly were: * They For example: * They For example: * They For example:

13. 2) When The specific things that people did right then to perform brilliantly were: * They For example: * They For example: * They For example:

14. 3) When The specific things that people did right then to perform brilliantly were: * They For example: * They For example: * They For example:

15. The Super Team’s Strengths Where It Delivers As, rather than Bs or Cs

16. Bearing in mind the answers from the previous exercise, move on to describing what you believe to be the team’s strengths. * Describe the specific activities – the projects, services, products or other activities – where the team delivers, or has the potential to deliver, As to customers. So you may wish to focus on: - The specific ways it helps customers to achieve success. - The specific kind of strategic inputs, services or products it provides to help customers to achieve success. - The specific types of projects where it does great work to help customers to succeed.

17. - The specific results it has delivered for customers. The team’s strengths go beyond ‘What’ it offers. They are often contained in the ‘How’ it delivers these things.Combining these strengths and successful style can help to define the team’s specific contribution to helping customers to achieve success. The following exercise is in two parts. It invites you: * To describe where the team delivers As and give examples of where it has done this in the past. * To describe where the team has the potential to deliver As and give reasons why you believe this may be possible.

18. The specific activities – the projects, services, products, tasks or other activities - where the team consistently delivers As to customers are: 1) The specific examples of when it has demonstrated this in the past have been: * * *

19. 2) The specific examples of when it has demonstrated this in the past have been: * * *

20. 3) The specific examples of when it has demonstrated this in the past have been: * * *

21. The Super Team’s Strengths – Where It Has The Potential To Deliver As The specific activities where the team may have the potential to deliver As are: 1) The reasons for saying this – the examples and evidence - are: * * *

22. 2) To The reasons for saying this – the examples and evidence - are: * * *

23. The Super Team’s Specific Customers

24. So who are the team’s perfect customers? Who are the kinds of customers with whom it works best? This may main focusing on customers with certainly ‘personality types’. For example, the team might work best with pacesetters, established companies or those in a certain sector.Certainly it may not always be possible to work with the preferred customers, but it is useful to know the characteristics of such people. Getting the right match means that the team and the customer start off at 7/10. They often have shared values. This helps them clarify a shared vision, work well together and deliver visible results. How to clarify the preferred kind of customer? One approach is to look back at when the team has done great work.

25. * What were the personality styles of the key people with whom they worked? * How would you describe the customer’s culture? * How did the team and customer work well together to get positive results? Bearing these answers in mind - plus adding other qualities that may be important – do two things. * Describe the team’s perfect customers. * Describe the specific goals these customers want to achieve in their work and the challenges they face.

26. The type of customer or the customer’s name is: 1) The specific goals they want to achieve are: * * * The specific challenges they face are: * * *

27. The type of customer or the customer’s name is: 2) The specific goals they want to achieve are: * * * The specific challenges they face are: * * *

28. The type of customer or the customer’s name is: 3) The specific goals they want to achieve are: * * * The specific challenges they face are: * * *

29. The Super Team’s Specific Contribution

30. We are now coming to the key point. We have covered: * The team’s specific strengths and successful style of working. * The team’s specific customers – together with the customer’s goals and the challenges they face. It is now time to move on to: * The team’s specific contribution – the specific things it can deliver to help the customers to achieve success. Try completing the following exercise. Bearing in mind the team’s strengths, describe the specific things it can deliver to help the customers to reach their goals. Follow this by describing the specific benefits for the customers.

31. The specific things the team can deliver to help its customers to succeed are: 1) To For example: * * *

32. 2) To For example: * * *

33. 3) To For example: * * *

34. The Benefits The specific benefits to the customers of delivering these things will be: * * *

35. Conclusion This section has explored the team’s strengths and successful style of working. It is also focused on its perfect customers and the specific contribution it can make to help them to achieve success. This approach enables the team to learn from its positive history. It can clarify the principles it followed to do great work and explore how to follow these more in the future. Super teams start by building on their strengths. They then translate these into a clear story, strategy and road to success. This will take us on to the next exercise.

36. The Super Team - Pursuing Its Chosen Route Forward

37. Introduction Bearing in mind the work you have done previously on the team’s strengths, this exercise invites you and, if appropriate, your colleagues to do the following things. * Describe the possible routes the team can follow in the future. The team may be able, for example, to choose from some of the following options. - To simply carry on what it is doing now. - To build on on its strengths and work with certain kinds of customers.

38. - To build on its strengths and develop the new business whilst continuing to work with its present customers. • - To concentrate fully on certain activities and then sell the business. • - Or whatever. • * Describe the pluses and minuses of each option. • * Describe the attractiveness of each route. Do this on a scale 0 –10. • Again, you can do this by yourself as a leader or involve key colleagues. If the latter, invite people to give their individual view on the attractiveness of each option.

39. People often start this exercise by listing the obvious options, but then explore other possibilities. Encourage them to do this. For example, is it possible to combine the best parts of each road into a new option? What other options are there? * Discuss the various options. Imagine that you and your colleagues have done the previous parts of the exercise either individually or collectively. It is now time: - To discuss the various options with a view to agreeing on the way forward. - To, when discussing the options, build on what you have in common.

40. It is okay with healthy debate, but finally it will be important to move to the final step. • * Describe the team’s preferred route. • Describe the route that people would like to see the team travel. • Let’s assume that you and your colleagues have been able: • * To clarify the possible routes the team can travel in the future. • * To clarify the pluses and minuses – and attractiveness – of each route.

41. * To build on what you have in common and clarify the agreed way forward. It will then be time to translate this route into a clear story, strategy and road to success. That will take us to the next step.

42. The Super Team’s Possible Options The following slides give an opportunity to sketch out the team’s possible options – the routes it can take going forwards. The first slide gives an overview of what the final options may look like from above. But start by describing each of the options in detail on each of the slides that follow. You can then return to the overview and decide which route to follow.

43. The Team’s Possible Options The Possible Routes The Team Can Follow In The Future Are: A * To ______ B * To ______ C * To _______ Pluses: ___ Minuses: ___ ____ / 10 Pluses: ___ Minuses: ___ ____ / 10 Pluses: ___ Minuses: ___ ____ / 10 The attractiveness rating of each of these options is:

44. The Possible Routes The Team Can Follow In The Future

45. a) To The pluses will be: * * * The potential minuses may be: * * * The Attractiveness Rating is: _____ / 10

46. b) To The pluses will be: * * * The potential minuses may be: * * * The Attractiveness Rating is: _____ / 10

47. c) To The pluses will be: * * * The potential minuses may be: * * * The Attractiveness Rating is: _____ / 10

48. d) To The pluses will be: * * * The potential minuses may be: * * * The Attractiveness Rating is: _____ / 10

49. e) To The pluses will be: * * * The potential minuses may be: * * * The Attractiveness Rating is: _____ / 10

50. The Super Team’s Preferred Route This section to be completed after all the options have been discussed