High-Performance Team Behaviors

High-Performance Team Behaviors

Comparative High-Performance Behaviors is an advanced assessment tool which enables data-driven continuous improvement for every team.

Created by:

Richard Kasperowski

Richard Kasperowski

Author highlights

What makes some teams perform “just fine”—and others, great?

They're working on similar projects, carrying out similar activities—yet one group has consistently better results than the others. It's not magic, nor some intangible set of coincidental variables you could never replicate. Instead, these standout teams have a specific set of behaviors in common—behaviors that support Team Emotional Intelligence and psychological safety. These behaviors can be learned and applied within your own teams, and they have the inevitable side effect of increasing the achievement of the collective performance goals.

Every team, everywhere

Teams work together in an amazing range of industries, settings, and circumstances. Yet the universal patterns of human interactions are applicable, in their infinite complexity, to every group.

The high-performance behaviors in this framework have achieved improvement not just in agile software teams, but across a wide range of industries and team types, including non-work/community teams, distributed teams, and even families.

The Core Protocols and Core Commitments provide a flexible set of practices and principles that teams can adopt to increase their psychological safety and Team Emotional Intelligence in any setting. Comparative High-Performance Teams is the tool to help you assess how to apply them directly in your team for the greatest transformative impact, starting where your teams are right now.

Sample Questions

Psychology safety foundations

We say “Yes” to each other more often than we say “No”.

Self-awareness

We frequently share our emotional state with each other.

Connection

When I want to clarify the purpose of a teammate's behavior, I ask them what their intention is.

Productivity

We have a mechanism that quickly and unanimously moves us toward results.

Psychology safety foundations

We build on each others' ideas more often than we negatively criticize them.

Self-awareness

We use concise words to describe our emotional state.

Connection

When I am expecting a negative outcome from a teammate's behavior, I ask them what behavior they are expecting from me.

Productivity

When we make a decision, all team members who are present indicate whether they support the proposal.

Psychology safety foundations

I can decline to participate in any activity at any time.

Richard Kasperowski

Richard Kasperowski

„Your transformation coach“

Richard Kasperowski is an author, speaker, teacher, and coach focused on high-performance teams.

Richard is the author of the new book, High-Performance Teams: The Foundations, as well as The Core Protocols: A Guide to Greatness. He leads clients in building and maintaining high-performance teams that get great results using the Core Protocols, Agile, and Open Space Technology. Richard created and teaches the course Agile Software Development at Harvard University.

Learn more and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at www.kasperowski.com