Is your team being carried by a few star individuals? As the team leader, you bear the responsibility of driving performance towards achieving goals that contribute to the organisation’s strategic objectives. Having a star performer or two is not the best way to achieve team objectives. But how do you encourage all team members to give of their best? This is where the After-Action Review (AAR)[1] may be useful.
An AAR is a team evaluation process followed by first responder teams that deal with crises and require full involvement of all team members. At the heart of an AAR is the participation of every individual irrespective of their role or seniority. The assumption is made that the experience was unique for each team member and therefore each contribution is valuable and treated with utmost respect. The diversity of perspectives creates genuine insight. The inclusion of all members ensures not only buy-in, but the sense of participating in creating something even more effective. Adopting this kind of approach results in members eager to participate in the evaluation as well as implement improved methods and processes.
How can this approach be implemented in a business environment? You probably already provide feedback to individual team members during the annual review processes. Have you considered conducting a team performance evaluation with feedback?
Looking at the essence of AAR we note that it is a team performance evaluation process wherein, most importantly, everyone participates. The process provides opportunities to identify actionable learning points which can be implemented and thereby improve performance.
The purpose of evaluating a team is to get a clear idea of how effectively the team’s skills are working together. Giving the team members an opportunity to give and receive feedback as to the roles they play and the contributions they each make, allows for the expression of unique experiences and views. The outcome of this process is improved performance that has been identified and acknowledged by the team and each member.
When a group of individuals are placed together in a team, evaluation and feedback are critical to the process of ensuring they become a cohesive team, as opposed to individual performers where only some are stars. When goals for a team are agreed in a joint decision-making process, there is an opportunity to establish an environment where evaluation at certain milestones is agreed, as well as normalising the giving and receiving of feedback.
It is not only the setting of goals that matter, but continual evaluation is also required to assess whether team roles are adequately filled, whether the team has the requisite skills, and what behaviours are demonstrated by the team. Evaluating these aspects can be done informally through discussions on an ongoing basis. By being present and involved, you as the team leader lay the basis for a formal evaluation of the team and an understanding on how each member’s behaviour impacts on the other members of the team. It has been found that evaluating both individual and team performance has a remarkable impact.
The importance of evaluating team performance after a project or at intervals during a project is often overlooked. This is true especially after a team achieves success. Nobody wants to go back and look into what did not work as well as it could. There is a tendency to let things slide as such a process can take the joy out of the achievement.
However, evaluation is a crucial part of moving forward and ensuring that the processes can run even better the next time around. By continual improvement, members start to feel pride in their achievements as a team rather than only in their personal performance. The more achievements the team experiences, the more cohesive the team becomes.
Effective evaluation of performance contains the following elements:
- Evaluation should be conducted for both the team as well as the team members.
- Revisit the original goals of the project/time frame. By taking a step back, you ensure that you focus on the outcome and your views are not skewed by any recent experiences.
- As a team leader, pay careful attention to what each team member says or does not say during these evaluations.
Following up on the results of the evaluation and providing feedback to the team is just as important as the project itself. Evaluation and feedback elicit valuable insight into how to approach future projects, avoiding losing valuable lessons learnt along the way. Practicing individual and team evaluation with constructive feedback encourages and builds the strength, cohesion and success of the team.
Thornhill has developed a Team Performance Review which provides team members with feedback as to how their peers experience working with them, which creates the basis for a constructive conversation about how the team and its individual members might improve their performance.
How do you as team leader evaluate and improve team performance in your organisation?
For information on Thornhill’s Team Performance Review and other products and services, please contact us on admin@thornhill.co.za.
[1] Wheatley, M.J. (2017). Who do we choose to be? San Francisco. Berret-Koehler Publishers.