Creating high-performing and faster-moving teams – Innovation Excellence

It seems that every meeting I went to recently, and almost every person I spoke to, mentioned the new book, from the authors of How Google Works – The Trillion Dollar Coach. I dutifully ordered it and once I had the chance, diligently read it. It is described as the “blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create high-performing and faster-moving teams and companies”. A sort of Tuesdays with Morrie for aspiring managers and leaders in the connected, digitized exponentially changing the world, making team coaching the new collaborative cultural norm. A book that deeply honours and unpacks the great impact of Bill Campbell on the digital giants of Silicon Valley, outlines his team coaching techniques that resulted in high-performing and faster-moving teams, within collaborative workplace cultures.

Three key business nutshells

Here are the three key nutshells I uncovered in a world where team coaching is the new collaborative cultural norm for aspiring managers and leaders towards creating high-performing and faster-moving teams.

What are the key learnings towards creating high-performing and faster-moving teams?

The top priority of any manager is the well-being and success of their people, and it takes deep attention, intention and (soft) skills to enact and embody this effectively by creating high-performing and faster-moving teams:

My own Bill Campbell Story

In the mid-1990s, Westpac, one of Australia’s big four banks, had a near-death experience, where poor investment decisions and board instability put them right on the edge of failure. Where they almost went to the wall, with the share price falling to around the $6.00 mark.

Bob Joss, “a builder, and not a wrecker” from Wells Fargo, was recruited to lead the way forward. Amongst a range of significant strategies, including raising the profile of women in the bank, he instituted a transformational leadership program branded ‘Making it Happen’. It involved the top 1200 managers globally, and I was fortunate to be a lead facilitator in delivering the program. Which focussed on building a leader’s capability to set and achieve key goals, and deliver specific financial and structural business outcomes, through their people.

It was where I met first encountered Robert, my “Bill Campbell”, not only as a contrarian and challenging participant (and there were many), he was also the new CIO of Westpac Financial Services.  During one of the workshops, I mentioned that we had a new approach towards Developing Top Teams in organisations, which focussed on building the leadership and collaborative capabilities in high-performing and faster-moving teams.

This heralded the beginning of what became a twenty-year professional win/win relationship because Robert intuitively knew that “it’s the people” who manage, lead, execute and deliver operational excellence and high-performance business outcomes. In his many manifestations, as the CIO in a diverse range of technology-based companies, he knew that people perform at their best, through collaboration, in teams. He also knew and diligently practiced “working the people, before solving the problem” despite some of the people involved, operating as misfits and renegades.

In many ways, up until today, Robert unconsciously acted as my coach, during my twenty-year professional development as a corporate consultant, trainer, facilitator, coach and even, as a start-up entrepreneur when I founded ImagineNation™. Every time he shifted to a more senior or different role, we always opened our minds and hearts towards boldly and courageously experimenting and advancing our methodologies in effecting team led strategic change. Constantly testing, validating, iterating and pivoting different, adaptive and innovative approaches toward designing and delivering the most effective, top team leadership and membership development programs, for current as well as for creating high-performing and faster-moving teams.

Three key nutshells in creating high-performing and faster-moving teams

Here are the three key nutshells I uncovered in a world where team coaching is the new collaborative cultural norm, in developing the trusted relationships, in high-performing and faster-moving teams, in the digital age:

With companies today, contending with new dimensions of competition– shaping malleable situations, adapting to uncertain ones, and surviving harsh ones – all require new approaches. Team coaching is one of the new collaborative cultural norms in creating high-performing and faster-moving teams, and within collaborative communities, to lead in the imagination age, in today’s fast-changing world.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Janet Sernack is an ICF ACC accredited executive coach, corporate trainer, group facilitator and culture and change consultant with some of Australia’s and Israel’s top 100 companies. She is the Founder of ImagineNation™ an innovation education company that provides innovation e-learning programs including The Coach for Innovators Certified Program™ experiential learning events including The Start-Up Game™. Follow @JanetSernack