Reinforcing Sustainable Success

How do an organization achieve sustainable Peak Performance?  This excerpt from The Shift from Me to Team, which will be published this year, touches on the requirements.

MY REQUEST OF YOU: We would appreciate your feedback. Please share what you like and what could be improved. #leadership #team #CultureClarification #PeakPerformance #CoreIdentity #team #teamdevelopment #ShiftFromMeToTeam

What happens in life is not as random as we may think. Most of the actions of life, successful and unsuccessful, are reactions to forces already in place. Many of these forces are in our control and can be created strategically and purposefully for predictable and desired results.

Through the Culture Clarification process, the organization has revealed the Purpose, Vision, and Guiding Principles that compose its Core Identity at Peak Performance. This surfaces an intrinsic desire to succeed together. As team members realize what they can achieve together, the Shift from Me to Team has begun. The feeling of positive energy and a positive future is taking hold.

There are two requirements for successfully reinforcing the Peak Performance Culture:

• Systems and disciplines that institutionalize Peak Performance
• Proactive leadership support of those systems and disciplines

Most—about 80%—will understand and agree with the alignment process, but a minority may perceive it as a major inconvenience. As you may have witnessed from experience, some team members want to work their way, regardless of the agreed upon standards, and can be disruptive. The Reinforcing Systems support the majority who desire to work together as one team, and they are encouraged, within the Guiding Principles, to proactively address issues with those focused only on themselves.

Whom Will They Follow?

The 20/60/20 alignment ratio referred to earlier will apply here. We have found that the top 20% come into the clarification process motivated by a strong sense of purpose, and they become more and more unified. With this common bond, they are committed to the organization’s clarified vision of a better tomorrow.

We find that the retreat will energize the middle 60%. They like the clarity of where the organization is going; it resonates with them. However, they will need reinforcement and reminders to sustain the energy from the retreat and create new habits. The remaining 20% may create roadblocks to inhibit this shared way of thinking they do not support.

How Mature is the Team?

The organization’s Core Identity is anchored by a Purpose and Vision that will energize those members who are mature enough to value and be guided by team and community success over individual success for the longer term.

Those lacking in maturity—recall Stage II Fulfillment (Learning, Growing, and Competing)—may still be driven by their egos for personal achievement in the short term. A sustainable transformation depends on the systematic proactivity that reinforces organizational growth as they Shift from Me to Team.

How Do We Change Old Habits?

Habits developed over time become ingrained. Some habits have enabled the individual to succeed at the expense of the team. The pull of old habits is strong, especially under pressure, but they need to change for the Shift from Me to Team. We understand respectful patience is a requirement when it comes to changing habits. It takes time, but eventually there must be alignment for sustainable peak-performing teams.