Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Criteria for Judging Team Effectiveness

How can you distinguish a mediocre team from a high-performing team? According to Harvard researcher Richard Hackman, who has been studying teams for over 20 years, high-performing teams meet three effectiveness criteria:^[12]

• The team must consistently produce high-quality output.The team's products and services must consistently meet its customers' “standards of quantity, quality, and timeliness.” A high-performing team may not succeed in its efforts all of the time, but it does succeed most of the time.

• The team must promote the personal growth needs and well-being of team members. In high-performing teams, all team members feel as though they are better off because they are part of the team. Although ...