Teams are dynamic, living beings; as much so as the dynamic, living beings of which they are made. They have the capability to grow and change. Asking the question, “Where are we now?” helps us to pause and reflect on our current level of performance – productivity and positivity. It gives us a marker from where we create and adjust our roadmap for achieving results. Assessing Productivity and Positivity dimensions allows us to focus on the team and its work rather than the needs of individual members. While these are important, the concentration is on how these individuals come together and how the team approaches its work.

The productivity dimension of the Team Diagnostic™ Model assesses the “nuts and bolts,” or the hard aspects of team: do we have the proper resources in place? Do we have clear goals, strategies, roles, and accountabilities? While essential, there is another dimension that informs the performance, productivity, and wellbeing of teams: positivity. If productivity is the IQ, positivity is the EQ.

Poet Ryunosuke Satoro writes, “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” A team is the bringing together of diverse individuals, talents, and strengths, which are moving towards achievement of a common purpose. Most organizational tools measure and assess the performance of individuals. We work with the Team Diagnostic™ Model as a way to measure the contributions, strengths, and areas of improvement for the collective team. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and while it is useful to understand the parts, it is invaluable to understand how they interact and what it all adds up to.

“Team: an attitude held by collaborative high performers who have a common purpose and a mandate to fulfill.”  – Gerald A. Fryer

Teams are dynamic systems, each with its own identity and complex interconnections of personality, experiences, and strengths. The performance of a team, then, is based on the system, the environmental conditions, and the culture that exist around it. If we can shift the conditions  around the team, and within the team, we can change the team’s dynamics. We can move it forward versus holding it back. With the overarching systems view in mind, there are four foundational principles of team, of what it is, and of what it needs to survive and to thrive.

“Resilience is not a commodity you are born with, waiting silently on tap. It is self-manufactured painstakingly over time by working through your problems and never giving up, even in the face of difficulty or failure.” – Lorii Myers, author of No Excuses: The Fit Mind-Fit Body Strategy Book

Mental toughness is acquired, like scars, from pain or adversity or failure. Resiliency is not as much about overcoming a specific obstacle or problem as it is about knowing that when things do go badly, you have the opportunity and capability to start bouncing back.