Being part of a high-performing team

Two weekends ago, I volunteered at a food booth for a community event, here in our home town of Eugene. We were a small team of 10 workers serving hundreds of people with delicious food served from a booth that was set up in the woods.

The owner of a local food cart brought us together, and did a magnificent job leading our group through this experience. When serving from her food cart in the center of Eugene, she usually does everything herself: stocking the supplies, prepping the vegetables, cooking, frying and sautéing the hot ingredients, taking orders, assembling the dishes and keeping the customers informed about the progress of their orders.

As we were serving hundreds of people and supplies had to be refilled several times during the day from a central cooled storage place, her running the entire show was not feasible. So, she had to build a team.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of the situation a CEO faces when his company grows. He probably knows his business, maybe he has built it by himself, or has advanced to the leadership position from doing excellent work in the field. And now he has to delegate and organize.

In the case of our food booth, having to explain every station to newbies, defining the quality standards that make her food and brand recognizable, and providing accountability for it, slow down. Heaven, the food booth owner, explained to me that she had to restrict herself at times to stand back, let us learn, patiently repeat her expectations on how the avocados should be fanned out on top of the bowl for the visual appearance that makes her brand stand out.

But she did let us learn, without interfering or micro-managing, just providing the guidance and expectations needed. The first ingredient to a high-performing team, was that the leader let go of doing it all herself.

Another key ingredient that allowed us to become a high-performing team with very little training: The final outcome was clear with immediate feedback. We all knew that the line of waiting customers needed to be short by working expediently and creating a great customer experience. Feedback was immediate, because everyone in the booth could see the line and the customers devouring their food.

So, we could develop into a team that was looking out for each other, reminding workers on other stations when action was needed to re-fill supplies, chop more veggies or produce another tray of hot ingredients. This became extremely clear, when - in the final hours - we ran into an unexpected spree of customers - understaffed for this kind of demand - all while we were running out of most ingredients, including rice which took 15 minutes to cook.

The team adapted fast, and was able to switch stations where the demand was highest; the station taking orders switched into entertainment mode, keeping the expectations about wait-times up-to-date. In about 20 minutes, we got back to normal wait times.

This adaptability, with a quick, committed re-alignment, is what a high-performing team is capable of.

It was a beautiful experience to feed so many happy customers. I enjoyed my station, putting together bowls of vegan food, arranging the ingredients in a visually appealing manner, creating something with joy. And to be honest, I especially enjoyed the hectic phase in the end.

A food booth of this size is an easy-to-understand example of a high-performing team, because everyone can relate to the organizational goals and what the constraints are. Many companies start out like that, but then outgrow this state.

Even for a food business, it can become more complicated: If the business grows, the kitchen might become detached from the customer experience, some stations might require special skills that take longer to train, or the business might grow to several locations. Especially in the latter case, the CEO needs to become even clearer about what is important, create processes that provide alignment and train individuals who hold dispersed teams accountable. Slowly, we are getting closer to a typical office setting.

In office settings, the state of the company goals is not always visible, and they need to be defined and adapted. Some employees might not even know the details of the overall financial health. And that can be okay. However, every high-performing team needs clear constraints, responsive performance feedback and empowerment.

And it is not always easy to get all of it right.

Maybe the image of the high-performing food booth team can guide you. What is missing in your team for them to function in ways that allow them to adapt in difficult and new situations - with commitment and alignment?

• Does your team know what quality work is and what good enough means?
• Is the feedback on whether the team’s work is supporting the company defined and regular enough?
• Is everyone equipped with the right tools and skills, able to make mistakes and learn from them?
• Are team members able (and encouraged) to collaborate and help each other out?

I hope the food booth analogy is helpful to visualize in case you wonder what a high-performing team looks like.

With care,

Martin

P.S: If you come to Eugene in Oregon, you might want to check out the vegan food B-Heavenly on Kesey Square. My personal favorite is the “Fusion Bowl”. And it is enjoyable for non-vegans.