High-Performing Teams In The Built Environment

Jay Yost is vice president of McCarthy Building Companies. Yost has more than two decades of experience in the construction industry, having worked in all phases of the business. Passionate about organizational effectiveness in developing and leading high-performing teams while building strong client relationships, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from Sacramento State University and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Point Loma Nazarene University.

A sense of amazement comes over me every time I see a construction project in its build phase, and I immediately think of all the people who came together through planning, design and construction to make that project happen. No matter the delivery method, every successful project involves a team finding its stride and working together through various challenges. On the flip side, nearly every project facing trouble and potential failure is born from poor teamwork and communication.

Combine the rapid nature in which these extraordinary teams come together, and the speed at which they need to reach a performing state, and the amazement grows. While it is tempting to leverage using the same team for each project, bringing new teams together can offer significant benefits. Healthy conflict arising from unique and diverse perspectives on teams brings innovation, complementary solutions, atypical productivity advancement and comprehensive risk mitigation from a valuable library of lessons learned. The importance of team building and development skills cannot be stressed enough within our industry.

There are two critical elements of team building and a few best practices I believe produce consistent and meaningful results. It is imperative that team leaders and members understand these philosophies and how leveraging certain best practices helps their teams progress toward high performance. This creates project teams focused on maximizing value for each team member involved – owners, general contractors, architect, engineers, trade partners and consultants.

Elements of High- Performing Teams

The first critical element of successful high-performing teams is the stages of the team development model, which originated with Bruce Tuckman, who was well known for his research on group dynamics. Team leaders need not be experts in this model of forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning. However, when team leaders understand these stages, they are able to help their teams progress through these stages quickly, especially when they also understand the behaviors that move teams from one stage to another. Additionally, when both team leaders and team members understand these stages, they can formally incorporate development progress check-ins and take actionable steps to a high-performing state. This understanding across a team fosters calmness with the appropriate sense of urgency when teams are developing as expected. It also provides the appropriate sense of anxiety and desire to improve when teams are not progressing towards high performance.

A second valuable element of developing highperforming teams is understanding which functions and behaviors define high-performing teamwork. A variety of effective frameworks around this subject are available, and finding the one that works for your firm is crucial since it must be something your people will culturally embrace. Patrick Lencioni’s model of the five functions of highperforming teams is one example. This model helps team leaders and team members understand how the functions and behaviors of high performance build upon one another to produce exceptional results – especially when the necessary behaviors are specifically discussed, nurtured, reinforced and maintained.

Team-Building Best Practices for High- Performance

Supporting the elements of high-performing teams with best practices for promoting consistent and impactful behaviors is critical to helping team leaders and members reach project goals. There are multiple examples of best practices, and the ones we find valuable at McCarthy are fostering project-first thinking, utilizing conditions of satisfaction and operating principles, and promoting a team environment of connection.

Project-First Thinking

Fostering a project-first thinking mentality starts with bringing the team together to discuss what project success looks like through the lens of each individual team member. Building on this understanding of individual success, the team leader can maximize the project-first thinking mentality by helping their team members draw the connection between their individual vision of success and project success. This ultimately leads to developing a shared vision of project success where individuals achieve success by making decisions through the lens of ‘what is successful for the project is successful for me.’

Conditions of Satisfaction and Operating

Principles With a shared vision of success, project teams can meaningfully develop conditions of satisfaction (CoS). These guide team members through decision-making with a framework of what project success looks like from an end-state perspective. In addition to defining actionable items that lead to success, project teams benefit greatly when they are engaged in developing shared definitions of respectable and productive behaviors. Whether the team calls them operating principles is not important–but having them is critical. Documenting the CoS and operating principles in a highly visible manner–and within project orientation documents–aids in their effective utilization.

Building a Project Environment of Connection

Team leaders who create a project environment rooted in connection create teams that care for one another beyond the work being done. There are many ways for team leaders to help project teams gain a deeper connection than their role on the project, but the most important aspect comes from the overall understanding of how building deeper connections creates an environment and quicker path leading to high performance.

Conclusion

Working in an industry where multiple teams come together quickly to plan, design and build extraordinary things, it is crucial to realize the path to achieving high performance efficiently and consistently. High-performing teams produce rapid innovation that leads to schedule, budget and quality enhancements on the project. High-performing teams are continuously improving their process and methods, leading to better control of project outcomes. Lastly, high-performing teams create exceptional experiences where team members are inspired by their time on the project, and they want to repeat it on their next one. Our industry continues to leverage better ways to build high-performing teams. We should all be amazed and proud of the work we do.