Knowledge Resource Centre

The Team Performance Curve

Teamwork. The team performance curve. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) This Diagram has been recreated by LMC.

LMC explains The Team Performance Curve

A tool to define and understand the way in which different groups of people work together, based on the criteria of performance impact and team effectiveness (1). Varying levels of team effectiveness and performance impact result in five different types of teams: working groups, pseudo-teams, potential teams, real teams and high-performance teams.

Working Group
This type of team is a loosely grouped set of individuals. The impact on the business is low and the team effectiveness is also low. Working groups are therefore best suited to situations where people cooperate well with each other, but where the results are not intended to be business critical. The strengths of individuals do not combine with those of other group members, and members are often effectively working alone. An example might be a collection of individuals working closely for the purpose of business information sharing.

Pseudo-Team
In pseudo-teams, dynamics and friendships have been developed and the group works closely together, but real business issues are not addressed or are superficially glossed over. In these teams, business need or benefit is extremely low, but team effectiveness is much higher. These teams are anxious to avoid conflict and therefore maintain team effectiveness at the expense of business issues. The team may feel it is providing value to the business because members have created a polite and friendly atmosphere with a sense of team-working, however, they lack a proper business focus.

Potential Team
Potential teams exist where the business need or impact is high, but the team effectiveness is still low. Team members are actively involved in business critical projects and activities, but have not yet coordinated their efforts. There may be team conflicts, disagreements or misunderstandings between individuals. The ‘potential’ is defined by the possibility that through team development such as training, shared experience, or even simply time, individuals can be trained or re-aligned to a common business purpose, thus becoming a ‘real’ or ‘high-performance’ team.

Real Team
With increasing team effectiveness and a high business impact or need, teams can become ‘real’. Real teams provide increased business impact because the constituent individuals develop and maintain complimentary skills, rather than competing with each other. They have learnt to enhance their efficiency and in turn enhance their overall effectiveness. Real teams may still have ongoing issues, but a good team structure allows them to address these issues, work through problems, and achieve their common goals for the good of the business.

High-Performance Team
Groups of individuals working closely together with a high level of business impact and highly effective team interaction. They achieve more than real teams due to their deep commitment to both each other and the business’s needs. The collective output of a high-performance team is well above what could reasonably be expected from the members as individuals.

Overall
To understand teams within the model it is necessary to understand the needs of the business and those of the team’s participants. The model allows a business to assess what type of team it wishes to create, based on its needs and the level of team effectiveness that individuals within the business are willing to deliver. Each type of team will have a different impact on the business and will interact in different ways with each other. The performance curve model can provide encouragement for potential and real teams to strive for excellence

References
(1) Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, 1993. The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organisation. McKinsey & Company.