We sat down with Kinect President Nicole Bendaly to ask her a few questions about Performance Plus.
Q: What does Performance Plus do and how?
With Performance Plus teams can take a quick, but thorough, check of their performance and take action to leverage their strengths and address any weaknesses impacting their team’s effectiveness.
The process is simple; team members take 10 to 15 minutes to assess their team using the Team Fitness Test, an assessment that measures the 7 Elements of High Performance Teams. The results are then instantly generated and provide the team with a clear picture of how the team is performing against the behaviours and practices that differentiate high performance teams from all of the rest.
Teams then use the development process provided to discuss the results, celebrate team strengths and identify specific commitments to action for improving team performance. The process and templates provided can be integrated within existing team meetings so that team development becomes part of the everyday. We know that assessments are only powerful if the results can be used to affect change. Performance Plus is designed to do just that.
Q: How did you land on the competencies you measure?
We have been working with teams and leaders across many industries for over 25 years. It became our practice to capture the strengths of the high performing teams we worked with and the weaknesses of poor or average performing teams. Patterns quickly emerged; teams that performed at a high level consistently applied certain practices and displayed certain behaviours that poor and average performing teams did not.
The competencies included in the assessment reflect everyday practices that are non-negotiable if teams wish to perform consistently at a high level. These competencies cross industries and apply to all teams from sales teams to customer service teams and executive level teams to front-line teams. The assessment has been used by hundreds of teams, all of which confirmed the critical nature of the competencies identified in taking their teams to high performance.
Q: The surveys you use are psychometrically tested and reliable. What does that mean?
The assessment was tested for its reliability by Industrial Psychologists at the University of Western Ontario and was found to be highly reliable, with an overall reliability of 0.95 (reliability can range from 0, no reliability to 1.00, absolute reliability). This means that the assessment can be relied upon to provide a consistent measurement of the behaviours and practices included within the instrument.
Q: How are the results presented?
One of the main goals of Performance Plus is to provide managers and their teams with the ability to take immediate action to strengthen any weaknesses identified by the team’s assessment. In order to take action teams must first be able to thoroughly understand what the results mean. With this tool you know immediately what your team’s key strengths and key opportunities for improvement are – you know immediately where to focus your team’s attention in order to improve its effectiveness.
As soon as the last person completes the assessment the results are generated and accessible through a private and secure website. The results are presented in a number of formats that clearly depict the specific behaviours and practices that should be focused on for immediate performance improvement as well as those strengths that can be leveraged and celebrated.
Q: Once I have my survey results what’s next?
Your next step is to share and discuss the results with your team so that they can celebrate their strengths and commit to actions to strengthen any weaknesses identified. You receive step-by-step instructions for sharing the results and developing the team’s action plan plus a template to maintain team and individual accountability that can be used in any team meeting. The process provided helps ensure your team maintains momentum and keeps team development a priority.
Q: How often should I perform a team fitness check?
We recommend re-assessing every 6 months. This helps keep team performance top of mind and communicates to the team that how the team works together is essential to its success. Re-assessment is also key to ensuring change sticks over the long run – which is why Sprigg clients who opt for Performance Plus have access to an unlimited number of assessments so that they can assess their teams as often as they wish and monitor their development progress.
Q: What are the benefits of doing a team fitness check?
There are many benefits, but let’s start with the main benefit which is that it gives teams and managers a clear road map to achieving higher levels of performance. When teams participate in the Team Fitness process they gain an understanding of what a high performance team looks like and know without a doubt what they need to do to get there. The result is improved team communication, reduced conflict, greater cohesion, and the ability to achieve better results more easily (to name a few!).
The beauty of this process is that the team identifies exactly what they need to improve and how they are going to do it – and the Team Fitness check ensures they stay on track and are focused on the right things that will lead them to higher levels of performance.