Building a high performance team Six Degrees Survivor

October 28, 2015

Culture has been a driving force behind the success of Six Degrees from the start. Even as our business has grown from small to medium in size, we continue to invest heavily in initiatives to ensure our organisational culture remains strong.

It is undeniably one of the reasons behind the high staff retention and tenure (compared to industry average). Some of the initiatives include:

A focus on group and individualised learning and development
Career development
Rewards and incentives
A solid events calendar to ensure there is an opportunity to bond outside the four walls of the office.

Our most recent adventure was orchestrated alongside MMA (a team building and leadership development business). The brief to MMA six months ago was a fun weekend away where we could participate in activities that build our team and the high performance culture. The twist? We wanted the whole weekend themed Survivor (based on the TV series where teams compete in a series of challenges).

MMA say that there are 12 traits that are consistent with high performance teams and believe that the extent that teams can exhibit these traits separate good teams from great teams.

Below are the 12 traits that MMA helped further develop in our team over the course of the weekend:

Clear values which Six Degrees believe in and live by
Common goals that are clearly defined (achievement focused) and supported
Willing participation
Effective leadership and followership
Individuals highly valuing team performance
Open positive and supporting culture built on a strong foundation on trust
Clearly defined systems, logistics and boundaries (discipline in the process)
Effective, clear communication (open and honest)
Group dynamics that involve and train new team members
Short productive meetings
Periods of work and periods of play
Celebrating successes – and what a celebration it was!!

Overriding these traits is this equation:

Leadership x Culture = Performance

As the Managing Director and one of three founders of Six Degrees, I was thrilled to watch the comradery, trust and willingness of the team to participate in everything with such enthusiasm. The challenges set were not always easy and were most definitely outside the comfort zone for many, despite this everyone made it their mission to have fun – goal accomplished!