I initially created this session to help teams create a benchmark for their current work, and move towards becoming a "high-performing" team. What i didn't expect the session to do was identify the specific values that team members care about and carry them forward as a cornerstone of the product team's culture.

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It was a very cool thing to see happen in real team and see the team keep referencing back to the initial values created and aligned upon in this session. You should run this session: 

• When you want to define values that your team thinks are important
• When you want to understand how the team currently views it’s performance
• When you want to find ways to improve your team

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You can use this MIRO board to guide your team through the session and capture the results: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNMs03E8=/?share_link_id=723545465562

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Set and get expectations

All you need to get started is 30 minutes of time with your team and a whiteboard.

Bring the team together and tell them the goal of the session: to identify the team’s current performance and identify the values that will help the team become high-performing.

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1: Ask the team to rate itself

Using the whiteboard, show the team a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 represents a low-performing team and a 10 represents a high-performing team. You can also add specific company names that the team resonates to represent 1 and 10. Our team jokingly used Theranos as a 1 and Google as 10.

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Ask each team member to think back over the past few weeks, to think about the team’s collaboration and execution, and to individually score the team between a 1 to 10. This score should remain hidden.
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After every team member has a score written, ask the team member’s to put their scores up next to their names on the scale all at the same time and to do it anonymously.
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Go 1 by 1 through the team giving each team member no more than 2 minutes each to explain why they gave the team that score.

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Save this asset and the big reasons why the team feels it’s performing at that level. This is a valuable tool to look back upon in the future to qualitatively measure progress.

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2: Generate values of high-performing teams

Working independently, ask each team to think about what make’s a team high-performing. Have each team member write down what they think the values of a high performing team are. Make sure you let them know that each item should go on one sticky note. Give them about 3-5 minutes to generate these values or whatever they think makes a team high-performing.

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Ask each team member to come up and read their sticky notes related to high-performing teams with no additional explanation. Just read them as they put them up on the board.

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Now you should have a big board of things that make up high performing teams.
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3: Identify your values and align

In silence, give each team member a set of voting dots and ask them to put dots on whichever values or things they think are the most important for high performing teams.

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Finally, have each team member choose the single most important value created using a different color voting dot. Make sure the final vote happens all at the same time so the team is not influenced by group think.

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Then you can ask each team member why they voted for the value that they did.
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YES!

You now know:

1. How the team thinks it’s currently performing and why
2. What values your team resonates with and what they think makes a high-performing team successful
3. Your own team’s top values to make progress towards

Keep those values top of mind in everything you do as a team:

• Review them before you start a meeting
• Pin them in slack
• Add to company culture doc
• Reference them when a conflict occurs

However your team works, it’s important to keep the values front and center. You can now come back to those values to see if you’re moving closer towards them or away from them.

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