Bootstrapping Your Team for Higher Performance

In a major IT development organization, individuals were too often working alone and sub-optimizing. Their performance was not anywhere near the desired level. Analysis indicated that this was due to a number of common factors which lacked attention. To address this, a framework with eight factors grounded in cross-disciplinary theory was developed and evaluated in the organization. It emerged that a self-assessment approach to the eight factors, coupled with training in team theory and facilitated workshops can provide significant value. In the paper, we present the overall framework and details of how to apply it. Furthermore, we present relevant examples and lessons learned. We conclude that you can “bootstrap” yourself to become a higher performing team through facilitated self-assessments using the eight factors.