The Importance of Shared Values to Form a Great Team

The Importance of Shared Values to Form a Great Team

When we need to perform a big and complex project, like for example scientific research or corporate creative work, we can not only depend on a single individual, but we require a high-performing team. In forming such a team, we will typically start with a collection of people with diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives. A diverse team. Diversity, all too often, is viewed as being in conflict with performance. But the challenge is how with this diversity we can form a great team.
According to Greg Satell and Cathy Windschitl, for this purpose, we should start with providing a clear sense of the mission and common values; in other words shared values and a shared company mission. The company mission relates directly to an organization's overarching approach to its bigger mission and vision. Shared values is about how employees relate to one another. These values are the foundation of a company's culture, which shapes the workday experience of each employee. The way people behave is deeply rooted in these values which become a guide on how to interact with others.
On this basis a great team can be formed. As a result, leadership is no longer or not even in the first place planning and directing action, but to inspire and empower beliefs.
Source: Satell G. and Windschitl C. (2021), "High-Performing Teams Start with a Culture of Shared Values", HBR, May 2021.

		Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	The Increasing Importance of Corporate Purpose and Values Thanks for sharing this article summary. I agree that the more complex our knowledge work becomes, and the faster our wo...

		Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	The Increasing Importance of Shared Values AND PRACTISED VIRTUES to Form a Great Team I agree with the previous comments. However, I so wish that we would talk about virtues far more than we talk about valu...

		Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Shared Values and Team Formation @Graham Williams: Thanks for your interesting post about virtues versus values. I guess both of these terms are for most...

		Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Shared Values and Team Formation @Jaap de Jonge: Yes, absolutely Jaap, which is why I like my friend Arnold Smit's quote. Here's how I reason: 1. Simply...

		Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Shared Values and Behavior/Virtues in Team Formation Right. Thanks for explaining that so well. Especially the example of Volkswagen is very enlightening. Since as you say ...

		Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Shared Values and Behaviour/ Virtues in Team Formation @Jaap de Jonge: IMHO STEP 1 should mention that the proper selection of appropriate values is key. People often adopt "w...

		rustenburg Business Consultant, Netherlands
	What About Amazon @Graham Williams: Amazon is very successful. Customers are satisfied and the shareholders are extremely satisfied. The I...

		Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	What About Amazon @Rustenburg: I don't know. Perhaps the larger and more centralised the organisation, if leadership and power/ authority ...

		Rufat Jahangirov Management Consultant, Azerbaijan
	Values Should Manifest Themselves in what we Do, not what we Say we Do As somebody said, the moment you put your values on paper - you've just lost them. In practice, agreeing on shared value...

		Johan Roels Consultant, Belgium
	A Value is a Goal Seeking Activity @Rufat Jahangirov: Henry Nelson Wieman, an American Philosopher who discovered Creative Interchange more than one hundre...

		Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Large Organisations are not Teams @Rustenburg: Agreed that Amazon and many other organisations are successful in terms of market share, shareholder satisf...

		Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	A Value is a Goal Seeking Activity @Johan Roels I agree that values and vision/ purpose are closely linked. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech - ...