One of the challenges in creating and sustaining high performance teams is the ability of teams to continue at peak excellence levels.

In many ways, it is easier to follow than to lead; getting to the top is only half the battle won. The real battle is how to stay on top.

Achieving excellence in processes be it people related or technology related, comes at a price called the cost of quality. Automating some of these processes helps in increasing predictability as well as reducing the cost of quality. To make these processes work beyond the initial phase, some choices have to be made early on. There could be many dilemmas while making strategic choices in people or team development, as well as product and technology choices. A few examples illustrate measures to achieving sustained performance in teams.

New trends such as Agile development are examples that force changes in behavior and take time to get used to. A “framework” that defines all the best practices and models needs to be created. As part of developing this framework, I have found it very valuable to educate team members about the pros and cons of adopting new approaches in an open and honest dialogue to get easier buy in to new processes.

With this understanding, teams usually do a better job of implementing and reaping the benefits of the proposed new approach, as compared to following them for the sake of being compliant. According to an ancient saying, repeating a good practice for 21 days works wonders in ingraining these best practices as permanent habits. Lesson: create a framework, rather than leave compliance to chance and individual whims.