After 15 years of research, McKinsey found that a successful culture transformation is the exception, at 30%, not the norm.
Sadly, high-performing teams are also the minority in organizations, with 18% of senior leadership teams and 30% of all teams operating as such.
What makes transforming culture and improving team cohesion so challenging?
After spending more than 25 years leading inside organizations, coaching CEOs, and working as an organizational psychologist, I’ve seen that most leaders don’t know how to build both high-performing teams and thriving cultures in a way that truly lasts.
Culture transformation feels elusive. It is a big project and takes a long time, an average of three years. People can give up because they don’t have a roadmap, they don’t understand how the pieces are interconnected, or they don’t see change fast enough.
Improving teams and culture feels intangible until it can be measured. Yet, there has been a lack of evidence-based measurements on the elements that create thriving culture and teams.
This is the inspiration behind my recent book Connected Culture, which provides a roadmap for leaders to build high-performing teams and thriving cultures with the 5Cs model.
Introducing the 5Cs Model
The 5Cs is a scientifically validated model that captures the five critical elements that create high-performing teams and thriving cultures. The elements are: Connection, Candid Communication, Clarity, Collaboration, and Contribution. Our organization developed the 5Cs model in partnership with experts at Principles, based on extensive research and experience working with executive teams.
These five elements are key to fostering a healthy, high-performing team environment and workplace. The 5Cs Model does the following things:
Explains about 50% of the variance in overall employee job satisfaction
Explains nearly 80% of the variance in satisfaction with organizational culture
Shows that Connection is the most predictive of job satisfaction
Shows that Candid Communication is the best predictor of performance
The Five Key Elements to Improve Team Performance and Culture
This post will outline all five elements. In a series of future posts, I’ll dive into each of the 5Cs in depth.
What it means: Connection within a team and organization reflects the ties that everyone feels with the entity’s ethos and with their colleagues. Connection encapsulates a deep sense of mutual trust that goes beyond mere association or involvement, and well-being that includes the physical, mental, and emotional health of members of the team and organization.
Why it’s important: Trust and the sense that people care about each other as human beings are the two key aspects of all high-performing teams. Although it may seem straightforward, these elements enable teams to integrate into every single layer of the model.
Where to start: Recognize that business is conducted by people in relationship to each other.
Reflection: How can you improve the relationships around you?
2. Candid Communication
What it means: Candid Communication is about straightforward, unambiguous discourse among all members of the team and organization. It can be fostered through psychological safety, which is seen through people’s willingness to take interpersonal risks, the important two-way processes of healthy conflict and feedback, transparency, openness of information sharing, and ideas meritocracy, which reflect the willingness of leaders and managers to listen to ideas.
Why it’s important: Having a foundation of trust is essential for having candid communications. The more teams are open and honest with each other with care, the better teams perform.
Where to start: So often, I see teams avoid having the hard conversation. To overcome this tendency, lean into the discomfort. Bring up the hard discussion topic with care, without being overly critical.
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Reflection: What, if any, hard conversation might you need to bring up?
3. Clarity
What it means: Clarity in a team and organization refers to how clear people are in terms of their responsibilities, the processes they follow, and the overarching goals. Clarity can be achieved through delineating roles and responsibilities and their associated expectations, clearly defining workflows and processes, and creating and constantly striving toward shared goals.
Why it’s important: When teams and organizations understand what they are trying to accomplish together, knowing their roles, goals, and how to achieve them, it minimizes conflict and optimizes efficiency.
Where to start: Simplicity around defining shared goals is powerful.
Reflection: What are the shared goals we’re trying to achieve as a team or organization?
4. Collaboration
What it means: Collaboration measures how well people support each other and hold each other accountable for their performance. It is reflected through the existence of strong team support, commitment to accountability in a fair and consistent way, and a drive toward excellence in team and individual performance.
Why it’s important: Effective Collaboration allows teams and organizations to work together seamlessly, helping each other be their best, individually and collectively.
Where to start: Look at your colleagues and team members around you.
Reflection: How can I ask for help? How can I help others?
5. Contribution
What it means: Contribution reflects how team actions align with the organization’s core values, goals, and impact. It incorporates the impact that the team and organization have on the broader community, the existence and acceptance of key core values that drive actions and discussions, the recognition of meaning and mattering and their importance to people thriving, and creating company-wide alignment on a shared vision that provides direction and purpose.
Why it’s important: Employees and teams often feel their work isn’t meaningful or recognized. One key reason this occurs is that they don’t understand how their contributions align with the bigger picture. When organizations recognize employees effectively and align individual roles with the company’s broader values, goals, and impact, the results are increased motivation and performance.
Where to start: Align your behaviors with the organizational core values.
Reflection: How are the behaviors I am living and leading every day in alignment with the core values of the organization?
Team and culture transformation becomes possible when leaders know what to build and how to measure progress. The 5Cs model offers a clear roadmap to fuel high performance where people and organizations thrive.