Creating a high performance team

1. Clear purpose & context
2. 1. Is the purpose of the company or department motivating them?
   2. Is the job/role/function/work they do important to the purpose of the company ( a clear link on how it impacts the company)
      
2. Clear accountability 
3. 1. Who is responsible for functions and KPIs - this goes beyond saying “They do growth” You need to know what the actual functions are
   2. Create Areas of responsibility canvas like this HERE

3..Creating your Area of responsibilities

1. 1. Define the core functions of your company
   2. 1. Most companies have product, revenue, marketing & sales, engineering, community, tokenomics, operations etc….
   2. Fill in who is already doing the core functions
   3. There may be people who are part of multiple teams and have overlap - that’s okay

Template HERE

Link to company scorecard

Don't wait until the end of the year to see if you hit your targets. Just like a pilot doesn't go in a straight line to their destination - you will have to make pivots along the way.

Ensure you have a regular cadence to check in on your goals, milestones etc

You should have milestones and goals for each milestone cadence

1. 12 months
2. 6 months
3. 3 months
4. 1 Monthl 
5. Week

Steps

1. Define categories and core functions that are key roles that exist within your project
2. 1. This should be the same as the “Area of responsibilities canvas”
      
2. Define key metrics for each category (leave North Star metrics for now
3. 1. What 3-5 metrics would you need to see that are critical so that IF you went on vacation you could look at the dashboard and know the health of that category in a snapshot
      
3. Once step 1 and step 2 are done - Back test this scorecard with previous month and weeks to see if it all works and relevant
   
4. Measure actual results and report weekly
5. 1. The best practice is to review last week's goals on Monday ”start of your week”
   2. Colour coding
   3. 1. Dark Green - on-track
      2. Light green - slight hiccup BUT we expect to be in dark green next week
      3. Yellow - Average “things didn't go exactly as planned BUT we have the plan to get back on track in 1-2 weeks)
      4. Orange - “We are behind BUT it can be turned around and we will need to come up with a plan to close the gap” (This is where quick brainstorming and ad-hoc meetings need to be done to come up with a plan) This is where good teams can show the true colours and become a great team by turning it around!
      5. Red - We are behind and we won't be able to catch up

The CEO's most important operational responsibility is designing and implementing the communication architecture for her company. -Smart guy from a16z aka “Ben Horowitz”

Are your company meetings boring, unproductive or a total waste of time that sucks energy out of you?

You need to establish a meeting rhythm so the right information is shared with the right people at the right time - allowing people to make data-driven decisions that achieve its goals and objectives.

Four types of meetings

• Planning meetings 
• • quarterly
  • Highly intentional full-day strategic planning sessions
• Review meetings
• • monthly
  • Review milestones, and progress towards goals (normally monthly)
• Check-in meetings
• • Weekly 
  • Rapid sharing of information and scorecards
    
• Ad hoc meetings
• • Should NOT be overused!
  • Kickoff meetings, brainstorming, emergency meetings etc

Forget your 5-10 year goals

• It's too long. In this day and age, you can probably achieve your “impossible goals” in under 3 years before technology advances so much that a child can achieve that goal.

Stop Annual planning

• They suck! They are normally too long to be predictable BUT too short to do something truly meaningful so they are both unhelpful and unmotivating. (This is why most New years resolutions fall off after February)
• THIS DOES NOT MEAN NOT HAVING ANNUAL GOALS
• • It means not wasting time and being meticulous about every initiative. You should have your key inputs and key milestones marked you need to hit and then align them with your 90-day goals. Every 90 days you review and assess where you are and what needs to be updated in your next 90 days.
  • • Some of the best companies do 14-28 day sprints instead of 90 days. 

Plan in 3-year cycles, execute in 90-day sprints and measure using weekly scorecards

1. Plan in 18-36 month cycles
2. 1. This should link very clearly to your company vision and mission
   2. What does success look like? Revenue, customers, partners, volume, employees etc
   3. Depending on what industry you are in (You might have to do 18 months in web3)
      
2. Execute in 90-day sprints
3. 1. If you dial your team and cadence well you can move this to VERY aggressive 14-28 day sprints)
3. Measure in weekly scorecard meetings
4. 1. Don't wait a month to know what went wrong, right etc

Steps

1. Do an off-site or strategy day
2. 1. Finalise 18-36 month goals
   2. Set core values, purpose, vision and strategic anchors
   3. Break down your 18-36 month goals into 6-12 core milestones
   4. The first core milestone should be put as your first 90-day sprint (OR 14-28-day sprint) 
2. Quarterly sprint planning
3. 1. Review if you are on track for your 18-38 month overarching goals
   2. Identify the key scorecard metrics that your teams need to focus on for the next 90 days
   3. Brainstorm and prioritise the key initiatives your team will execute on over the next sprint to improve your North Star metric 
   4. Update whatever else (scorecards, playbooks, team structure etc)
      
3. Monthly reviews
4. 1. For the core leadership team
   2. 90 minutes is normally enough (can go up to a half day)
   3. Review the current month to see if you are on track, behind the goals for the quarter
   4. Each team leader provides a status report on key initiatives they are accountable for and makes recommendations on staying the course, pivoting and putting the project on the back burner, or doubling down because of signs of early success
   5. The team discusses recommendations and makes pivots or new resource allocations
4. Company all hands
5. 1. To update EVERYONE in the company about updates (not about reviewing or discussing anything - it is more of an FYI)
   2. 1. Anyone that is important to the decision-making should have been in the month's reviews
   2. Normally monthly (can be bi-weekly if you have a large team)
      
5. Weekly check-ins
6. 1. The best practice is the first day of the week 
   2. Everyone provides a big win for previous week 
   3. Review the metrics and scorecards
   4. Key projects and initiatives are discussed
   5. Everyone reports on the big 3 priority 1 items that had to be done last week
   6. Everyone reports on the big 3 priority 1 items that need to be done this week
   7. Process issues and bottlenecks in weekly activities