High-Performing Teams Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Team Leaders, Operational Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-108

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising staff, coordinating projects or leading a workstream with several contributors.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Teams rarely fail because members lack technical ability. They fail when priorities are unclear, responsibilities overlap, decisions stall, concerns remain unspoken, or work is handed between functions without ownership. Managers must create the conditions for dependable delivery while handling competing deadlines, uneven performance, conflict and organisational change. This course focuses on the practical leadership system required to turn a group of capable people into a team that delivers agreed results.

Participants examine how high-performing teams establish purpose, define accountabilities, manage performance and maintain productive working relationships. They use GRPI, Tuckman’s team development model, RACI, GROW coaching and SBI feedback to diagnose team issues and select appropriate leadership actions. The course also addresses meeting discipline, decision-making, psychological safety, inclusive participation, conflict resolution, delegation, change and team resilience. Participants learn to distinguish structural problems from interpersonal issues and intervene before delays or friction become embedded.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with cases drawn from project, operational, service and cross-functional teams. Group exercises, leadership simulations and peer discussion allow participants to test methods against realistic management situations, including missed commitments, difficult feedback, competing stakeholder demands and remote coordination. Each participant develops a team diagnostic and a 90-day action plan for a current or planned team, supported by practical templates for team charters, accountabilities, performance conversations and review routines.

The course is suited to managers who already lead people or coordinate multi-person work and now need a more deliberate approach to team performance. It is relevant to leaders in government, banking, NGOs, professional services, operations, technology, customer service and corporate functions.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose team performance using the GRPI model and observable performance evidence
  • Create a team charter defining purpose, outcomes, norms, interfaces and review routines
  • Assign decision and delivery responsibilities using a RACI matrix
  • Conduct performance and development conversations using GROW and SBI structures
  • Design meeting cadences, decision logs and visual management routines for delivery control
  • Resolve team conflict using Thomas-Kilmann modes and interest-based negotiation
  • Build psychological safety through leader behaviours, feedback practices and productive dissent
  • Produce a 90-day team performance action plan with measures, owners and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A structured way to diagnose why a team is underperforming
  • Greater confidence leading difficult feedback and accountability conversations
  • Practical methods for clarifying roles without micromanaging specialists
  • Stronger judgement about when to coach, direct, delegate or escalate
  • A documented 90-day plan for improving a current team

For your organisation

  • Clearer ownership of decisions, handoffs and customer-facing commitments
  • Earlier identification of blockers, delivery risks and capacity constraints
  • More consistent manager-led performance conversations and follow-through
  • Reduced disruption from unresolved conflict, duplicated work and unclear priorities
  • Teams better able to sustain delivery through change and competing demands

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can diagnose the core conditions affecting team performance and development.

  • Team purpose translated into measurable outcomes, service levels and decision rights
  • GRPI model used to diagnose goals, roles, processes and relationships
  • Tuckman’s stages interpreted without treating development as a fixed sequence
  • Psychological safety assessed through speaking-up, error-reporting and dissent behaviours
  • Team charter components: mission, membership, norms, interfaces and review cadence
  • Distinguishing task conflict, relationship conflict and process conflict early

Participants can establish shared priorities and explicit accountabilities for team delivery.

  • OKRs linked from organisational priorities to team commitments and weekly measures
  • Outcome metrics separated from activity measures, targets and control limits
  • RACI matrix assigned for recurring decisions, approvals, handoffs and escalation
  • Working agreements specify response times, meeting discipline and information ownership
  • Accountability conversations distinguish commitments, constraints, renegotiation and recovery actions
  • Visual management boards expose work-in-progress, blockers, dependencies and ageing tasks

Participants can align team roles, capability development and delegated authority with delivery needs.

  • Belbin Team Roles used cautiously to discuss contribution patterns and gaps
  • Skills matrices identify single points of failure and development priorities
  • Delegation levels matched to competence, risk, authority and decision reversibility
  • Role clarity tested through deliverables, authority boundaries and stakeholder expectations
  • Cross-training plans protect critical services during absence, turnover and peak demand
  • Onboarding routines shorten time-to-contribution for transferred and newly hired staff

Participants can build trust through clear feedback, recognition and repair conversations.

  • Psychological safety built through leader fallibility, curiosity and response discipline
  • SBI feedback structure separates situation, behaviour and observable impact
  • Feedforward requests focus colleagues on future actions rather than personal judgement
  • One-to-one agendas balance delivery, wellbeing, development and obstacle removal
  • Recognition practices connect specific contribution with team standards and customer outcomes
  • Repair conversations address missed commitments, damaged trust and required restitution

Participants can design communication routines that improve coordination and decision quality.

  • Communication cadences distinguish daily coordination, weekly delivery reviews and strategic decisions
  • Meeting design states purpose, inputs, decision owner, participants and outputs
  • Decision logs record rationale, dissent, actions, due dates and revisit triggers
  • Information radiators make priorities, risks, dependencies and capacity visible
  • Closed-loop communication confirms understanding, ownership and timing after critical messages
  • Remote participation protocols prevent side conversations and unequal access to information

Participants can address performance issues through evidence-based expectations, coaching and follow-up.

  • Performance expectations converted into observable behaviours, quality criteria and milestones
  • GROW coaching structures conversations around goals, reality, options and way forward
  • Situational Leadership II matched to capability, commitment and task-specific support
  • Performance reviews separate evidence, interpretation, development needs and agreed actions
  • Underperformance diagnosis tests skill, will, clarity, resources and consequences
  • Progress check-ins use leading indicators, barrier removal and documented commitments

Participants can resolve conflict while preserving working relationships and delivery focus.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes selected according to stakes, relationships, time and principle
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions, needs, options and objective criteria
  • Conflict mapping identifies parties, issues, triggers, alliances and decision authority
  • Productive dissent rules protect challenge while preventing personal attacks
  • Escalation paths specify thresholds, evidence, owners and resolution timeframes
  • After-action reviews convert failures and friction into process improvements

Participants can create team conditions that draw out informed challenge and better decisions.

  • Groupthink warning signs identified through silence, premature consensus and suppressed alternatives
  • Structured dissent assigns devil’s advocate, red-team and independent review roles
  • Nominal Group Technique gathers ideas before discussion and ranking
  • Bias interrupters improve turn-taking, credit allocation and evidence standards
  • Decision quality checks test assumptions, stakeholder effects and implementation risks
  • Inclusive norms address language, accessibility, cultural difference and power dynamics

Participants can sustain team performance during change, uncertainty and workload pressure.

  • ADKAR model connects team change conversations with individual adoption barriers
  • Stakeholder maps identify sponsors, resisters, affected groups and communication needs
  • Change readiness assessed through capacity, capability, commitment and competing priorities
  • Workload triage protects critical outcomes during restructuring, incidents or demand spikes
  • Team resilience routines include recovery, retrospectives, peer support and boundary setting
  • Risk registers assign owners, early warnings, mitigations and contingency actions

Participants can translate team diagnostic findings into a focused, measurable improvement plan.

  • Team diagnostic synthesises GRPI findings, performance data and stakeholder feedback
  • Priority selection uses impact-effort analysis and dependency sequencing
  • 90-day action plan defines outcomes, milestones, owners, measures and review dates
  • Behavioural commitments translated into observable routines and peer accountability
  • Manager communication plan prepares sponsorship, expectations and progress reporting
  • Review cadence tests results, adapts actions and records lessons learned

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. GRPI team diagnostic template
  2. Team charter template
  3. RACI responsibility matrix
  4. SBI feedback conversation guide
  5. Team meeting and decision log pack
  6. 90-day team performance action plan

Who should attend

  • Team Leaders — need clear methods for improving delivery, accountability and team climate
  • Operational Managers — need to coordinate people, workloads and service commitments reliably
  • Project Managers — need stronger cross-functional ownership and stakeholder decision-making
  • Department Heads — need consistent performance routines across multiple teams
  • Newly Promoted Managers — need practical structures for leading former peers
  • Programme Managers — need to align interdependent teams around shared outcomes

Skills and tools covered

Team performance diagnosisRole clarificationPerformance coachingConflict resolutionDecision managementTeam action planning

Tools and standards

GRPI model, Tuckman’s stages of group development, RACI matrix, GROW coaching model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce each method, followed by case work, group exercises and simulations based on team leadership situations. Participants analyse performance data, role ambiguity, missed deadlines, difficult feedback and stakeholder conflict using structured tools. Facilitated discussion compares leadership choices and their consequences. Individual application planning helps participants adapt the methods to a current team, with peer challenge used to test assumptions, measures and implementation priorities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising staff, coordinating projects or leading a workstream with several contributors. They should be familiar with basic organisational goals, performance expectations and routine workplace communication. Experience of difficult conversations, team meetings or delegated work will help participants apply the material quickly. No formal leadership qualification, psychometric certification, human resources background or prior knowledge of team development models is required. Participants gain most value by bringing a current team, project group or recurring performance issue to consider during the course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience supervising people, coordinating a project team or leading a workstream. No formal management qualification or prior study of leadership models is required.

Bring details of a current team, project group or recurring team-performance issue. Useful material includes team objectives, role descriptions, performance measures or examples of decisions that regularly become stuck.

It is designed for managers, team leaders, project managers and department heads who are accountable for group delivery. It also suits newly promoted managers leading former peers or coordinating specialist staff.

General leadership courses usually focus on individual leadership style and broad management responsibilities. This course concentrates on the operating mechanisms of team performance: goals, roles, meetings, feedback, conflict, decisions and delivery routines.

You will leave with a diagnostic and a 90-day action plan based on a real team. The templates can be used immediately for team charters, accountability mapping, feedback conversations and regular performance reviews.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations, discussion and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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