About - High Performance Team Questionnaire

Improvement starts here with the HPTQ™-your team’s performance baseline.

Team Foundations

Team Behaviours

Team Sentiment

Team Foundations

High Performance Teams don’t happen by accident—they’re built on strong, deliberate foundations.

Through our work with over 33,000 people across 180 organisations, we’ve identified five essential pillars that high-performing teams consistently score highly in:

1. Direction – Vision, Mission & Purpose

A clear, compelling direction that answers three key questions:

What are we here to achieve? (Vision)
What are we delivering and how? (Mission)
Why does this team matter? (Purpose)

2. Clarity – Structure, Roles & Goals

Everyone understands the team’s structure, reporting lines, and their individual responsibilities. Goals are specific, measurable, and aligned—ensuring clarity at every level.

3. Competence – Skills & Capacity

The right people, with the right skills, in the right numbers. Teams must be suitably qualified and experienced (SQEP) to consistently meet performance demands.

4. Working Approach – Processes & Procedures

Effective teams follow clear, agreed processes and know how work gets done. These processes are taught, accessible, reviewed, and followed—enabling consistency and quality.

5. Accountability – Ownership & Resilience

Team members know what they’re responsible for and how to act when faced with challenges. This builds psychological safety, which supports trust and resilience across the team.

High Performance Teams consistently perform well across all five areas—not occasionally, but over 80% of the time. They’ve done the work to build, embed, and live by these foundations every day.

Want to know how your team scores on the foundations of performance? The HPTQ™ reveals where you stand—and how to strengthen what matters.

Team Behaviours

High Performance Teams don’t just work hard—they work well together. At the heart of their success are six key collaborative micro behaviours that build trust, connection, and momentum.

These behaviours form the second pillar of the HPTQ™ and are consistently used by high-performing teams more than 80% of the time.

1. Positive Interdependence

High-performing teams understand that individual success is tied to collective success.
Instead of competing, they collaborate—knowing that when one person thrives, the team thrives. This creates natural motivation to support each other and work in sync.

2. Introduction of New Ideas

Innovation isn’t accidental. These teams actively seek diverse ideas, encourage different perspectives, and foster psychological safety where everyone’s voice can be heard—without prejudice or hierarchy.

3. Cooperation & Task Division

Work is divided into clear, manageable parts, with tasks shared fairly and aligned to strengths. Everyone knows their role in delivering the bigger picture—and pulls in the same direction.

4. Conflict Resolution

Conflict is inevitable. High-performing teams treat it as a natural part of collaboration, equipped with the skills to tackle disagreement respectfully and productively—preserving relationships and momentum.

5. Sharing of Resources

They willingly share knowledge, tools, and time. Resource pooling is the norm, and asking for help is seen as a strength, not a weakness.

6. Effective Communication

From listening and speaking to non-verbal cues, these teams understand that communication is the thread that holds everything together. They’re aware of its impact—positive or negative—and use it to build connection and clarity.

Want to see how your team performs across these six behaviours—and get a clear roadmap for improving collaboration?

The HPTQ™ identifies strengths, pinpoints areas for growth, and helps build the behaviours that make a measurable difference.

Team Sentiment

High Performance Teams don’t just perform well—they feel good about how they work together.
Team sentiment is the emotional pulse of a team, and it directly impacts motivation, resilience, and long-term performance.

As the third pillar of the HPTQ™, team sentiment is measured across three essential dimensions:

1. Perception of Performance

Do team members speak positively about how the team is performing, or do they focus on what’s going wrong?

2. Commitment to the Team

Are individuals truly invested in the team’s success—or just going through the motions?

3. Engagement with Purpose

Do people feel connected to the team’s mission and believe in what the team is working to achieve?

Together, these dimensions provide a powerful indicator of how people experience being part of the team.

The Power of Language

We go deeper by assessing your Team Language Ratio—the balance of emotionally positive to negative statements made about the team.

High-performing teams consistently show a ratio of 4:1 or greater. That means for every negative comment, there are four positive ones—signaling high trust, belief in success, and strong team cohesion.

What It Reveals

Team sentiment offers more than just a snapshot of morale—it shows:

How connected individuals feel to each other
Their belief in the purpose and direction of the team
Their confidence in achieving success together

The HPTQ™ benchmarks your team’s sentiment against high-performing teams, then provides a practical, step-by-step action plan to elevate emotional engagement and unlock higher performance.

Grounded in Research

The HPTQ™ is built on 27 years of direct work with over 600 organisations—and backed by global research from McKinsey, Deloitte, Harvard Business School, the University of Michigan, IPA, and Breakthrough.

It’s evidence-based insight that leads to real, measurable change.

Research on High Performing Teams
Organisation	Year	Teams
McKinsey	1993	47
Deloitte	2002	90
Harvard Business School	2002	40
University of Michigan	2004	60
McKinsey	2011	42
Independent Project Analysis	1991-2011	300
Independent Project Analysis	2018	56
Breakthrough Change Management	2005-2023	49
Total Organisations		684