“Many hands make light work”

“Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships”

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”

“None of us is as smart as all of us”

“There is no I in team”

We know these sayings and quotes. We acknowledge the accuracy.

High functioning teams are as important in sports as they are in business because they represent top performance and a positive culture. If we want to accomplish big goals, we need teams that are moving in the same direction, bringing out the best in one another and getting the job done. We know this. Yet often the question remains: How do I build a high functioning team? Allow me to share my methodology, the approach I tend to take and a principle always on my mind:

VMCL: Vision, Mission, Capacity and Learning

I learned this approach from my System Thinking certificate from Cornell University. I am always trying to improve, adapt and re-learn this concept.

Source: Adaptive Leadership for Agile Organizations The Nature of Organizations, Jan 2021, Cabrera, L. & Cabrera, D.

VMCL is a system thinking approach that helps organizations align their strategic goals with their operational capacities and learning processes, or to develop these. This approach emphasizes the need to balance long-term vision with short-term capacity building and continuous education and learning.

You can use it in many different situations. Whether you are the CEO of the organization, a director of teams, a relationship manager, or a member of a committee. Even if we don’t pay attention to it, our groups and teams all have VMCL going on; just that when we focus and form it, that's when we start to win. So, what are the parts?

Vision: The long-term goal or purpose of the organization, which serves as a guiding principle for decision-making and strategic planning.

Think: Where the organization is going. The future state.

Mission: The specific objectives or outcomes that the organization aims to achieve in the short to medium-term.

Think: What we do each day to get to that future state.

Capacity: The resources, skills, and capabilities needed to achieve the mission, including both tangible (e.g., financial, technological) and intangible (e.g., human, cultural) assets.

Think: The stuff we must help us on our mission. ability, budget, team, headcount, tools, etc.

Learning: The continuous process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and insights that enable the organization to adapt to changing circumstances and improve its performance over time.

Think: retrospective, learning from the past to better the future.

By considering each of these four components in an integrated way, organizations can develop a more holistic and adaptive approach to strategic planning. For example, they can identify gaps in their current capacity and invest in targeted capacity building initiatives to bridge those gaps. They can also establish a culture of continuous learning and improvement to enable ongoing adaptation and innovation.

To get started with this approach, organizations should first ensure they have clear and understandable vision and mission statements. Are they actually the statements that describe the vision of the company, team, or group? After those are agreed to and instilled begin identifying the key capacities needed to achieve them. This gives the development roadmap and plan for building and then leveraging those capacities, while also establishing systems for ongoing learning and improvement. By regularly revisiting and updating their vision, mission, capacity, and learning strategies, organizations can ensure that they remain aligned with their goals and prepared for future challenges.

Key Takeaway:

I notice a correlation between a team's success and the degree to which they focus on their vision, mission, capacity, and learning. Building a strong team can be a big problem to solve but using this approach can break it down to digestible and actionable steps.