Head of Organization Effectiveness at Subway

Chris Forando is the senior director and head of organization effectiveness, talent management and employee learning & development at the Subway World franchise. With over 20 years of experience, including senior roles at L’Oreal USA and ESPN, he is a seasoned leader in organization effectiveness. Chris is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and served 12 years on active duty, including 7 years as teaching staff. He holds a B.S. in Chemical/Biological Marine Science, an M.S. in Organizational Management, an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and a PhD (abd) in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.                 

Through this article, Chris Forando shares his insights on HR's pivotal role in cultivating high-performance teams akin to U.S. special operations units. He stresses the need for selecting individuals with specific traits, aligning teams with clear missions and employing rigorous assessment and training. Adopting a 'spec ops' mindset, HR seeks to boost organizational competitiveness by fostering cohesive teams that drive innovation, engagement and business success.

In today’s hypercompetitive and talent deprived environment, Human Resources (HR) has strategically positioned itself as an invaluable asset for driving business execution. Among the most critical HR capabilities for enabling organization success is the ability to design, develop and deploy high performance teams (HPT), including the effective screening and selection of job candidates. One cannot open LinkedIn these days without seeing a myriad of individuals self-professing to be a leader or builder of high performing teams. They are likely confusing having a team of All-Stars with having an All-Star team.

In reality, their teams are mediocre, at best, because they almost certainly fail to meet the high standards necessary to be considered a true ‘high performance team’.  A high-performance team can be defined as a group of highly skilled individuals with specific roles and complementary talents, possessing a ‘mission’ mindset, who subordinate their ego and commit themselves to a common purpose or objective, who consistently show high levels of teamwork, and repeatedly produce superior results. The benchmark for high performance is U.S. special operations teams.

Characteristics of Special Operations teams

● Strong sense of teamwork and trust among team members, as well as leadership and communication skills.

● High levels of training and expertise

● Ability to operate in diverse and challenging environments

● Flexibility and adaptability with changing situations, missions and environments, often with limited resources, support and notice

● Resilience and perseverance in the face of physical and psychological stress, risk and uncertainty

HR teams looking to create a competitive advantage for their organization should adopt a ‘spec ops’ mindset when partnering with leaders to transform critical business units into high-performing teams. Strategies for recruiting, selecting, training and deploying talent should never be executed in isolation. Inconsistent and misaligned strategies may produce short-term success, yet will almost certainly compromise the operational integrity of any high-performance team. Accordingly, TA teams, along with their HRBP and Organization Development (OD) counterparts, should devise an integrated talent strategy to selectively identify, assess and hire individuals who embody and demonstrate the traits and characteristics of special operations personnel and assign them to strategically important teams. Following a few key steps, HR can play a pivotal role in forming and deploying high-performance teams.

Personnel Assessment and Selection

First, HR needs to select and develop the right people for the team, based on their skills, knowledge, personality and motivation and the job requirements. HR can employ a variety of tools and methods to assess the potential and fit of candidates, such as personality instruments, behavioral interviews, cognitive and other ability tests and work simulations. HR can also provide training and coaching to further enhance the team's capabilities and cohesion, and to address any skill gaps or deficits.

"What can be achieved with four thousand men, united and standing shoulder to shoulder you cannot do with forty or even four hundred thousand men who are divided and pulled this way and that by internal conflicts – MUBARAKSHAH, 13th Century."

Personality instruments, such as the NEO PI-R and the 16PF, can be used to develop specific ‘success profiles’ for the team. More advanced selection methodologies might include cognitive ability instruments - such as the Personnel Assessment Form (PAF), Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) or Raven’s Matrices–and intense simulations that assess candidates’ skills and expertise as well as the ability to think on their feet and effectively manage stress.

Some personality traits of Special Operations personnel

Low neuroticism, which reflects emotional stability, confidence and self-control.

High extraversion, which reflects sociability, assertiveness and positive emotionality.

High openness, which reflects intellectual curiosity, creativity and a willingness to try new things.

High agreeableness, which reflects cooperation, truthfulness, empathy and altruism.

High conscientiousness, which reflects diligence, organization and deliberation.

Additional desired qualities, characteristics, and behavioral tendencies

Integrity (trustworthiness, honesty and adherence to ethical standards)

Courage

Perseverance

Personal Responsibility

Adaptability

Team Player

Team Design

Next, HR needs to ensure that the team is designed to perform. The team’s purpose and goals (the mission) must be clear and aligned with the organization's vision and strategy. This helps team members understand the importance of their work and instills a sense of shared identity, commitment and sense of direction. HR can also help to:

a. define clear roles and responsibilities of each team member,

b. ensure clear decision-making authority,

c. establish proper information and data flow necessary for effective decisions,

d. design feedback mechanisms and

e. identify measures to assess and monitor team progress, performance, impact and overall ‘health’.

Adopting strict criteria for individuals and teams and employing tactics similarly used by special operations teams to promote effective teamwork and communications, HR can further entrench itself as one of the most critical strategic assets of an organization. High-performance teams strengthen an organization’s competitive posture and the ability to more effectively execute its strategy. Such teams can accelerate and elevate creativity and innovation, product quality, customer engagement, brand loyalty and overall organization performance and profitability.