X-Model Series: Task
If you want to achieve something big, you can’t deliver it by yourself – you need a team.
We created the X-Model to help leadership teams understand how they’re really performing, providing a clear, data-backed picture of their current ‘state of health’.
The model evaluates four core dimensions of team effectiveness:
- Task (clarity of purpose)
- Trust (relational capital)
- Team (collaboration and challenge)
- Traction (forward movement and results)
In this post, we’re focusing on the foundation of it all: Task.
What are we here to do?
At first blush, this seems too obvious a question for a senior team. But in my experience, most don’t spend nearly enough time answering – and revisiting – this question clearly.
I’ve worked with several teams where I’ve asked each member to write down, independently, the purpose of their team. The responses have been eye-opening. Sometimes, they’re completely divergent. Other times, there’s near-perfect alignment, with only subtle differences in wording. But even a single word can shift interpretation and behaviour: that’s how fragile clarity can be.
In the X-Model, Task refers to a team’s shared understanding of its purpose:
- What are we here to do?
- Why does it matter?
- And how does our work connect to what the organisation is trying to achieve?
When that purpose is clear – and genuinely shared – teams make better decisions. They prioritise effectively and know what to say ‘no’ to. When it’s not clear, the team starts to drift, or fill the void with off-task activity.
You get:
- Competing definitions of success
- Decisions that make sense locally, but damage the system globally
- Individuals working hard, but not pulling in the same direction
Purpose in transformation
Of all the teams I’ve worked with, the most effective are those with a clear and shared sense of purpose – not just in abstract terms, but in the context of what the organisation needs from them right now.
That clarity acts as ballast in uncertainty. It sharpens focus, strengthens alignment, and gives teams the resilience to keep moving when things get hard.
It’s not just about collective buy-in, though that does matter. It’s about each person being able to connect the team’s task to their own values, motivation, and ambition. When that happens, energy compounds. Without that clarity, teams drift, priorities blur, decisions stall, and effort gets diluted.
Task is about shared direction, and using that direction to guide what the team says ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to.
This is where structure matters.
As we explored in our post on team conversations, not every decision or discussion is worth having – and not everyone needs to be in the room. When teams are clear on purpose, they spend their time more wisely. They choose the conversations that move the work forward. They act together.
Strategy without task clarity doesn’t land
We often see organisations invest heavily in strategy development, then wonder why it doesn’t translate into meaningful action.
A common culprit: team-level task confusion.
Leaders may have read the same strategy deck, but walk away with different interpretations of their role in delivering it. Some focus on business as usual; others try to reinvent everything.
Clarifying task – at the team level – is the moment where strategy becomes executable.
This is more than a piece of communications, or alignment theatre. It’s the real work of translating ambition into coordinated action. And when it’s done well, it unlocks trust, collaboration, and traction.
The X-Model
When we assess Task through the X-Model, we look at questions like:
- Are we clear on our purpose as a team?
- Do we understand how our work impacts the customer and the wider organisation?
- Can we make confident decisions, even when information is incomplete?
It measures if the team has a shared understanding of what it’s for, and can act on that understanding in real time.
The data often reveals blind spots: places where individuals think they’re aligned, but are actually pulling in different directions.
That insight becomes the foundation for stronger collaboration, sharper decisions, and clearer performance expectations.
Clarity of task isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a structural necessity.
Without it, no amount of talent, goodwill, or motivation will get a team to high performance.
Find out more.