Consultant Q&A
W. Pearl Maxwell Responds:
Congratulations on your efforts to involve the
entire workforce in resolving problems that inhibit
productivity and their ability to succeed. Although
there are exceptions to every rule, it is a
relatively safe hypothesis that most people want some
control over how they perform their jobs each day. A
key factor in the success of teams assembled to
analyze problems and offer solutions is how
management responds to those suggestions. Acting upon
those suggestions is often the catalyst for
motivating the team to reach for and achieve higher
levels of quality.
I assume there has been some level of
success with the teams since they have survived for
four years. You mentioned team leaders and
facilitators were solicited to departmental teams. If
I am correct in my understanding, it appears another
layer was added between the people actually doing the
work and the decision-makers. In my experience, teams
that are most successful and have the longest life
span are those with the fewest layers of
“leaders.” Each leader added into the mix
represents an opportunity to compromise the
effectiveness of communication within the
organization. On high performing teams, leadership is
a shared role. All members are developed to take a
leadership role as required. This structure increases
the feeling of responsibility for all members.
Reviving excitement in a team is a
considerable challenge that can be accomplished if
the team can be convinced their efforts are important
and will be rewarded. The first step is to understand
the causes of the team’s loss of focus.
Successful teams may “cool-off” more
frequently than those who are struggling. The reason
for the loss of focus is often boredom. Teams need a
reason to remain excited. Your challenge is to
understand what will excite your teams and motivate
them to see the value and pay off for projects
you’re advocating.
In this case, the paramount question
becomes: How can these teams improve this situation?
I would need to understand why this is a persistent
problem in order to move forward with attempting to
refocus the teams. Is the pressure to meet schedules
due to insufficient staff to handle the work, a need
for better processes or people not adhering to the
processes?
If the perception is that team meetings
will only take away time required to complete the
work, it is going to be very difficult to refocus the
teams. This is an opportunity for the management team
to evaluate the current situation and solicit the
help of the teams to reach viable solutions. If there
are not enough people to complete the work, it is
going to be difficult to address the problem through
the efforts of the teams. However, if the problems
can be addressed through process improvements, this
is an opportunity to return excitement to your teams
by asking them to improve the processes. I have
always found it necessary to know the members of a
team at an individual level in order to achieve
optimum results. Coaching the managers closest to the
teams to attempt to understand what motivates each
person and rewarding the person accordingly will help
keep the teams focused. It is also important to
demonstrate that their outputs are important. This
means that meetings are treated as work. They must be
scheduled the same as other tasks and not made
optional. I wish you luck in refocusing your team
efforts.
W. Pearl Maxwell, Ph.D., is a
Senior Consultant with Advanced Management Services,
Inc. Her firm consults and trains in continuous
improvement, project management and management
development. Pearl focuses on integrating quality
principles into project and organizational
development practices and the synergy of people,
process and technology. She can be reached at
info@amsconsulting.com.
H. James Harrington Responds
July 2001 News
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