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TEAM BUILDING IMPLEMENTATION

Many companies now recognize the need to adopt World Class operations technologies and practices. But efforts to implement these programs are frequently stymied. Management can become disillusioned. Programs to build World Class capabilities, so vital to the continued health and success of the organization, become stalled and may disappear.

To set and steer an organization’s course today requires one thing above all—teamwork. Teams are at the center of all effective World Class technologies and practices, such as Six Sigma, Lean, and Effective Resource Planning (ERP). Teams represent the single most important structure available to mobilize a department or organization to maximum effectiveness. The challenge is to take a group of diverse individuals and create a cohesive team capable of World Class performance.

Technical Change Associates, Inc. (TCA) is uniquely qualified to assist you in your team building efforts. Our general capabilities in operations consulting, coupled with a proven expertise in team building and the management of organizational change, will facilitate the skills development and hands-on assistance necessary to begin to achieve the benefits of effective teamwork within a short time frame.

WHAT IS TEAM BUILDING?

Team building is a process in which a team, with the assistance of a facilitator, builds its awareness of the key factors that influence team performance, learns to examine its own performance with respect to those factors, and takes action to improve the team’s effectiveness. It is a process whereby management and staff mutually establish common goals, make decisions, communicate, resolve differences and solve common problems.

Team building creates an organizational climate that supports and encourages risk taking, creativity, understanding and trust. The team building process increases the team’s problem solving ability and inter-personal effectiveness in ways that promote the mission of the team while addressing both the needs of the group and of the individual.

OBJECTIVES

Through experience gained in many team-building projects, we have identified several primary objectives of an initial team building effort:

• To provide the management team with experience-based understanding and realistic vision of the potential for improved organizational effectiveness possible through team development.

• To work with and develop one or more teams that will address current business problems or development of World Class capabilities.

• To teach participants capabilities and skills that they can use in hands-on teamworking processes.

• To train and develop an internal resource person capable of facilitating team meetings, training other teams, and coordinating the team building process.

• To develop and document plans for expanding the team building process.

APPROACH

TCA has developed a step-by-step approach to achieve the objectives of team building in your organization. Our approach emphasizes an efficient and productive investment of time and effort. It can be summarized in the following chart:

TCA CONTRIBUTIONS

We support the execution of these work steps by:

• Assessing each team’s needs, concerns, issues, goals, and opportunities.

• Structuring and documenting pilot implementation projects that address significant business problems and opportunities.

• Clarifying a shared vision, missions, roles, and guidelines for the management team and pilot team members.

• Preparing and delivering team development workshops and team working skills training.

• Maintaining the focus of the pilot teams on assigned project objectives.

• Action planning for enhanced team effectiveness and long-term results.

• Providing follow-on team training, support, guidance, and assessment.

• Developing an in-house resource person to carry out team meeting facilitation and program management on an on-going basis.

• Participating in an expansion-planning workshop.

A critical dimension of our support is the education and training that we provide. We believe that the key to improvement is rooted in understanding and acceptance based on knowledge. We honor this belief with carefully developed education and training approaches that reflect modern adult learning models.

BENEFITS

An investment in TCA’s assistance with your team building implementation program will yield many benefits, the most important of which can be summarized as follows:

• You will overcome the inertia or “organizational procrastination” that can delay indefinitely the move to World Class technologies.

• We will help you identify the best possible starting point in the form of carefully selected pilot projects.

• Your management team will understand team building concepts and principles and will develop team-working skills, having seen first-hand the effects of their application.

• Participants will have a greater understanding of their value as individuals and as team members, as well as the significant role each has in supporting growth, creativity, productivity, and quality.

• You will be spared the frustration and expense of team building programs that make people “feel good,” but produce too few lasting improvements or results.

• Pilot team members will form a core of grass roots “experts” to encourage and support team development in the expansion phase.

• Your in-house team building program coordinator will be capable of providing facilitation and project management support in the expansion phase.

• Expansion of your team-building program will be based on a clear vision of the role that team-building can play in addressing vital business needs and opportunities.

Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations. Unless the team can learn, the organization cannot learn.

--The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization