Teams and Improvement

Virtually all improvement efforts involve the use of teams.  Most problems are cross-departmental and even problems within a department have many facets and are best addressed by a group of people with differing perspectives.  Thus, the setting up and management of these team efforts effectively is a key to successful improvement efforts. Deming gave us a model with which to look at management of virtually anything.  He called it a System of Profound Knowledge (SOPK).  Profound, he said, because it is unusual and rare.  The system has four major components, Systems, Variation, Knowledge and Variation.Teams can be thought of as a system that works, typically, within a larger system. Since it is a system it must have an aim.  In fact, one of the most common problems teams have is lack of clarity of the aim, or team members with conflicting aims.  A first step in team management, then, is often reaching agreement as to aim(s).  Moreover, it is critical for the aim of the team to fit into the larger aims of the organization as a whole.Another aspect of the systemic nature of teams is the recognition that team success depends on communication.  The team members are interdependent and to work effectively in an interdependent situation,  cooperation and communication are paramount. Finally, because the team acts a system, there are interactions among the components and the result of teams efforts is not merely the sum of the individual efforts of team members.  We have all seen the example of a team working effectively together (positive interaction) where the team was able to achieve results far beyond expecations.  We have also seen the converse where a team has fallen apart and become ineffective because of “lack of chemistry.” (negagtive inertaction).  The lesson is that being aware of the existence of interactions and being attentive to their implications is a part of team management. Next Post:  How Variation affects team performance.