Team Building
A large water and sewer authority initiated a major, long-term, business process reengineering and cultural change process for their 1,500 member organization. To ensure that the "process reengineering teams" (PRT) that were being established had the knowledge and tools to effectively manage their team process and the process reengineering activities well, the authority wanted to ensure that these teams got the training instruction that they needed to function effectively.
Challenge
Help each PRT gain an understanding of the teamwork process and establish operating norms and practices that would ensure that the team(s) completed their process improvement research and create a final report for the organizations project steering board.
Action
We designed, developed and facilitated a 2-day; experientially-based team building training program entitled "Re-engineering Enhanced Excellence in Business Service Systems through Exceptional Process Improvement Teamwork." This program enabled the teams to experience the team building process and understand the phases of team development and begin to integrate the 12 characteristics required for effective teamwork into their team's operational life. This process also enabled the team members to utilize the teamwork experience to clarity and solidify team roles and responsibilities, apply the learning to the context of the continuous quality improvement model established for the WSSC and for this team. Each of the 6 teams we facilitated created a solid charter that framed the work of the team. We also provided on-going guidance to each team over the life of its work.
The Real Work of Teams is the search for Synergy; the real Success of the team lies in finding it!
Bernard E. Robinson
