Team Building

Organizational Level

Organizational team building generally begins with a steering committee composed of the leadership of the organization (at the local level). For example, a steering committee in a manufacturing plant would typically be composed of the operating committee of that plant, as well as the local union leadership in unionized plants. (In unionized settings, the authors strongly recommend bringing the union in at the beginning of any team-development effort.) The steering committee would determine the following framework for the teams:

• Goals. Often established with a charter or mission statement. Why is the organization developing and launching teams? What are goals for having teams in the organization?
• Roles. How teams would be structured. Within functions? Cross-functionally? How many teams? How many members for a given team? How will we deploy and use talent? To whom do the teams report? Are there leaders on each team? Will members be expected to learn one another's jobs and rotate among the jobs? Who is to make which decisions?
• Policies and procedures. How are members and leaders selected? How are team meetings conducted? What kinds of issues can the team address on its own? Are team decisions to be made by consensus?
• Relationships. How do we ensure that the teams function effectively? How will the teams manage conflict? How will we reinforce good team behavior?
• Environment. How will the various organizational systems (e.g., finance systems, personnel systems, communications systems, rewards systems) support the teams?
• The plan for rolling out teams in the organization. What will be the timing? Will the teams process be piloted in some areas of the plant?

Once the steering committee has established this framework, the organization can begin the actual implementation of its teams. Implementation will consist of preparing the organization, providing training in the necessary skills, management of the relevant support systems, and the actual launching of the teams. The steering committee/leadership team will also have to provide ongoing direction and support to the teams. Direction may be in the form of policy deployment, in which business goals are established for each team. Support will be ensuring that the team is able to get its issues resolved and its ideas [Page 788]implemented. Direction and support from leadership is absolutely critical in any successful organizational team-building effort.

...