TEAMS

A team can be best described as a group of people working together to a common

purpose. Teams are constituted to handle tasks that are highly complex and may also include
interdependent subtasks. Team members have different skills and they normally generate
synergy by way of coordinating efforts which allows each of its members to maximize their
strengths as well as minimize their weaknesses. Each team has its own tasks to do and the
performance will depend on how well the team members work together.

A team does not necessarily mean all it's members have the same boss. This is because in
some instances team members have different bosses depending on their tasks. An example of
such a case is where by a team is given a task where it has to design the organization hierarchy
where aspects like pay structure compromises as well as the need to have traditional reporting
lines. There are also different types of teams and their name does not necessarily define their
purpose for existing. These team types are classified into two the permanent teams and the
temporary teams. Temporary teams are formed to deal with issues that come once in a while in
an organization while permanent teams are formed to handle issues that will always affect the
organization.

TYPES OF TEAMS

There are six major types of teams: informal, traditional, problem solving, leadership,
self-directed, and virtual.

INFORMAL TEAMS.

Informal teams are generally formed for social purposes. They can help to facilitate
employee pursuits of common concerns, such as improving work conditions. More frequently
however, these teams form out of a set of common concerns and interests, which may or may not
be the same as the organization's. Leaders of these teams generally emerge from the membership
and are not appointed by anyone in the organization.

TRADITIONAL TEAMS.

Traditional teams are the organizational groups commonly thought of as departments or

functional areas. Leaders or managers of these teams are appointed by the organization and have
legitimate power in the team. The team is expected to produce a product, deliver a service, or
perform a function that the organization has assigned.
PROBLEM SOLVING TEAMS.

Problem-solving teams or task forces are formed when a problem arises that cannot be
solved within the standard organizational structure. These teams are generally cross-functional;
that is, the membership comes from different areas of the organization, and are charged with
finding a solution to the problem.

LEADERSHIP TEAMS.

Leadership teams are generally composed of management brought together to span the
boundaries between different functions in the organization. In order for a product to be delivered
to market, the heads of finance, production, and marketing must interact and come up with a
common strategy for the product. At top management levels, teams are used in developing goals
and a strategic direction for the firm as a whole.

SELF-DIRECTED TEAMS.

Self-directed teams are given autonomy over deciding how a job will be done. These
teams are provided with a goal by the organization, and then determine how to achieve that goal.
Frequently there is no assigned manager or leader and very few, if any, status differences among
the team members.

These teams are commonly allowed to choose new team members, decide on work
assignments, and may be given responsibility for evaluating team members. They must meet
quality standards and interact with both buyers and suppliers, but otherwise have great freedom
in determining what the team does. Teams form around a particular project and a leader emerges
for that project. The team is responsible for carrying out the project, for recruiting team
members, and for evaluating them.

VIRTUAL TEAMS.

Technology is impacting how teams meet and function. Collaborative software and
conferencing systems have improved the ability for employees to meet, conduct business, share
documents, and make decisions without ever being in the same location. While the basic
dynamics of other types of teams may still be relevant, the dynamics and management of virtual
teams can be very different. Issues can arise with a lack of facial or auditory clues; participants
must be taken at their word, even when video-conferencing tools are used.

Accountability is impacted by taking a team virtual. Each member is accountable for their
tasks and to the team as a whole usually with minimal supervision. Key factors in the success of
a virtual team are effective formation of the team, trust and collaboration between members, and
excellent communication.
Quality Tools for Continuous Improvement
Continuous Improvement as a concept is about becoming and remaining the best in the
field whatever discipline you happen to be in. Continuous Improvement is a remorsless process
of continually identifying even the smallest problems, prioritising them assigning them to the
appropriate resources to eliminate them from the system.

"It is the rate of Continuous Improvement that counts"

Whilst continuous improvement is important, it is the rate of continuous improvement

that counts. It must be faster that that of any competitor. The more improvements, the faster the
rate.

Problems can be segregated into two categories.

1. Large problems that require serious managerial involvement. There are relatively few of these
but the resolution of any of them results in step changes in performance. Collectively whilst they
may only account for some 20% of the total number of problems, they nevertheless account for
80% of the loss. Solving these is often referred to as Process Re-Engineering but it is still part of
Continuous Improvement
2. The myriad of small problems. These represent 80% of the problems but only 20% of the loss.
Individually, these do not warrant the excessive use of managerial time, it would not be cost
effective. Only the workforce has the time to tackle these if they are trained to do so. They will
use the concepts of Continuous Improvement in Quality Circles or Kaizen activities.

"Involve the workforce"

However, if they are ignored then by definition, the organisation will consistently
underachieve by some 20% whatever it does regards to anything else. Solving these individually
is referred to as continual Improvement whereas the summation of a large number of these
individual problems is called continuous improvement

Management led Continuous Improvement teams

Management led continuous improvement teams might be classified as Cross Functional teams,
Black, Brown or Green Belt if Six Sigma jargon is to be used, Quality Improvement Teams
(QITs)  or simply Project teams.

Continuous Improvement Teams involving the workforce also have a number of different names.
Generically they are strictly speaking Quality Circles and that is our preferred option. Others
include Kaizen, Gemba Kaizen, Discover Loss Groups, Corrective Action Teams (CATs) and
many others.
Self Managing Work Groups Hoshin Kanri
The full power of continuous Improvement Iteams is realised when they are part of a
Hoshin Kanri programme. If this is well designed, it is possible to create an organisation in
which everyone is regarded as the expert in his or her own job and the organisation can harness
the collective thinking power of all of its people to work towards making it the best in its field of
operations.

The Strategic Approach to Continuous Improvement

The process of Continuous or Project by Project improvement is at the core of all

successful business improvement programmes. The tools included here are fundamental to all
problem solving and continuous improvement activities whether it be Six Sigma, Quality Circles
or any other disciplined approach. When combined with Process Analysis and Process Re-
engineering and the higher level tools such as Designed Experiments in Six Sigma Black Belt
training there are very few problems that cannot be tackled and solved.Quality Improvement is a
never ending process. Man has always been able to find better ways of doing things and the
likelihood is that this will always be the case. The simple truth is that if we do not continue to
improve our competitors certainly will and we will be left behind.

Continuous Improvement of course happens to some extent whether it is planned or not.

In many cases it happens because a supplier has improved his products and forced improvement
on us. For example, a new computer will have the latest operating system. This is not the sort of
improvement that is considered here. This is evolutionary improvement and happens to all
organisations alike. This chapter is concerned with revolutionary improvement that has been
deliberately introduced and encouraged throughout the organisation as a discipline or all to use
as a means of continually improving the position of the organisation in its market place in
comparison with its competitors. The fact that the organisation is improving at all is important,
but it is the comparative rate of improvement which matters. Otherwise competitors may
improve at a faster rate. If they are behind now it is fortunate but there is no guarantee that they
will not catch up. On the other hand, the pressure may be to make up lost ground on others who
are currently ahead.

Continuous Improvement can occur in two possible ways, evolutionary and revolutionary.

The fastest rates of continuous improvement will demand the best methods and
disciplines. Even the methods themselves are subject to improvement so inevitably the methods
will change as new and better tools, techniques and number crunching software are found and
applied. There was a step jump in our ability to effect change when we began to use
sophisticated computer software to do some of the more complex data analysis for techniques
such as Design of Experiments, correlation analysis and other techniques which require massive
data processing. However, what does not seem to change is the sequence of events that are
necessary in order to go from ‘Problem, Effect or Symptoms’ (these three words have more or
less the same meaning in problem solving) to Solution or Remedy and then through to Fool
Proofing or Control.The first disciplined roadmap for methods improvement came from the work
study discipline in the early part of the 20th Century.