High-performing companies, need have, by necessity, high-performing teams. Such teams do not just develop by themselves, but have to be systematically natured in both formal processes and/or shaped by the informal organizational cultures. These team-building fundamentals include:
Start with the Core Ideas
Clearly defining and communicating your company’s vision, mission and values are essential. While this is typically recommended for employee alignment and buy-in, its ability to empower employees isn’t as widely recognized.
For example, if the mission is “to be a leader in delivery process to clients,” all processes must consider time constraints in meeting the target markets’ needs.
Development of Leadership Skills
Understand that leadership is a skill that can be learned and improved upon. This applies to all levels and functions of your organization.
Seek to offer practical sessions teaching leadership giving people tools they can immediately use on the job.
Continuous Improvement Initiatives & Training
Continous improvements encompass an on-going improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements in the face of changing external environment threats and opportunities.
Key stages include:
Plan: Identify an opportunity and plan for changes
Do: Implement the change on a small scale (“test run”)
Check: Use data to analyze the results of the change and determine whether it made a difference.
Act: If the change was successful, implement it on a wider scale and continuously assess your results. If the change did not work, begin the cycle again.
Match Quality with the “Human Psyche”
Even on the strongest teams, people make mistakes. That’s why it’s crucial to have a process for identifying, analyzing and reducing human errors.
This may involve continuous analysis of activities for both value addition and simplification, which, naturally, will result in fewer errors.
Consultations for Complex Issues
Some challenges go deeper or broader than the specific tasks typically addressed in mistake proofing.
Cross-functional teams can help break down systemic operational issues and take action to implement changes. Accountability is emphasized, with the focus on the various operational teams pursuing and enabling improvements for operational purposes (a “bottom up” approach to problem solving).
Empower Employees’ Ideas (“Intrapreneurship”)
Intrapreneurship is a system allowing employees act like entrepreneurs within an organization.
Ideas need to be natured, hence systems to channelling the same need to be developed. Barriers to implement great ideas are too big, including red-tape in reaching decision makers directly.
Intrapreneurship needs to be learned and incorporated into the organizational culture. Trainings need to be provided on idea refinement, packaging/selling them to the decision makers for ease of acceptance and implementation.
An “Ideas Champion” may be considered for consolidation of ideas, their refinement and communicating to the originator on the progress and the basis of the final decision for rejection. This will enhance motivation and the origination of future ideas.
Listen and Provide Feedback
Monitor the mood and perspectives of the entire team on safety, values, quality, leadership, services, cost cutting initiatives, training and all other matters core to organizational success
Then, of course, you must follow through by making improvements based on what you hear, measure and observe. Doing so improves employee satisfaction and loyalty and elevates productivity.
Predictability and Consistency
Team-building initiatives demand intentional and persistent leadership.
People must see that changes are incorporated into the company’s processes (even better when formally documented after “test run” periods). These will enhance participation in the organizational improvement endeavours.
By Sam Kagiri BSc, MBA (USA) (info@benkenya.com) +254 722 713 264
11th May 2023