A popular change introduced in many organizations involves the use of team
management. The Tool Products Company in Minneapolis has had extensive
experience with them. David DeVowe, Manufacturing Technology Manager, notes
several things they have learned about creating effective teams.
DeVowe notes that they never introduce a concept to the whole organization, rather
they pilot test everything. All of their pilot projects consist only of volunteers. The idea
is to build as much success as possible. Likewise when streamlining decision-making,
it would be wise to build an impression of success by having volunteers to analyze a
key decision and use some of the techniques described later to improve it. Tool
Products also found it beneficial to erect invisible barriers between their old
(traditional) system and their pilot teams so there was no direct reporting relationships
and no interference.
DeVowe also mentions that the company found it useful to create a core group of
action takers and visionaries that kept their team development process fast paced and
moving forward. Finding this group of go-getters would be essential to creating early
success and gaining experience with streamlining decisions. Along the same lines, the
company also found it was more effective to create their own internal leaders rather
than an outside guru (even though they did make use of some outside help).
Tool Products found it effective when teams generated their own numbers. It was
not so much a matter of what was being measured as it was having the teams create
their own numbers so they were owned by the team. Feedback, as well as
measurement, was important. David DeVowe said visual communication boards were