Designing Self Managed TeamsHow to improve business performance by creating self managed teams. These are permanent groups of employees who together are responsible for a total process of delivering a product or service. We discuss pros and cons. This article is based on action research carried out to understand what is needed for the design of successful self managing teams. Self managed teams: Team Performance ModelsThrough a two-year Teamwork in Manufacturing project, the London-based Tavistock Institute developed a guide to teamwork in manufacturing called "Change Everything at Once".This work was supported by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry, It defined a model to help describe the future state. It achieved this by classifying levels of self-regulation in self managed teams, identifying three basic performance dimensions and key areas of competence within these: 1. Managing core short-term responsibilities within a self managed team's area of responsibility:
2. Managing wider short-term responsibilities jointly with others:
3. Managing operational process and people development:
The model develops to identify levels of competence and performance using a scale ranging from skeletal to advanced. Three stages of the model move self managed teams from being focused and competent on internal operations through to managing ever more complex interactions with the organisational environment. Self managed teams: a second modelA second model is used by a number of organisations including Procter & Gamble (that we were involved in) and Motorola. It applies similar thinking to the boundary-management of the respponsibilities carried by self managing teams.Here, the future work of a manufacturing team, for example, is described in terms of: Core skills: the basic doing, making or filling skills of getting tasks done. Support skills: including, for example, maintenance skills which would previously be supplied by a support department. Boundary skills: or those needed to manage across team boundaries such as training, recruitment and production planning which are typically carried out by managers. In this model, the degree of autonomy achieved by a self regulating team is limited by
Existing cultural and manager mindsets will expand or restrict the boundary accordingly. According to this model, the development of self managed work teams over time is achieved by the addition of new skills. This process starts from the core skills and moves outwards towards the boundary. Each new skill block comprises clearly defined competencies in technical, business and interpersonal team skills to ensure that the team is truly capable of self-management. Both models enable organisations to develop rich pictures of how self managed work teams will operate. The next stage is to undertake a current state analysis so that gaps between present and future can be identified. Designing self managing teams: current state analysisCurrent state analysis should involve an honest appraisal of an organisation's readiness for changing to self managed work teams.Ray and Bronstein identify several positive and negative indicators in Teaming Up: Making the Transition to a Self-Directed Team-Based Organization: Positive indicators
Negative Indicators
Once the desired future state and the current state have been identified, the transition to self managed teams becomes simpler. It is not necessarily easier because content and priorities of the transition plan will be specific to each organisation. However, the Tavistock Institute's work has highlighted the interdependence of all major functions and the resulting need to change everything at once. The implementation of self managed teams is likely to be more successful when this interconnectedness is acknowledged and is taken into account during initial planning stages. Leading teams: other articles of interestIf you've enjoyed this article on designing self managed teams, you may be interested to read the following:Find more on the leading the transition to self managing teams here. Ideas about the essential differences between work groups and work teams are described in this article on groups v teams. This article focuses on the differences in the leadership of team vs group leadership.
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