Self-Directed Work Teams

(Courtesy of www.blog.commlabinda.com)

In an earlier post I discussed integrated product teams which are cross-functional teams composed of members of different  skill sets all focused on developing a product or improving a process.  Another kind of effective team is the self-directed work team.  A self-directed work team may be cross-functional in membership.  Or it may contain mostly members from a single functional group or organization.

A self-directed work team is a team which can operate autonomously to identify problems or areas needing improvement, outline plans to solve the issue, and proceed to implement the plans to a successful conclusion.  These teams do not require constant monitoring by management.  If fact they perform much better if management "stays out of the way".  It's not to say management should not be briefed on what the group is doing and a timeline for completion  - they should be aware.  It's really a fact that a self-directed team knows how to work without being told what to do.

One of the teams I worked on at Boeing was a self-directed tooling team that solved various tooling issues related to F-22 fighter airplane manufacturing.  It was a team made of experienced design engineers as well as new engineers out of college.  They common thread was that everyone on that team wanted to make the program better and worked hard to reduce costs, improve flow, and steam line operations.

One incentive to encouraging aspirations to developing a self directed work team is to set up standards for different levels to work teams.  Start at criteria for a  Level 1 self-directed work team and list completion criteria for this level.  Keep going up to say a Level 4 which would be the most complete and autonomous work team.  Provide incentives to teams to reach a Level 4 and you will find that more employees will work to improve their effort without a lot of management oversight.

A good article on self-directed work teams is here:

http://www.qualitydigest.com/magazine/1995/nov/article/self-directed-work-teams-competitive-advantage.html#

 A self-directed work team working an issue
(Courtesy www.ctspring.com)