Self-Directed Teams: Part I - The Scenario
As management struggles with the changing economy and the need to maximize profits, companies struggle to do more with less people. It is from this challenging environment that the self-directed team concept was developed. Some companies have had great success and others, like the one in the following story, have struggled to make it work. As a manager, your job is to take an objective view of what is happening in any given situation and provide direction that will gain your company the desired results. The story that follows is purely fictional, designed to illustrate common issues.
A change was in the air. Julie knew that her company’s deliveries were not on time and that they often got the order wrong. As a Customer Service Manager she was the one handling the worst calls from customers upset by the lack of service. Julie found herself spending most of her time cleaning up orders.
One morning, managers learned that the general manager had been replaced. The new manager immediately fired all of the department managers except for Julie. Julie was assigned to coordinate the efforts and information flow to and from the field sales staff, manage a new high tech product through the development stage, and assist in content development for the company’s new web site. Although she was very excited to have this once-in-a-life-time opportunity, she was concerned about who would operate the customer service department.
He told her that his research into the division’s problems had shown that there was a lack of communication between the various departments, and that his experience proved that the problems usually came from management. He told Julie that he intended to phase out all management except himself and human resources. This would effectively remove all roadblocks to communication within the company.
He went on to explain that if the customer service department could improve communications with the customers they could take more calls. This would lead to greater clarity among the customers, which would lead to more precise orders. Better precision in the orders received would allow the order-processing department to be more efficient, and would reduce the mistakes being made in production.
He felt that the customer service associates would discuss their issues among themselves, thereby benefiting from each other’s experience. This would lead to improvement in communication and efficiency within the entire company. When he finished removing all of the managers, the staff would have no choice but to communicate with each other, which would also improve the quality of the final product.
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