WILD IDEAS: BLENDING PEOPLE, PROCESS AND MEASUREMENT
A free monthly newsletter based on the work of Cheryl L. Wild, Ph.D. about the importance of people, process and measurement to a more productive workplace. Free white papers and information about Wild & Associates, Inc. are available on our web site: http://www.wildandassociates.com.
Copyright 2003 Cheryl L. Wild. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to the first edition of Wild Ideas. As with all first editions, there may be some glitches in the distribution. Please let me know of any problems. Any questions, ideas, comments or suggestions about this newsletter would also be appreciated. You are encouraged to share the contents of this newsletter with others with appropriate attribution. Subscription and cancellation information is explained at the conclusion of the newsletter. Thanks for subscribing. Cheryl Wild

This month Wild Ideas discusses how team excellence competitions successfully promote workplace excellence because of the blend of focus on:

• People
• Process
• Measurement

Team competitions are really on my mind this month. Intent-to-compete forms are due early in September for the New Jersey Team Excellence Competition. As volunteer project manager for this competition and as a member of the Team Excellence Awards Committee for the Association of Quality and Participation (AQP) National Team Excellence Award, I've been spending lots of time implementing the competition process.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this competition, it began in 1985 and since that time 692 teams from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China have competed. In New Jersey, we have held a state competition annually since 1999 and the top three teams from New Jersey are invited to compete in the National Team Excellence Award. In fact, two New Jersey teams from Merrill Lynch in New Jersey won first and third in the national competition in 2002. (You can learn more about these competitions at www.aqp.org or www.neatcompetition.org.) Not only has the association-sponsored team competition been a tremendous success, many organizations have instituted internal team competitions.

The purpose of this article is to describe why the team competition has been so successful. The lessons learned from this effort may transfer to other efforts.

It isn't obvious that team competitions are a good thing. After all, Dr. Deming (a well-known quality guru) said, "Competition leads to loss. People pulling in opposite directions on a rope only exhaust themselves: they go nowhere." So why do team competitions continue in the quality field? I believe team competitions succeed when they encourage a blend of people involvement, the use of a generic process, and an emphasis on measurement to solve business problems. When designed with care, a team competition can encourage a win-win atmosphere where every team participant is a winner and the competition itself is a learning event.

People

How are people issues important in a team excellence competition? They are incorporated at two levels:

1. In terms of the competition itself, people issues are the basis of the goal of the competition (to reward and recognize teams . . .). Organizations use internal team competitions to improve communication, encourage transfer of best practices, and reward teams. Often, in an internal team competition, team presentations will be made to the entire workforce at a site. Employees who are not on a team see the process the teams use for problem solving and learn the importance of it to the organization. Sometimes people in one area identify ways a team's solution can apply to their work situation. It provides a live information exchange - a lot more exciting than reading a report. The live competition often increases the internal enthusiasm for participating on teams. Who are the judges of the team competition? Often they are the line managers or officers of the organization. Line managers and officers may not have the opportunity to serve on teams, but participating as a judge requires them to learn the criteria of a good team effort and to visibly show their support of the team process during the live judging.
2. In terms of measurement criteria on which teams are judged, people issues are represented throughout the criteria. Teams are judged on how team members are involved in the work of the team and on how stakeholders are involved in the four main process steps identified in the criteria.

Process

The purpose of the AQP Team Excellence Competition is to recognize and promote the practices of those teams who have used a project development process effectively to make improvements. So the criteria revolve around a generic problem-solving process involving four main steps:

1. Project Selection and Purpose
2. Current Situation Analysis
3. Action Plan Development
4. Project Buy-In, Implementation, Progress, and Results

One organization in New Jersey actually adapted this generic process to be their organizational problem-solving process after participating in the competition. Six Sigma teams, quality circle teams, lean manufacturing teams, and new product development teams have all been able to make presentations of their projects using these criteria.

Measurement

For the AQP Team Excellence Competition, the effectiveness of teams is measured against 36 criteria. The teams know the measurement factors ahead of time and prepare their presentations so judges can determine how effectively each criterion is addressed. Judges are trained on the criteria and judging process as well, so that consistent ratings of each criterion can be made. A feedback report is prepared and presented to each team after the competition. This allows teams to see their strengths and weaknesses and to compare themselves to other teams.

So the team competition uses a measurement process to measure the effectiveness of teams at applying a problem-solving process, but the criteria also emphasize the use of measurement in the process of solving a problem. First, you are asked how data (the result of some kind of measurement) has informed the project selection. Second, a team reports how data has identified improvement opportunities or root causes of a problem. Third, a team explains how data was involved in determining the improvements or solutions. Finally, how has the team measured the outcome of the project and has a measurement system been installed to continually measure the results?

Summary

So, why have the AQP Team Excellence Competition and other internal team excellence competitions been so successful?

1. By codifying the team excellence criteria and making them available to all teams, the expectations for excellence are made explicit.

An excellent team is expected to involve people, or stakeholders, in the definition of a problem; in the data collection and decision making throughout the problem; in the implementation of the solution; and in the communication of the results. An excellent team is expected to use a deliberate process for solving the problems that includes setting priorities based on organizational goals and objectives and avoiding jumping to solutions before understanding the issues involved in the problem. An excellent team bases their problem solving on data and measurement rather than opinion and installs a system for measuring results. Thus, the team excellence criteria recognize that a blend of people, process, and measurement steps are integral to the successful team effort!

2. By implementing the team competition in a way that emphasizes that all teams are winners and provides learning and growth experiences for all, teams are provided a platform for benchmarking and self-improvement.

The importance of emotional intelligence for success has become a common theme in management discussions lately. Emotional intelligence involves being self-aware and understanding how your behavior impacts upon others. Team emotional intelligence is also critical to an organization's success, and depends on awareness of the team as a whole of the effectiveness of their behavior, and an understanding of how their team impacts and compares to others. A team competition provides a unique opportunity for a team to measure their performance against other teams and to have feedback on their performance.

I hear, I forget.
I see, I remember.
I do, I understand.

Chinese proverb.

©2003 Cheryl Wild. All rights reserved.

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