Fifty Activities for Self-Directed Teams (50 Activities Series)

235 Pages·1995·0.64 MB·English

by  Richard P. Jr. Kropp

50 Activities for
Self-Directed Teams

Glenn M. Parker
and
Richard P. Kropp, Jr.

Published by Human Resource Development Press, Inc.
© 1994 by Glenn M. Parker and Richard P. Kropp, Jr.

The materials that appear in this book, other than those quoted from prior
sources, may be reproduced for educational/training activities. There is no
requirement to obtain special permission for such uses. We do, however, ask
that the following statement appear on all reproductions.

Reproduced from 50 Activities for Self-Directed Teams , by Glenn M. Parker
and Richard P. Kropp, Jr., Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press, 1994.

This permission statement is limited to reproduction of materials for educational
or training events. Systematic or large-scale reproduction or distribution — or
inclusion of items in publications for sale — may be carried out only with prior
written permission from the publisher.

Published by HRD Press
22 Amherst Road
Amherst, MA 01002
1-800-822-2801

ISBN 0-87425-969-X

Production services by Clark Riley

Cover design by Old Mill Graphics
Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................1
A Group Is Not a Team................................................................................................1
All Teams Are Not Self-Directed................................................................................1
Not Every Organization Is Ready for Self-Directed Teams.................................2
Making It Work..............................................................................................................3
Activities Support the Team Process.........................................................................3
References.......................................................................................................................5
Index to Activities..................................................................................................................7

Section I: Getting Started
1. Success Factors.....................................................................................................15
2. Readiness Rating..................................................................................................19
3. Self-Directed Team (SDT) Stages.....................................................................23
4. Roadblocks............................................................................................................27
5. Third Wave............................................................................................................31
6. Show and Tell: Getting Ready for Self-Direction..........................................37
7. Surfacing a Team Identity..................................................................................41
8. The Reality of Self-Direction..............................................................................45
9. Responsibility Charting......................................................................................49

Section II: Building and Maintaining the Team
10. Valuing Diversity.................................................................................................59
11. Dip Your Toe in the Water................................................................................61
12. Self Test for Self-Direction.................................................................................65
13. Ready, Set…Go?..................................................................................................69
14. Collaboration in the Workplace: A Must for Self-Directed Teams..........73
15. Climate Headline.................................................................................................75
16. Building a Culture of Self-Direction in the Workplace................................83
17. A Personal Action Planner for Building Self-Directed Teams....................85
18. Self-Directed Structures......................................................................................89
19. Resolving Differences.........................................................................................97
20. Hot Buttons.........................................................................................................103
21. Self-Directed Values Exercise..........................................................................105
22. Similarities and Differences.............................................................................107
23. Building Trust Among Self-Directed Team Players...................................111
24. Shop ‘Til You… ...............................................................................................113
25. Self-Directed Team Culture Survey...............................................................115
26. Go With the Flow..............................................................................................121
27. The Power of an Agenda.................................................................................125

ii i
28. Creativity Break................................................................................................131
29. Quotable Quotes................................................................................................133
30. Workplace Trust................................................................................................137
31. Past-Present-Future: Charting a Self-Directed Teams Path....................139
32. No Team Is an Island........................................................................................143
33. Ivory Pure Quality............................................................................................147
34. Team Values.......................................................................................................153
35. Process Analysis................................................................................................157
36. Guiding Past and Future Team Practices.....................................................161
37. Meetings and Self-Directed Norms...............................................................165
38. Meeting Monsters.............................................................................................171
39. The Weather Report: A Culture Report......................................................179
40. How Do I Feel About All This? Assessing my Readiness
for Self-Direction...........................................................................................189
41. The Wish List......................................................................................................193
42. Clarifying Team Values...................................................................................195

Section III: Special Issues
43. The Self-Directed Team Coach.......................................................................201
44. Leadership Characteristics..............................................................................205
45. Supervisory Scenarios......................................................................................209
46. What Would You Do If…?..............................................................................213
47. You Know You’re Stagnating When............................................................217
48. Animal Grid........................................................................................................221
49. Assessing Your Team Leader Effectiveness................................................223
50. Just for Fun.........................................................................................................227

About the Authors...........................................................................................................229

iv
Introduction

A Group Is Not a Team

Despite what we call them, not all “teams” are teams. Some so-called teams are
really groups masquerading as teams because in today’s world it’s important to
be on something called a team. There is nothing wrong with being a part of an
effective group. For example, nine department managers report to the plant
manager. Each department manager has a set of objectives for which they are
accountable, however, there is not a team goal for which they are mutually
accountable and interdependence only exists among several subsets of the
department heads. They have goals but they are the overall goals of the plant for
production, quality and other factors. There is not a joint product or service for
which the whole group is responsible. This is a group and a very effective one.

A team, on the other hand, “… is a group of people with a high degree of
interdependence geared toward the achievement of a goal or the completion of a
task. To put it another way: they agree on a goal and agree that the only way to
achieve the goal is to work together” (Parker, 1990, p. 16). There are many
groups with a common goal that are not teams. The key is the requirement for
interdependence.

All Teams Are Not Self-Directed

There are as many ways of describing a self-directed team (SDT) as there are
variations of the term itself. They are variously labeled self-managing teams,
autonomous teams, semiautonomous teams, empowered teams and natural
work groups. We have chosen to go with the most widely used term: self-
directed teams.

There are also many ways of defining a self-directed team. For example, the
consulting firm, Development Dimensions International says that,

“A self-directed team is an intact group of employees who are
responsible for a whole work process or segment that delivers a product
or service to an internal or external customer. To varying degrees, team
members work together to improve operations, handle day-to-day
problems, and plan and control their work. In other words, they are
responsible not only for getting their work done but also for managing
themselves” (Wellins, Byham and Wilson, 1991, p. 3).

1
50 Activities for Self-Directed Teams

Another firm, Zenger-Miller, emphasizes team size, cross-training and individual
team member responsibility when they define a self-directed team as,

“...a highly trained group of employees, from 6 to 18 on average, fully
responsible for turning out a well-defined segment of finished work.
The segment could be a final product, like a refrigerator or ball bearing;
or a service like a fully processed insurance claim. It could also a be
complete but intermediate product or service, like a finished refrigerator
motor, and aircraft fuselage, or the circuit plans for a television set.
Because every member of the team shares equal responsibility for this
finished segment of work, self-directed teams represent the conceptual
opposite of the assembly line, where each worker assumes
responsibility for a narrow technical function” (Orsburn, Moran,
Musselwhite and Zenger, 1990, p. 8).

From Pfeiffer and Company we get a more narrow conception of a self-directed
team. Consultants Torres and Spiegel seem to limit self-directed teams to a
functional area in the production side of organizations. In their view,

“A self-directed team is a functional group of employees (usually
between eight and fifteen members) who share responsibility for a
particular unit of production. The work team consists of trained
individuals who possess the technical skills and abilities to complete all
assigned tasks. Management has delegated to the self-directed work
team the authority to plan, implement, control and improve all work
processes” (Torres and Spiegel, l990, p. 3).

While it is true that self-directed teams are more prevalent in production
operations, especially manufacturing, they are operating in the service side of the
business and this area is likely to expand. For example, many insurance
companies have established self-directed teams in policyholder services and
many consumer products companies have reorganized their customer service
functions into self-directed, cross-functional teams.

In its most basic form, a self-directed team is a group of employees who are responsible for
a clearly defined product or service and who do their jobs with little or no supervision.

Not Every Organization Is Ready for Self-Directed Teams

As you may know, self-directed teams are not for everyone. It is not easy to be
successful. Despite all the hype, only about one-third of all companies are trying
self-directed teams, and even in those companies only about one-third of the
employees are involved.

Where do they work best? They seem to have a greater chance for success in
those organizations where there is a long and successful history of employee
involvement with programs such as quality circles and employee problem-
solving teams. Top management support and middle management involvement

2
Introduction

are critical. An experienced work force helps because they have a thorough
understanding of the work but they also may have ingrained ways of thinking
that may stand in the way of change. Therefore, self-directed teams have been
quite successful in start-up (so-called Greenfield) sites where you can start fresh
with a new work force and new technology.

Making It Work

While it is difficult, it can be done. However, top management cannot just
announce it and expect employees to start working together. Here are a few tips
based on our experience in working with self-directed teams:

1. Be Patient. Successful teams do not happen overnight. They go through
peaks and valleys. It can take from six months to a year and a half for a team to
become an effective, self-directed team. Several activities in this manual focus on
the culture change required to make this process work

2. Train. Everyone needs training and lots of it. That includes management and
union, team leaders and members, supervisors and facilitators. We suggest 48
hours of training for leaders, members and supervisors. And we recommend an
additional 32 hours of special coaching skills training just for supervisors. Many
of the exercises provide skill training for leaders, supervisors, and team
members as well as activities for management on transitioning to a team-based
organization.

3. Involve Supervisors. To overcome their anxiety, supervisors need to
understand every step of the new process as well as their own roles as team
coaches, trainers and facilitators. There are number of activities that help
supervisors understand the role of the coach and how to carry out that role.

4. Involve the Union. The union needs to be a full and informed partner in the
planning and implementing of self-directed teams. They can participate in many
of the culture-change and planning exercises.

5. Learn From Others. Reading books and articles and attending conferences is
only the beginning. Talk with people who are already involved in self-directed
teams, visit their sites and take along key supervisors, union leaders and team
members.

Activities Support the Team Process

In this manual we have selected activities that are designed to help you
implement a successful self-directed team effort. You will find exercises for:

1. top management teams
2. middle managers
3. supervisors

3
50 Activities for Self-Directed Teams

4. team leaders
5. team members
6. self-directed teams
7. teams seeking to become self-directed

With this manual in hand you have lots of options. It’s a little like a
smorgasbord. There will be some items that you will like and be ready to try
today; there will be others that you will like but be reluctant to try and there will
be others that are just not right for you. Keep in mind that our other manual, 50
Activities for Team Building, volume 1, contains many exercises that can also be
used with self-directed teams.

The activities in this manual have been divided into three general categories:

1. Getting Started. Here you will find activities designed to help senior
management determine if the organization’s current culture supports the
concept of empowered teams; how to change the culture; how to assess a team’s
readiness for self-direction and how to get a team off the ground, including
planning for the transfer of decision-making authority.

2. Building and Maintaining the Team. In this, the largest section of the manual,
there are exercises to break the ice; build trust; resolve conflict; improve team
meetings; provide problem-solving skills; develop work process flow charts;
assess team effectiveness; develop team norms and values; inter-group team
building, and plain old-fashioned team building.

3. Special Issues. Special issues include many team-building areas that are unique
to self-directed teams, such as team leadership, dealing with team stagnation and
the changing role of the supervisor.

We suggest that you select the activities that suit your audience’s needs and meet
your comfort level. You should use only those activities that make sense for the
participants. Don’t do an exercise just because it sounds interesting to you if it
really won’t help the team develop. Just as important—pick those activities that
you feel comfortable facilitating. Your needs assessment should tell you what
will work and what won’t. By the same token, you might feel that an activity the
team could use might be too much of a stretch for you. You might be able to
overcome that challenge with good preparation, but keep in mind that you may
be able to use it next month or next year. The manual will still be there.

The best facilitators do their most important work before the session begins. It’s
important to carefully plan what you are going to do and say, including
anticipating the group’s reactions and questions. Planning also enhances your
confidence and helps you deal with the unexpected. If you are confident about
the activity you are better able to deal with the overhead projector that doesn’t
work or the difficult team member who won’t cooperate.

4
Introduction

We provide a great deal of detail about each activity. Each activity gives the
objectives; recommended group size; time limit; physical setting, and materials
and resources needed. On your end it’s important to plan your presentations to
the group about the objectives, or purpose, of the activity, and the activity itself.
One way to deal with their anxiety about the session is to provide a solid outline
and clear directions, which are given in the process notes.

At various points along the way and, without fail at the end, summarize the key
learning points or outcomes of the session. Help the people understand what
they have learned and, most important, how it relates to team effectiveness, how
they can use the ideas back on the job or what are the next steps for the team
and team members.

With this manual you have a wide range of resources available to you. In order
to successfully use these resources to develop and train self-directed teams,

1. survey and identify the training needs;
2. select the activities that respond both to those needs and meet your comfort
level;
3. develop a detailed plan for the session using the process notes as the starting
point;
4. carefully plan your presentation, including the instructions, to the group;
5. summarize the key learning points at the end;
6. facilitate a discussion of how the session outcomes will be used on the job.

REFERENCES

Orsburn, J. D., Moran, L., Musselwhite, E., and Zenger, J., Self-Directed Work
Teams, The Next American Challenge. Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1990.

Parker, G. M., Team Players and Teamwork. The New Competitive Business Strategy.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Pubishers, 1990.

Parker, G. M. and Kropp, R. P., Jr., 50 Activities for Team Building vol. 1 Amherst,
MA: HRD Press, 1992.

Torres, C. and Spiegel, J. Self-Directed WorkTeams: A Primer. San Diego, CA:
Pfieffer and Company, 1990.

Wellins, R. S., Byham, W. C., and Wilson, J. M. Empowered Teams.: Creating Self-
Directed Work Groups That Improve Quality Productivity and Participation. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1991.

5