Change Teams. They're Just Like Any Other Team, Right? Wrong! Change Teams are probably very different from any other kind of team you have worked with before. Change Teams are not permanent. The purpose of the Change Team is to reinvent a work process -- how one slice of work is done in the organization. Because Change Teams create a new process that can and will be sustained by the people who do the work, the Change Team dissolves after it completes its reinvention initiative. Change Teams are self-managed. They make decisions by consensus. Each member of a Change Team has equal say in the team's work. A Change Team has no boss, no supervisor, no team leader. Neither the Champion nor the Team Coach "bosses" the team. Because members come from different areas of the company, no one manager is everyone's boss. Members listen to each other, learn, adapt and find positions they can all accept. Then, and only then, are decisions made. By gaining consensus, the Change Team hears and uses minority opinions. Because everyone's opinion is heard and considered, consensus tends to keep Change Teams aligned on the task, in agreement about process and working together at a high level of commitment. Change Teams are employee volunteers. Therefore, the people who implement changes understand the real problems created by the ways the organization operates. Many of the Change Team members will be around after the transformation to make sure what they've invented lives on. Members of a Change Team must volunteer for the responsibility. This helps assure they are committed to the task at hand and to the team. Change Team members are not appointed by anyone, nor are they coerced into volunteering for a Change Team. Change Teams are diverse and small. Ideally, Change Teams have only 4 to 7 members. Keeping the numbers small aids in communicating and gaining consensus. Each Change Team must be made up of members who are very different from each other and it must include some members who work in the process the team is changing. Teams are made up of diverse individuals because it takes different kinds of people with different skills and knowledge to understand and a create new process. This creates a mix of different backgrounds to assure diverse points of view. These differences are vital to fuel new ways of thinking. It also gives the Change Team a broader view on the impact of its work. Personal Growth. Each member of a Change Team must be actively working on some aspect of his/her own personal development. Others on the team must know, take an interest in and commit to the personal growth of their partners. We have learned that the people who are most effective at radically changing their organizations have experienced personal transformation. Also, when Change Teams working under pressure are committed to the growth of their members (not just to the task at hand), relationships are more challenging and exciting -- they work a whole lot better. Questions? E-mail Heidi Hess at: hess@changecraft.com Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess (Veronica Boaz and Doug Wesley contributed, James Lloyd edited) Check Point (Please complete and submit the Form below) When
you are finished Updated: July 5, 1998 |
