Improving Team Effectiveness
Challenge: Forming New Teams
A global technology company experienced a major restructuring and reorganization in their Field Sales Organization. The organizational leadership, reporting structure and work processes also changed. Employees were asked to take on new responsibilities and new skills. The remote management team now supported a geographically dispersed organization. Many of these managers were not used to working remotely and were having difficulty accepting the change. In many cases senior managers now found themselves in subordinate roles. Employees used to on-site management had to learn to work remotely with their assigned manager. Economic conditions necessitated centralization of services in the larger field sites. This change meant that employees who previously performed specialized skills had to learn to support generic demands of customers. Employees were housed together in business service centers. Members of these new teams had not worked together on a regular basis. As a result, teaming issues surfaced that caused delays in service delivery and a decrease in customer satisfaction. The organization needed a mechanism to identify the teaming inhibitors and an instrument to report these issues so that they could be resolved.
Solution:
We designed and administered a confidential assessment tool to employees in the business service centers. Response from employees was candid and honest. The senior management team used the data to make significant changes to the way the centers operated. A clear mission statement was written and much work went into communicating the new mission and vision to staff members and customers. Training needs were defined and training dollars were used to support programs to increase customer satisfaction, technical and soft skill building. Customer satisfaction assessments conducted after changes were implemented also indicated improvement in all service levels.
Result:
The most significant change realized was in the overall productivity in each of the business centers across the United States. Due to the success of the project, the business service center model was replicated in manufacturing sites across the company, which continued to experience dramatic cost savings and better resource utilization. Over time the company created a white paper describing the project for ease of replication in its Latin American and Canadian sites. We remained on the project providing the analysis, the feedback mechanism, communication programs and mission and vision setting. We also assisted the management team in the implementation of recommendations.