Re: Intro -- Diane M. Korzen LO4309

Barry Mallis (bmallis@smtp.markem.com)
18 Dec 1995 09:06:32 U

Reply to: RE>Intro -- Diane M. Korzeniewski LO4278

Diane:

My company has just this past year embarked upon deplyment of Total
Quality practices supported by theory.

In the area of teams, we believe strongly in the concept of a taem being
greater than the sum of its parts. This is certainly old hat for GM and
the other auto makers in recent years.

Our first goal is to translate Katzenbach and Smith into appropriate
course work for team membership/team leadership and facilitation. This
phase is occuring now, in groups of 21 persons, seven to a "team" table in
the 3-day course. We play at 3-dimensional chess, working in groups on a
case study of a team from hell (who eventually do get something
accomplished), and also reviewing the work of the table teams themselves
who move through various stages of performance and dynamics. By the end
of the three days, the table teams are humming. They have an explicit and
implicit understanding of high performing teams which they then can take
back to their work areas.

Our next target is a specific sponsorship course. The sponsor of a team
is that person who is usually a higher manager or supervisor. This person
recognizes the effort; assists the team leader where possible or necessary
in team member selection; reduces or removes barriers to team success;
reviews and fully supports a measureable, focused team goal.

These are a few of the things we're doing now. We are "organizing our
learning" with an infrastructure, so that individuals within the
infrastructure have maximum access to, and make use of, best practices for
serving the customer. For me this is what learning organization (as
opposed to "A learning organization" is all about at this time.

Best regards,
Barry Mallis
Total Quality Resource Manager
MARKEM Corporation
Keene, NH

--
bmallis@markem.com