On Thu, 28 Dec 1995 18:57:07 -0500 Ronunivar@aol.com wrote:
>>My questions:
>>
>>- how did your organization decide that SDWT's were an (the?)
"answer"?
>>
>>- are they being implemented "across the board" (e.g., everyone will
now
>>work in a SDWT)? or to address specific problems (e.g., time to
market
>>for new product, production quality)?
>
>My company has gone through a radical reengineering effort over the
>last two years. We are a wholesale distribution company with about
>100 locations nationwide. One of the outcomes was an organizational
>redesign of the management levels from 5 to 3 (VP, Manager, Team
Leader).
>
>As the title would imply, the Team Leaders needed teams to lead. The
>organization gave birth to Self-Directed Teams! The think was, with an
>increased span of control (from ~6 to ~12), the team members must
>take greater responsibility for their work.
>
>The SDT effort applies primarily to the warehouse workers. This is
about
>125 teams, ~1400 employees, out of 2100 total employees.
>
>Initially, my group developed a set of learning experiences for the
team
>leaders. The experiences involved 9 days of workshops spread over 6
>months. The team leaders practiced delivering the topics during the
>workshops, this was part of their role as leaders. In turn, they skilled
>their teams.
>
>The results? That's where we are today, assessing the results. We
>completed the skilling in October and are working on the other
essentials
>(management direction, coaching, and reward/measurements) for team
leaders
>now.
>
>Ron Miazga
>ronunivar@aol.com
Ron, I was very interested to see of your foray into SDTs, and I wish you
every success. However, I would be very interested to know further your
experiences. Also, I would be keen to know what theoretical literature
came across in your develpment of these SDTs; for example, the work
covered in the 'fifth discipline fieldbook' concerning team learning.
Also, of what use did you think the current literature was, in your
opinion, where did there appear to be any areas where the information was
poorly developed or non-existant? My possible PHD thesis is attempting to
evaluate what appears to me to be a rather limited development of the
concrete theory underpinning 'team learning': for example, the innovative
work of Bill Issacs seems effectively not to have progressed much beyond
the work of earlier 1990s.
Hope to here from you soon
Andrew (to be found on adrowe@essex.ac.uk)
"The more I see, the more I know, the more I know the less I
understand"
Paul Weller 'Changingman'
-- A D Rowe <adrowe@essex.ac.uk>