CREATING A WINNING TEAM

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CREATING A WINNING TEAM

• DR. ALAN H. BRUDER
• JANUARY 13, 2005

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Introduction

• Bill Bellichek of the NE Patriots is a master of
  creating winning teams
• Many are trying to duplicate Bellicheks success
• What are the key elements of the Patriots
  success?
• How can they be translated to business,
  government, and academia?

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Key Elements

• Sponsor supportive, helpful, sets clear goals
• Leader vision, provides overall direction,
  keeps focused and on path, sets agenda
• Team Members selection based on
  talent(knowledge and skills), chemistry,
  creativity, flexibility
• Commitment individuals and sponsor

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Key Elements

• Trust
• Accountability team depends on each other
• On time
• Prepared
• Participate
• Follow through with assignments
• Creative thinking and problem solving all ideas
  count and are respected

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Team Building

• Sports teams practice
• Team building exercises
• Explore key elements in creating a winning team
• Learn skills
• Appropriate behavior
• Develops cohesiveness
• Establish a positive environment

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Tower Exercise

• Favorite team building exercise
• National Sales Meetings, Plant Quality Days,
  Technical Group Meetings
• The group is broken up into teams of 5 or 6
  people
• Each team is given a bucket of lego blocks
• Task to build
• Tallest tower
• Fewest parts
• Shortest amount of time

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Tower Exercise

• Teams given 3 graphs Profit earned versus
  performance for each parameter
• Highest total profit wins
• Tower must stand for 1 minute
• Each team is given an hour to caucus and
  determine a strategy

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Tower Exercise

• In their meetings
• Plan an approach
• Brainstorm and develop a design of tower
• Get organized
• Execute plan
• Measure results
• Analyze results
• Make adjustments

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Tower Exercise

• After an hour all teams return to main room
• Competition starts at set time
• Each team declares the time when its tower is
  built
• Time, height, and of parts recorded
• Profit is determined for each parameter and then
  added together for Total Profit
• Teams ranked based on profit

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Tower Exercise

• Review and record what the group learned in the
  exercise
• Learn many of the key elements of creating a
  winning team
• Learn to work together in a non-threatening
  environment
• Begin to understand team dynamics
• Experience the process of creative thinking,
  problem solving, and decision making as a team
• Everyone idea is to be considered with respect
• Experience the joy of accomplishing goals as a
  team
• Have fun

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Tower Exercise

• Part II Do the tower exercise over but they have
  30 minutes to meet
• After 30 minutes
• Repeat tower building competition
• Measure technical performance and profit
• Rank teams based on profit
• Team that wins first round generally does not
  come in first in second round. Why?

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Tower Exercise

• Discuss what was learned from second round
• Need for continuous improvement
• Competition will quickly build on your successes
• SONY did not invent the radio or TV
• JVC or Panasonic did not invent VCR
• Toyota did not invent the automobile

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Actual Team Experiences

• Examples of Teams
• Company Business Team
• Excess Obsolete Inventory Team
• Global Purchasing Team
• M A Due Diligence Team
• ERP Installation Team
• Manufacturing Cost Reduction Team

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Cost Reduction Team

• Teknor Colors Compounding Plant
• Produces pulverized plastic compounds primarily
  for rotomolding applications e.g. kayaks,
  outdoor gym sets, parts for farm machinery, etc.
• Process
• Formulation with colorants, additives, and resin
  developed
• Ingredients are mixed
• Mixed ingredients are fed, melted, dispersed, and
  distributed through a twin screw extruder
• Pelletized plastic is pulverized and screened
  through an attrition mill

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Cost Reduction Team

• Problem Products not cost competitive
• Team established to address problem
• Team Sponsor VP/GM
• Goal improve plant productivity by a minimum of
  15 and reduce costs by a minimum of 10

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Team Members

• Sr. Process Engineer - Leader
• HR Director Facilitator
• Two Operators
• Shipper
• Buyer
• Laboratory Manager
• Plant Manager
• Customer Service Representative
• Director of R D
• Non-team members assisted Financial analyst,
  Sr. Plant Engineer

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Process

• Sponsor attended first meeting, provided
  rationale, motivated team, set goals
• Leader
• Set agenda
• Maintained focus on goals
• Provided technical leadership
• Motivated, assisted and supported team members
• Communicated status and needs to sponsor
• Wrote interim and final report
• Organized and developed presentation to the
  Business Team

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Process

• Facilitator
• Established ground rules
• Assisted in development of plant process flow
• Guided the pinpointing of operational bottlenecks
• Assured brainstorming process was open and that
  all contributions were heard, noted, and
  valued/respected

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Process

• Brainstorming
• All participated hourly employees made many
  contributions great for plant morale
• All aspects of the operation were examined
• Potential bottlenecks in manufacturing process
  were identified
• Opportunities for reducing costs were also
  identified

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Process

• Data from the operation were collected to
  challenge assumptions
• Additional data collection and experiments run to
  fill in any holes
• Based on data, alternatives for debottlenecking
  the process and cutting costs were suggested

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Process

• Analysis
• Productivity and financial improvements
  calculated for each option suggested
• Probability of success assigned
• Capital requirements determined
• Recommendations made

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Key Recommendation

• Purchase 6 to 8 spare sets of mill screens at
  2000 a set
• Cut cleandown time of mill from 8 hours to under
  three hours
• Decreased machine downtime and increased output
  by 1 million lbs per year per mill
• Eliminated need to purchase additional new mills

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Summary

• Sponsor supply clear goals and support
• Leader organized, focused, open environment,
  motivator
• Facilitator available for teams with a wide
  diversity of individuals
• Team Members meet input requirements skills,
  knowledge, creativity, problem solving, desire
• Synergy
• Committed
• Accountable

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Winning Teams

• Increase profitability, productivity, and
  innovation
• Motivates employees and builds morale
• Provides opportunities for individual growth

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GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!