The company's work quality requirements for white-collar teams must be as strict as their requirements for product quality in the manufacturing environment. Admittedly, you may not be able to determine the value of correct decision through quantitative analysis, but the quality equation still applies. High-quality products are equal to high-quality raw materials (in white-collar teams, this refers to the intelligence and skills of employees) plus high-quality processes (refers to the interaction between employees). You should understand that the team has become the new organizational structure of the company and the core of power and responsibility. Therefore, as an entity, teams at any level of the company must create outstanding performance and continuously deliver high-quality work results. Bottazzi, CEO and President of Li Lirui Group's Socks Company, said, "The purpose of implementing the quality management campaign in the factory is to reduce variables and hope that all products produced will meet the specifications. Now, we need the white-collar team to maintain such a stable quality of work, and hope that they can consistently make wise decisions, work efficiently and be creative. "
Promote interaction and collaboration among team members.
In order to ensure that the performance of white-collar teams is always excellent, companies must carefully examine the second factor in the quality equation-process, that is, the way employees interact, especially the way they deal with multiple pressures and conflicts.
In the current market environment, enterprises must always make decisions quickly and wisely if they want to maintain their competitive advantage. A vice president of human resources explained it this way: "If something goes wrong with a machine and you don't have the corresponding tools to repair it, then this machine will continue to produce waste products. The conflict of dysfunction is a problem of white-collar team. If the team is in conflict and the members are helpless in the face of conflict, then it is impossible to make decisions in this case. Similarly, they will continue to produce waste products. " Judging whether a team has any problems mainly depends on the unity of its members. Professionals who manage the quality of white-collar teams will wisely focus on ensuring that teams at all levels of the organization reach an agreement, or unite and cooperate around the following four areas: the key strategic and operational objectives of the organization, and the relationship between team objectives and these objectives. What responsibilities should team members bear individually or as a whole, and what authorization have they obtained? Rules or basic guidelines set by the team on how to deal with conflicts.
The interpersonal relationship between team members refers to their personal style in the process of interaction.
Andrew Pek, global president of organizational effectiveness in a Pfizer business unit, commented: "If you don't check every step in the production process, the quality of your products may be compromised. Similarly, if you neglect to urge the team to cooperate in the above four aspects, it may also weaken the team's ability to complete the expected work results. "
In view of the importance of teamwork in the quality management movement (especially for white-collar teams), you must carefully check teamwork in the above areas to ensure an efficient interaction process and enable the team to deliver excellent work results.
Unify the company's top-down strategic direction
As a diversified organization, Johnson &; Johnson) has more than 200 companies or business units, which form about 20 franchise groups. In such a complex organizational environment, how does Johnson & Johnson manage various external factors? Michael Carey, vice president of human resources of Johnson & Johnson Company, believes that the franchise strategy of the company is closely related to the goals and values, because it has a very clear * * *, which minimizes the possibility of misunderstanding and deviation.
These goals will be elaborated in two places. First, the parent company's strategic direction declaration, stating that Johnson & Johnson will adhere to the moral principles in the company's creed and manage it in a long-term perspective in the form of decentralized management. The second is the four requirements set by Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee: continuous innovation, optimization of processes, development of e-commerce and perfect implementation. Johnson & Johnson hopes that each of its companies can formulate their own strategies around the above themes.
Each franchise group must keep in mind the strategic direction declaration and four requirements of the parent company when formulating its own strategic plan; Similarly, all business units under the franchise group should do the same when making strategic plans. Carey also cited an example: "Ethicon is one of the pillars of our trauma care franchise group, and its basic business is wound suture, and its products include suture, U-shaped nail and wound dressing. The trauma care department announced that its goal is to become an innovative leader in the industry. In order to ensure the strategic success of the franchise group, Alcon must also devote itself to the same goal.
"For example, the R&D department may suggest that the company use artificial skin for wound suture like other companies in the industry, and the marketing department may respond: How is this possible? We should be more innovative than them! We must develop sutures and U-shaped nails that are less irritating to the skin, so as to reduce the swelling of the wound and accelerate the healing, and at the same time reduce the chances of infection and the number of visits to doctors. If the Alcon team really unites around the goal of becoming an innovation leader, they can easily make a choice. It can be seen that when the company is very clear about organizational goals from top to bottom, the intrigue and competition between departments will be greatly reduced. " Defining the roles and responsibilities of team members At the end of the meeting, everyone claimed that they had reached a consensus on what to do next, but before the participants returned to their respective departments, they began to plan to hand over the tasks to others. This scene is very typical, indicating that the team urgently needs to hold a coordination meeting. The following two questions can be used as a topic to start the coordination meeting: Do you know your role and responsibilities in the team? Do you know the roles and responsibilities of other members of the team? Then, ask each of them to describe his work in detail to others present, including the tasks he performed and the results he was responsible for, and at the same time show that he believes that other members have recognized his work, and confirm the gap between his ideas and the cognition of other team members.
Then, in front of the whole team, record the answers of each member with a matrix diagram. With the increase of data, you will find that the interaction between members is "disconnected". The following discussion usually ends with the team establishing a brand-new cooperation mode, and at the same time, everyone reaches a * * * understanding of the new cooperation point.
Develop a code of conduct for dealing with conflicts
To create a healthy team atmosphere, it is not enough to just define goals and roles. The third key element is that the team must formulate rules to deal with conflicts as the code of conduct for its members.
In many companies, such as Campbell Soup Company, Coach Company, Johnson & Johnson Company, American Branch of Masterfoods Group and Li Lirui Group, the following rules have been confirmed. Teams in these companies use these rules to effectively manage conflicts.
Avoid forming a "triangle" relationship. If the two parties to the conflict do not solve the problem by themselves, but seek solutions from a third party, it will lead to a situation of triangular seesaw. We should end this situation.
Don't pull people to support your point of view. Seeking the support of the third party is contrary to effective conflict management, which is not conducive to frank and fair discussion and will not promote positive behavior change. Either resolve the conflict immediately or leave it alone. The longer the conflict remains unresolved, the more likely it will spread inside and outside the team. If the parties involved in the conflict still can't solve the problem before the time limit for resolving the conflict, they must put it behind them and move on.
Don't blame others behind their backs. If someone asks a question about the absent person in the team meeting, then pause your discussion until the absent person arrives, and then start again. Objectively handle all kinds of affairs in the team. Everything should be handled at the official level. Every team member should accept criticism calmly and calmly respond to cross-examination. Stop "lobbying" and other behaviors. Some people will continue to lobby others for their favorite plan when a decision made by the team does not meet their ideas, even if it has been stopped. This kind of behavior is not allowed. In order to make these rules really useful, enterprises must combine them with the behavior of organizations. Write them down and circulate them throughout the team to ensure that all members agree and abide by these basic codes of conduct.
Improve the communication style of team members.
Team members' understanding of goals, roles and various codes of conduct has a great influence on the establishment of their relationship. In dysfunctional teams and organizations, it can be seen from the interpersonal relationship between team members that they have different ideas and deceive each other. To understand this interpersonal relationship, we must start with the following three types of people. The people who stayed were like this, "We all have our own needs, but I won't tell you what my needs are. If you ignore my needs, I will be angry. " A person with a lingering fear is like a volcano about to erupt. At the other extreme, people are aggressive. "I have these needs. Of course, you may have some needs, but mine is more important." This is a method used in business to bully the weak and fear the hard. In between are straightforward people. Usually, such people can understand the needs of both sides of the conflict and are willing to solve the problem through consultation. They are efficient conflict managers. Will people at two extremes change their styles and become the kind of people in the middle? Sure, but it's hard. Let your team do this test: first, let everyone confirm whether their communication style is boring, straightforward or offensive. Then, ask other members (one at a time) to explain why they agree or disagree with other colleagues' feelings about themselves.
If team members have made up their minds to improve their performance, they should take this opportunity to eliminate blind spots in self-cognition, especially those related to internal communication style. Quality management professionals must understand that although the speed of team problem solving and decision-making, the efficiency of project management, the innovation of products and services and other achievements are not easy to quantify, they are also powerful indicators that you can use to evaluate the quality of team work. To create a stable and first-class team work quality, all team members must reach a consensus on goals, roles, codes of conduct and ways of getting along, and unite and cooperate. Similarly, to achieve stable and excellent organizational performance, the company also needs the unity and cooperation of all teams. Today's quality management professionals are faced with the challenge of using their professional knowledge and relevant experience to guide the teams in the organization and promote their cooperation.