Moving Up the Curve: From Individual to Team to Organizational Effectiveness

Session
Pre-conference Workshop

Author
Kella Brown
President
Top Tier Communications

Description
The difficulty of managing and motivating individuals in large organizations to improve processes is well known. People feel isolated in their work. Organizations cannot fulfill many employee expectations. A team, not the individual, is the fundamental performance unit of the organization. Teaming methodology, if rigorously followed, produces highly effective results.

Abstract
Most organizations fail to tap into the power of teams to successfully identify and address cost, quality and safety issues and opportunities. The word "team" has been separated from its true meaning and is widely misused by leaders and managers to try to motivate employees to higher levels of spirit and achievement. However, a team, not an individual or department or work group, is the fundamental performance unit of today's health systems organizations. Although teams and excellence in teaming skills are unique sources of competitive advantage that cannot be imitated by other organizations, teams are one of leadership and management's most talked about but underutilized methodologies.

Participants in this workshop will gain a heightened understanding and appreciation for the role that real teams play in creating excellence and more collaborative organizations as well as the role that teams can play in transformational change. Practical methods for increasing an organization's capacity for doing complex work will be explained and illustrated. Participants will be better equipped to recognize opportunities for the use of real teams and gain practical techniques for properly chartering teams and managing team processes.