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Lindsay Sherwin
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About Action Teams
An Action Team is a group of typically 3 to 8 people, formed to work together
tackling a problem or an improvement.
They go under various names:- Project Teams, Service Action Teams, Improvement Teams, Taskforces, Quality Circles - all operating along similar lines. The two
most common ones are outlined below.
Local Improvement Teams
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Project Teams
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- Natural Work Groups tackling local issues and problems.
- Four to Ten People
- Volunteers
- Select Issue themselves
- Ownership rests with the Group
- Meet weekly for about One Hour
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- Cross Functional tackling cross departmental problems
and issues
- Up to Ten People
- Management Driven
- Tackles a Specific Issue
- Selected for Skills
- Meet, solve issue, disband
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The 3 Keys to successful Improvement Action Teams
Studies of such improvement project teams that were recognised as
being highly successful identifies three key elements, summarised in the
diagram below.
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Where the teams had a project that they felt was
clearly valuable they were
able to take ownership of it and invest the required effort to
define and tackle it. Teams that did not were often unable to agree
on what the project was really about.
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Where teams adopted a
structured approach to
tackling the project they organised themselves and generally
delivered good outcomes. Teams that did not tended to argue from the
basis of their personal preferences.
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Where teams had good
teamwork with a healthy team climate and atmosphere they were
able to work openly and cooperatively to carry out the project.
Teams that did not tended to be tainted by conflict, politics, and
people withdrawing or coasting.
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