Nurturing Teams

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ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE

SURNAME: Adar INITIALS:AO

STUDENT NUMBER: 20522398ID

7512275936083

CONTACT NUMBER: 073266717

PROGRAMME NAME: C!r" P"a#P"r$!r%a&'"

MODULE: S()d* B+!'# 2 A,,-.&%"&(

/ Operational Excellence: NurturingHuman Capabilities

ACILITATOR: "-& "&d"r,!&

DUE DATE:20/01/2016

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Introduction

Before an analysis of the results of the survey within the team on operational

excellence, one needs to define the core concepts of operational excellence and

human capability within teams.

Feurer et all (Feurer, Chaharbaghi and Wargin, 1!" propose that the business

environment of modern day organi#ations is characterised by constant change, ever

increasing and intense competition, and a move by organi#ations to see$ dynamic

strategies and creativity as being central not %ust to growth but bare survival.

&rgani#ations are increasingly learning and focusing on high performing teams as

being critical to their success. 'mproving performance is being increasingly and

strongly focused on nurturing the best processes and interactions among team

members. Feurer et al, further explain that organi#ations are also focused on team

based structures of management and productivity whose main focus is on the

research, development, dissemination and application of crossfunctional industry

based $nowledge. Furthermore that operational excellence also focuses on creativity

and experimentation as $ey contributors to excellence and success in their

industries. &rgani#ations are spending large amounts of resources in developing

creative teams and a culture of creativity and innovation both within the team

structures and within the organi#ation as a whole (Basu, )**+". Finally yndall

(yndall, 1-" also argues that operational excellence focused on nurturing teams

ultimately leads to great improvements also in shareholder value.

When it comes to nurturing human capability ohrman and /awler (ohrman and

/awler, 10" point out that currently all organi#ations are operating in a $nowledge

economy underpinned by computer technology and the dissemination of $nowledge.

his environment foments sociological forces that have forced all organi#ations to


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learn flexibility, continuous improvement and selfmanaging teambased structuring.

&rgani#ations are furthermore focused on downsi#ing, rightsi#ing, leansi#ing, %oint

ventures, mergers, divesting and partnering in order %ust to survive let alone grow. 'n

order to cope with all of these forces, organi#ations recogni#e that human capability

must be nurtured, discovered and optimi#ed. uman capability within that context is

therefore defined as how members within an organi#ation understand $nowledge,

discover and process $nowledge, share and spread $nowledge with the core view of

selfimprovement and as a conse2uence organi#ational improvement and

shareholder value improvement. 'n other words, as members improve themselves

and reach their full potential the organi#ation as a whole is improved (3lliot and

4athryn, 1+". ipples simplifies the definition of human capability as being both the

capacity and opportunity of people to do things. 'n describing the Human Capability

Framework in his article, 2uoting 5martya 6en, three aspects come together in the

wor$ in environment, namely7 wellbeing and freedom of employees, role of

employees in influencing social change and the role of employees in influencing

economic production.

Survey Results

'n sharing the nine 2uestion survey, the following results came bac$ from the team

analysis.

• 8nderstanding of team goals and visions

'n understanding team goals and vision for the team and company as a whole, out of

five the average of the respondents9 answers was :.;. 't demonstrates that there is

perception of slightly more than average understanding of the goal and vision of the

team within the team members.

• &ptimi#ed utili#ation of resources

'n understanding how resources within the team can be optimi#e in order to improveperformance, the average answer of the respondents was :. his is a very neutral


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stance on resources. 't seems the perception within the team is not committed either

way in terms of resources within the team are being optimally used.

• ealthy trust and conflict resolution

'n terms of trust among the team members and how conflict is handled, out of five

the average of the respondents9 answers was :.+. 't demonstrates that there is

perception of slightly more than neutral level of trust and conflict resolution within the

team.

• 5uthoritarian or


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answers was :.-. 't demonstrates that there is perception of slightly more than

neutral level of openness of communication within the team.

• Well established and agreed on approaches to problem solving and decision

ma$ing

'n terms of the perception of approaches to problem solving, out of five the average

of the respondents9 answers was :.). 't demonstrates that there is perception of

slightly more than neutral level of the approach to problem solving within the team.

• =igid versus experimentation and creativity

'n terms of experimentation within the team and processes, out of five the average of

the respondents9 answers was ).). 't demonstrates that there is definitely negative

perception of experimentation and creativity within the team.

• eam evaluates its functioning and processes

'n terms of team evaluations, out of five the average of the respondents9 answers

was ).). 't demonstrates that there is definitely negative perception of evaluation

within the team.

Recommendations

'n terms of recommendations for this team, two approaches can be applied. &ne is

to improve in the most positive areas and the most negative areas. wo 2uestions

with the highest scores were related to the team9s understanding of goals and

visions as well as open and participative communication. he three lowest scores

below average or with negative perceptions covered leadership style,

experimentation and creativity as well as team evaluations.


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Beginning with the two highest scores, covering the topics of understanding goals

and communication within the team, one can definitely say that these areas are

critical to operational excellence and facilitating the nurturing of human capability

within any team or organi#ation. 'n their article on the discipline of teams,

4at#enbach and 6mith propose that it is essential for high performing teams, who

are aiming to achieve operational excellence, to collectively create a meaningful

common purpose. Further to that, they also posit that if any team wants to achieve

operational excellence and success that they must be positively and collectively

involved in developing that vision, purpose in order for them to have a sense of

ownership of the purpose of the team (4at#enbach and 6mith, 1:". Further to that,

shared or common goals related to specific performance milestones also allow

teams to achieve a series of smaller milestones towards their common larger

purpose. his team in particular focuses on accounting and financial management

within the company. 5 series of specific goals would help the team build commitment

and overcoming challenges and obstacles during the course of their wor$. 't would

improve their overall perception to much higher levels (4aplan and >orton, )**+".


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high levels of emotional intelligence are needed and combined with technical

expertise and intelligence ('?" in order to optimi#e performance and maximi#e

resources@ both human and otherwise (Aost and uc$er, )***".


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change is most warranted in dynamic business environments. 6pecifically, this style

of leadership is proposed to re2uire active listening, influencing rather than

commanding and controlling and finally flexibility to arising situations (5rnold, )*11".

5s a result the recommendation with this team, improving not only leadership style

but communication as well, is an exploration of how depending on different business

challenges how the whole team can be involved in collaborative problem solving and

as a result collaborative designing of processes as well as shaping goals. &nce

again goalsetting and communication are $ey to collaborative leadership. hose are

two strengths the team can build on. Collaborative leadership could also involve

more exposure of %unior members to responsibility in apprentice style business

decisions and tas$ oriented goals. he finance industry is very focused on human

capital and $nowledge. 32uipping %unior team members to ta$e leadership roles

more actively would free senior members to focus more on strategy and even further

recruitment. raining as well as $nowledge sharing during the apprenticeships could

facilitate this more 2uic$ly. 3ven greater exposure with client relationship

management tas$s outside the office would also further e2uip the current team to

become high performing.

he final area of low scoring was seen within team evaluations. hese are rarely

conducted by the team if at all. eam evaluations are a $ey component of team

learning and improving team performance. &b%ective feedbac$ and criticism around

team performance can also provide milestones and goals relating to improving team

performance and operational excellence. 5 few methods of best practice could be

implemented for the team to facilitate these evaluations and optimi#ing their

contribution to performance improvement. hese include creating a collaborativeenvironment that explicitly includes evaluation and performance feedbac$. 'n

addition, specific tools could be applied such as peerreviews that help facilitate

ob%ectivity (uelden#oph and ay, )**)". Formative or DduringtheprocessE

feedbac$ can also further cement a culture of collaboration and evaluation within the

team. Finally also assessing the feedbac$ tools and the collaborative process itself

should also be incorporated especially for a team li$e this that does not evaluate

itself regularly (uelden#oph and ay, )**)".


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References

5rnold, . ()*11". Collaborative /eadership7 >ew perspectives in leadership

development. The European Buesiness Review , pp.:;+*.

Basu, =. ()**+". Implementing quality: a pratial gui!e to tools an! tehniques:

enabling the power o" operational e#ellene$. Cengage /earning 335.

3lliot, . and 4athryn, C. (1+". Human apability: % stu!y o" in!ivi!ual potential an!

its appliation$. Cason all G Co

Nurturing Teams

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