Quality News

TeamWork

How do we get total involvement from our people in the good things? Here are 8 ways:

1. Teams. People work better when working close to other people. We are social animals who thrive on communication and cooperation. A practical first step to total involvement is to start small and local. It may be too much to expect one thousand people to all agree and engage fully in a common goal right away, but we can achieve this in the short term with groups of five to ten fairly easily. Encouragement aids engagement, as peer recognition for accomplishment is as important if not more important than monetary or other extrinsic rewards in the long run.



2. Uniforms. Simplifying and standardizing how we present ourselves not only removes superficial differences that distract us from what we have in common, but also remind us that we are coming to work for a reason. Just as personal protection equipment is necessary for working with machinery, diving gear is necessary for diving and lab coats are needed in the lab, a basic uniform helps people be mindful that they are choosing to be involved in whatever they are doing.

In fact there may even be health benefits to wearing uniforms. A number of recent studies showing that the way we think about how old or young we are has actual physical benefits. One study mentioned in a Newsweek article titled Just Say No to Aging? extended the research to people who wear uniforms:

Most people try to dress appropriately for their age, so clothing in effect becomes a cue for ingrained attitudes about age. But what if this cue disappeared? Langer decided to study people who routinely wear uniforms as part of their work life, and compare them with people who dress in street clothes. She found that people who wear uniforms missed fewer days owing to illness or injury, had fewer doctors’ visits and hospitalizations, and had fewer chronic diseases–even though they all had the same socioeconomic status.

3. Stand up meetings. Successful teams form the habit of meeting to review the game plan before the start of the day and review it at least once during or near the end of the day. This speeds up communication, nips any problems in the bud and reinforces the goal of the shared work of the team. The team meeting is the most basic act of total involvement. Any organization claiming to aim for total involvement or to practice lean must have teams that hold regular brief meetings.

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read this really good article here