model concept, but not forgetting it, I would like to explore with you now the
teamworking trend which is evident within the UK.
Let us start in the foundations of the business. The “doers in the workplace”,
where a workplace can be an office, a shopfloor, a front desk or wherever. The
trend here is to move through an evolutionary process which usually starts with
voluntary improvement activities (based on the quality circle concept). This
initiation, using teams of volunteers, opens the door for the development of
team ownership in the workplace. It starts to release the frustrated initiatives
and improvement ideas which have lain dormant. It breaks down the isolating
barriers between work colleagues and gives each an opportunity for selfdevelopment
and the subsequent improvement of self-esteem. It taps into the
synergy of teamworking.
With enlightened management actively supporting it, this initial door
opening stage leads, in time, to a growing degree of involvement by the
workplace members. A critical involvement mass is reached when participation
in improvement activities becomes the expected, rather than the exception.
Workplace team building activities, new staff recruitment positively selecting
team players, and induction processes emphasizing team- working are then
common characteristics.
Again, the evolution in the workplace moves on and developed teams acquire
additional workplace responsibilities. They are progressively given the
authority to self-supervise; that is to organize themselves, the administrative
planning and scheduling task which traditionally the supervisor has
undertaken. Of course, with that devolved accountability goes the appropriate
accountability and the need to self-measure performance. The role of
supervisors and managers changes to accommodate this evolution. Back to the
soccer simile, they become coaches and leaders.
In a simple diagrammatic form – the teamworking foundations and the
evolution route forms a triangle encapsulating all the workplace teams at every
level, as shown in Figure 1.