At 04:40 PM 1/8/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>You lost me on the notion that teams can't be measured. I shared
>one method we use to measure team performance. No one on a team
>has complained that the results did not reflect the team
>performance. We even meausre ROI for soft skills
>training...(mentioned on another thread)..so what gives?
>
>Thanks,
>Rick Corcoran
>CI Mgr./ Kaizen- Employee Empowerment
>Mark I
>Excel Industries
>
corcoranre@excelinc.com
>
I side with Rick. The original statement merely said measure. One response
to this changed the meaning of the statement by adding "precisely" to
measure. Another response suggested changing measure to value.
Perhaps we should start with defining measure. Measurement, from my point
of view, is the basis for making distinctions. Measurement can be
qualitative or quantitative (and some disciplines add a third category,
semi-quantitative). Perhaps part of our difficulty in using the word
measure is that we may have some mental model that requires an external
physical measurement instrument. May I suggest that this is not so. We all,
for example, are constantly measuring when we drive: distance from the car
in fron to us, distance to the intersection, time it takes to stop when the
light turns yellow, and so on.
The question originally raised was that if we define a team as having
certain characteristics, we should be able to measure these characteristics
to see whether the team has them or not (this could be a simple qualitative
measure: yes or no). If we canot determine whether any team has a selected
characteristic, then any discussion on whether that characteristic is
necessary or even desirable rests on not only pure opinion but it is
unresolvable.
Rick addresses another facet of teams that is necessary for the original
discussion on teams: the output, performance, effect (whatever term you
wish to use) of the team. Thus, my statement was that we identify team
characteristics, measure the degree to which groups have these
characteristics, measure the performance of the teams a la Rick, and see
which characteristics are correlated with performance. Those with positive
correlations indicate we would like teams to have those characteristics,
those with negative correlations indicate we would like teams not to have
them (or have their opposite, perhaps).
Comments?
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Kicab Castaneda-Mendez
aejes, LLC
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Ridgefield, CT 06877-4841
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Fax 203-894-9020
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kicab@aejes.com
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Author of:
1. _Value-Based Cost Management for Healthcare: Linking Costs to Quality
Delivery_
2. _The Baldrige Assessor's Workbook: How to Perform the Examiner's Role
for Internal and External Assessment_ (Both books available from Quality
Resource, New York, 800-247-8519:
http://www.qualityresources.com)
aejes, LLC offers services in three areas:
- Strategic Planning, using the balanced scorecard
- Improving Performance, using value-based cost
management
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