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Management gives the team members the support and incentives they need, and then
trusts them to get the job done. While processes and procedures are important, people
make them work. As Alistair Cockburn, one of the inventors of Agile development, once
said, “ Process and technology are a second-order effect on the outcome of a project.
The first-order effect is the people. ”^9 If the team does not have the minimum skills to
succeed, a good process will not save a project from failure. Conversely, a bad process
can make even a team of highly skilled workers fail at innovation.
Product team members can only innovate and contribute valuable improvements to
quality in the right environment, where they can work without fear of failure, of having
their trading ideas stolen, or even of being fired for missing short-term goals. Quality
management creates such an environment, overriding the personal inhibitors of team-
work, where employees believe that the only person they can trust is themselves; where
employees may be too proud or too bitter and may not be able to rely on others to help
achieve their goals; or, where employees feel that cooperation is unfitting.^10 Martin
Marietta ’ s “ Material Statement of Unifying Principles ” sets the tone for its organization:
In our daily activities we bear important obligations to our customers, our owners,
our communities, and to one another. We carry out these obligations guided by
certain unifying principles:Our foundation is INTEGRITY.
Our strength is our PEOPLE.
Our style is TEAMWORK.
Our goal is EXCELLENCE.^11But, teams do not gel automatically or due simply to some credo. Teams can be diffi-
cult to manage. Most Six Sigma companies assign a quality facilitator whose entire job is
to act as arbitrator to ensure teams work smoothly together. Also, teams tend to work best
when management delegates responsibilities to team leaders and supports team mem-
bers in their search for best practices to fulfill those responsibilities. In this way, the team
shares design, development, and testing responsibilities and is accountable for all aspects
of the project. (To reduce errors by 90%, the team should spend 30–40% of its time
testing benchmarked processes.) Furthermore, teams work best when:
● They feel accountable to investors.
● They focus on overall process effectiveness rather than individual tasks.
● They are held accountable for the performance of the team.
● Both team and individual achievement are recognized and when both individuals
and team performance are incentivized to do things right.
● In a setting in which management and teams work together to plan and control
work.^12Management can only persuade a group of people to act as a team when:● Agreement exists as to the team ’ s mission.
● Members adhere to team ground rules.
● Fair distribution of responsibility and authority exists.
● People adapt to change.^124.3. THE ROLE OF TOP MANAGEMENT