Value analysis teams, being unique by their very nature, require new rules, rewards, and compensation to maintain their energy, focus, and productivity. It is relatively easy to keep a VA team motivated after their initial training sessions and their first few team meetings. The challenge for team leaders is to keep their team motivated year in and year out after the newness has worn off. We have found that the best way to do so is with new rules that set a positive tone for your value analysis program, as well as rewards and recognition for individual and team efforts.
Teams, being living and breathing organisms that react to all types of positive and negative stimuli, must be considered a complex organism requiring constant care and feeding by team leaders. If you believe as a team leader that all you need to do is schedule a VA team meeting, prepare the agenda, and expect everyone to show up, be enthusiastic, competent, reliable, dependable, organized, and prepared – you may need to learn more about why teams fail (figure 1).
Figure 1: Why Teams Fail
| Goals Not Clear | 35% |
| Changing Objectives | 35% |
| Inadequate Management Support | 25% |
| Ineffective Team Leadership | 20% |
| Lack of Recognition and Compensation | 21% |
| Inadequate Team Member Priority | 19% |
| No Mutual Accountability |
17% |
Source: Hay Team-Based Survey
There has been enough empirical data and research generated by team performance practitioners to clearly recognize that high performance value analysis teams, or any teamwork for that matter, doesn’t just happen. It must be designed into a team’s framework to be successful. It all starts with new rules (Figure 2) for new work:
Figure 2: New Rules for New Work
| Rule 1 | Teams must have clear goals, clear roles, and a defined process. |
| Rule 2 | Teams must have a charter to define their scope and boundaries. |
| Rule 3 | Team members must be given the time necessary to complete assignments. |
| Rule 4 | Timetables for completion of VA studies must be strictly adhered to. |
| Rule 5 | Team performance must be evaluated holistically. If one member fails, this must reflect on his or her overall performance evaluation. |
| Rule 6 | If there is a conflict with team leaders or team members (time, change in responsibilities, workload, etc.), it must be resolved quickly by executive management. |
| Rule 7 | 360-degree evaluations must be utilized to rate the team’s performance. |
| Rule 8 | Must reward, recognize, and compensate teams for their performance. |
It had been mistakenly believed that if team management focuses their efforts on the human relation side of team dynamics or soft skills (cooperation, trust, conflict resolution, etc.) this would lead to team success. It has now been carefully documented that these HR issues will take care of themselves over time. You can’t force them on a team. They will develop over time as the team members work together. On the other hand, to truly have high-performance value analysis teams, management must quickly focus their efforts on the performance elements, such as clear goals, clear roles, and a defined process, which are measurable, recognizable, and manageable. Focusing on both HR and performance elements will ensure that you are creating high-performance value analysis teams.
The old model of command and control will no longer inspire and motivate your value analysis team(s) to reach new levels of performance. The new model is all about inspiring and motivating your team to reach new levels of performance by skillfully paying attention to their needs, wants, and feelings. “In the past… (team leaders) didn’t care how (their) … (team members) were feeling; they only cared about what they were doing. Because we now see the link between how people feel and what they do, it’s important that … (team leaders) ask more probing questions. Not just a casual, ‘How are you doing?’… but sitting down and taking the time for a sincere, ‘How are you REALLY doing?” Alexander Hiam, author of Making Horses Drink, tells us, “When you invest the time to really know what motivates each and every one of your team members, (money, time off, praise, incentives, bonuses, etc.) then and only then will you get the best results from them.”