April 6, 2003
Your Value Teams Are Only As Good As
The People That Make It All Happen!
“You Cannot Build a Great Team Without
Great Players”.
John C. Maxwell
John C. Maxwell one of the leading experts on team behavior tells us that,
“you cannot build a great (value) team without great players. This is a
fact. You can lose with good players, but you cannot win without them.”
So how do you get great team players?
If
you want the best players on your value teams you only have four choices:
(i) Select
Them Right
Most value team leaders and members are selected because of their titles
(director of nursing, material manager, director of finance, infection
control nurse, etc.), or because of their influence in a healthcare
organization. They are chosen without any regard to their ideal
competencies or the qualities that will make them the best team players.
This is a
fatal mistake!
All winning value teams are a combination of attitudes, talents and traits
matched with the right leadership to give them the vision, goals and
objectives and “Can Do” attitude: a team that takes responsibility for its
actions and pride in its accomplishments. This synergism can only take
place if your team players have the ideal competencies or qualities (i.e.
analytical thinker, organized, reliable, dependable, enthusiastic,
selfless, tenacious, etc.) on which to build and to make them champions.
(ii)
Train Them
Larry Miles, the father of value analysis, recommended 40 hours of value
analysis training initially, then another 40 hours of training in six
months for value teams to insure that all players were well grounded in
the value methodology. Incredibly, healthcare organizations are giving NO
TRAINING to their value team members, but expect them to be winners! This
is like asking your team leaders and team members to fly a plane for the
first time without any flight training, then watching them
crash and burn
when they try to take off.
Do
you really need 80 hours of value analysis training to get your plane off
the ground?
The answer is no!
With new scientific training methods and guided software applications, we
have found that two our three days of training initially suffices, along
with on-going coaching that can make any value team a GREAT VALUE TEAM.
(iii)
Grow Them
After your initial value analysis team training and your first value team
meetings you will clearly see the weaknesses (emotionally insecure,
inflexible, intellectually lazy, undisciplined, etc.) of your team leaders
and team members rearing its ugly head.
This is not a time to panic,
but rather an opportune time for TEACHING new skills or reinforcing skills
that have already been taught in your training sessions. This coaching
should be accomplished off-line, in person and customized to strengthen
the player’s weaknesses.
(iv)
Trade Them.
If
you have trained and coached them and given individual players every
opportunity to grow as team leaders or members (about three months) and
you still aren’t getting the results that you were looking for, then there
is only one answer left for you – trade them for championship-caliber
people, and bring these champions onboard immediately. Never
hesitate
in making a decision to trade players (just like professional football or
baseball teams), since players who aren’t a good fit will eventually tear
down your championship team.
For your value team(s) to become a
championship
value team it will take time, commitment, discipline and tenacity, but if
you don’t start by selecting them right, training them, growing them and
trading players that aren’t a good fit, you will never even be in the
game.
