It is possible but unusual for significant improvement-by-design to be delivered by an individual.
It is much more likely to require a group of people – a design team.
And that is where efforts to improve often come to a grinding halt because, despite our good intentions, we are not always very good at collaborative improvement.
This is not a new problem so the solution must be elusive, yes?
Well, actually that is not the case. We all already know what to do, we all know the pieces of the productive team jigsaw … we just do not use all of them all of the time.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to get around this problem. A checklist.
Just like the ones that astronauts, pilots, and surgeons use.
And this week I discovered an excellent source of checklists for developing and sustaining high performance teams:
A Systematic Guide to High Performing Teams by Ken Thompson (ISBN 9-781522-871910) and here is a TEDx talk of Ken describing the ‘secrets’.
The ones that we all know.