Team Learning Lab Implements Peter Senge's 5 Disciplines

Over 80% of the teams that experience the 2-day Team Learning Lab will develop and be fully committed to incredibly ambitious goals.

Typical examples are:

an executive team commits to triple digit growth for 3 consecutive years
a middle management team commits to reduce delivery of product/service from
6 months to 2 days.
a corporate team commits to reduce quotes to customers from 40 days to 5 days.

Companies like Ford, Hewlett Packard, Pratt & Whitney, Owens Corning, Seagrams, NASA and many others can attest to this sort of impact.

How has The Lab become such a transformational experience for teams?

The quick answer is: it strikes an emotional chord - it gets under the skin of every individual, and is amplified by the group experience.

A more complete answer is found in three factors:

Positioning
Process
Content

POSITIONING

The work team itself makes the decision whether to invest the two days to experience The Team Learning Lab. A brief presentation is made to them which describes the objective being primarily, to become a "High Performance Team" and secondarily, to provide indiividual and team learning. The presentation also describes the content, process and results from other teams taking The Lab. Invariably the team determines it will be worth the investment to become a "high performance team" (HPT).

PROCESS

Clients tell us that the most powerful factor is the unique MRCC Team Learning^tm process where people who work together, learn to learn from each other how to become a high performance team (HPT). There is no expert present to teach or 'tell' them - every member of the team will share their expertise on HPT. A road map and a coach will support the team's deliberations.

After a number of hours of very engaging - yet very serious, substantive discussions on various aspects of their "teamwork" the group dynamic begins to change. The group sheds patterns of defensiveness, such as lip service, being politically correct, saving face, protecting turf, etc.

Undiscussables surface; an openness is manifested; higher levels of trust emerge.

Apart from occasional input from the Coach, all discussions are by members of the team.

CONTENT - Peter Senge`s 5 Disciplines divided into 3 topics

The content focuses on three topics:

Communications

How we can manage "hidden thoughts" to develop more open yet safe conversations on contentious issues.
How we can re-examine some of our preconceptions that color and freeze our thinking about people and things.
How we can use all these tools to balance advocacy with inquiry to come to real consensus with others around contentious issues.

Systems Thinking

The team starts to recognize that many problems they encounter are affected by factors outside their team. They learn how to resolve these systemic problems by using systems thinking tools. "Quick fixes" are replaced by more fundamental solutions; the team solves some real chronic problems and develops a greater sense of empowerment. It's a revelation when the team discovers how myopic their thinking has been in the past and how effective systems thinking will be for their future.

Shared Aspirations

So far the team has been monitoring their progress to become a high performance team by using our team evaluation format on three separate occasions. They now see and feel their improvement. Their evaluations and discussions about their progress, further reinforces their commitment to their team.

They are finally ready to take very seriously (no lip service) the emotional factors that bind their team - their shared aspirations: "Where are we going? What do we want to achieve together"?

To coalesce around their shared aspirations they discover and openly discuss their personal visions and values including shared values. By this time the typical barriers to complete honesty have disappeared and they begin to build consensus around a shared vision or goal that inspires them.

There is a genuine sense of achievement and celebration among the team when they develop consensus on a business goal that challenges their best efforts. Based on the 2-day experience, they are now confident of meeting that goal. They are beginning to operate as a high performance team!

The team then develops action plans for achieving their shared vision or goal over a specific time frame with specific dates for reaching significant milestones.

What follows, is more detail of significant accomplishments from some of our Clients.

Manufacturing

Automotive

30% improvement in quality (highest jump in Ford's history)
Establishing the company's records for 'on time' achievements
Returning $65M of a $95M late change provision

High Tech
A middle management team from the Microwave Software Division, committed to reducing delivery to customers from 6 weeks to 2 days, and gave themselves 4 years to meet that target. This ambitious target galvanized the entire Division to support their team. After only 9 months, their delivery time is down to 2 weeks.

Aircraft
Improved collaborative behavior from among a diverse group of over 600 engineers helped reduce the time for developing an engine from an average of 30 months down to 10 months.

Automotive Parts
A team charged with developing quotes for customers reduced the quote time from 40 days to 5 days within 3 months.

Non-Manufacturing

Insurance
Seven different sales divisions that have previously not worked together or even shared client lists, decided to work collaboratively. They began to meet together; appointed a co-coordinator and began joint sales calls. This resulted in underwriting accounts and business that they had not previously underwritten - greatly increasing their total sales. (Exact amounts are considered competitive information).

Professional Services
In just 2 days working with the executive team, the 15 executives agreed to a goal of achieving triple digit growth by offering a variety of new services that integrate their four major divisions: Testing Systems/Litigation Systems/Document Systems and Logistics

Beverages
A customer service team, in New York, that is committed to being #1 in service by at least 90% of their customers within two years. Within four months, their Manager has reported that they have achieved this recognition.