The world, and especially businesses and their forms, have been changing more and more rapidly due, on the one hand, to the continuous, growing interest, and preparation of consumers, which has added complexity to the markets, improving in many cases the power of consumer negotiation and their level of demands.
On the other hand, to the trend of integration and fusion of technologies and businesses in a single system which provides greater intelligence, and capacity to process large volumes of information related to consumers, products and services, use, needs, desires, desires and behavior, markets and competition.
Concepts such as innovation, business and technology fusion, knowledge networking, customer integration through contact points, automated capture and analysis of customer information, human capital, and talent value, and the new leadership paradigm take greater importance in organizations as strategies to leverage business, maintain and improve their competitive position.
But in all these methodological, technological, organizational and administrative trends, there is a common factor of coincidence that constitutes the base and the central axis that sets all these theories in motion. Human Capital, Human Talent, and the value of talent; Paying attention to this factor can make a difference.
The investment of resources in educating and training Human Capital to provide it with the required competences, improve its living conditions, create favorable conditions and environments for creativity, innovation, teamwork, and mutual commitment, constitutes an investment with a rapid return if Manage properly. The added value of a staff motivated to improve the quality of products and services, and customer satisfaction is amazing.
The foregoing is central to understanding the new future, teamwork and the formation of high-performance, self-directed teams makes the difference in the added value they contribute in the quality of products and services, in the income and profitability of the company.
But the formation of Self-directed Teams is a very complex process, it is not a situation that is decreed, it is a process where trust, the level of commitment, collaboration, the work environment, the communion of individual interests with interests groups, awareness of individual and collective strengths and weaknesses, business competencies and knowledge, personal and family quality of life, leadership harmony between what is said and done, and knowledge of the role that is played They combine in a work team to emerge creative and innovative solutions and decisions.
We all accept that the results that are achieved from the synergy of teamwork are undoubtedly greater than the individual results.
But what are Self-Directed Teams? What characterizes them and where are they applied?
A Self-Directed Team is one that organizes, plans, influences and controls its own work performance with minimal management intervention. It is characterized by:
- They share objectives that guide their actions, they share vision, mission, values and goals. Each member is responsible for himself, for the team, and for his internal organization, they spontaneously develop internal norms that govern their conduct. They are interdependent regarding the task, they fulfill specific functions and roles, the work is decided and carried out together. Its members interact with each other, support each other, develop feelings of collaboration, friendship and solidarity. Leadership is shared to maximize team efficiency. Performance is measured by collectively measuring the resulting work.
Let's look at some practical examples where self-directed teams are critical to success, greater efficiency, and effectiveness in service delivery.
In service provider companies where several organizations intervene during the provision of the service, it is necessary that the customer service teams and the solution or support teams have self-directed team characteristics to provide the greatest satisfaction of customers and consumers. on each contact.
In those services provided by multi-companies, where the face to the client is unique, but the support is provided by the support teams of the companies that participate in the service, a great cohesion of the support teams with the care teams is required. the customer to offer solutions with the highest customer satisfaction. In these situations, the self-directed teams are the most indicated.
In the implementation of Agile methodologies for the development of software projects, self-directed teams are the basis of success, greater efficiency and to obtain the expected results in the established period of time.
As it is known in these methodologies, the Sprint or project schedules are generally executed in short periods of 2 or 4 weeks, and the role of Project Manager is diluted in the Work Team between the "Product owner" or Product Owner. and "Scrum Master" in the Scrum methodology.
As it can be deduced, the complexity in business is increasing every day and requires flexible companies that adapt quickly to changes and take advantage of the opportunities that the environment presents with innovative, creative and motivated work teams.
The formation of high-performance self-directed teams is the great challenge that companies, and especially service companies, have to face today to be prepared for tomorrow.
