U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

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Agencies Turning To Teams

"Teams are more effective at getting the work done than individuals working separately."

This theme was articulated by the leader of one of two conference sessions focusing on teams. Speakers from the Departments of the Army and Veterans Affairs emphasized the effectiveness of teams. Their presentations also shared a common theme of moving towards flexible team-based organizations able to adapt to change while continuing to function effectively.

• Team Effectiveness: Department of the Army
• Team Effectiveness: Department of Veterans Affairs

Team Effectiveness: Department of the Army. In a breakout session "Are We There Yet? Our Road to a Team-Based Organization," Colonel Jay Johnson and a five-member panel from the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny, New Jersey discussed their journey to teams, focusing on organizational restructuring, partnering, and benchmarking.

Panel members explained the steps in the journey to teams, problems encountered, and solutions to those problems. Lack of employee empowerment and ownership as well as poor communication were some of the barriers to implementing teams. Those problems were solved by educating managers and employees, identifying team expectations, and developing compatible performance standards that covered both civilian and military workers. Other barriers were a traditional, top-down management style and the lack of management and employee buy-in. These problems were overcome by partnering with employee representatives, getting military and civilian command support, and effecting change in the organizational culture.

The implementation team, which included union representatives as well as managers, benchmarked Federal and private organizations and adopted practices that fit their culture. According to Jamie Ruffing and Chris Duncan of the ARDEC team, "Benchmarking ... is sharing what works." Colonel Johnson ended the session by answering the question, "Are we there yet?" by saying "No, we're not there yet, but we're on the road. Change is continuous and you never really get there."

Team Effectiveness: Department of Veterans Affairs. The teams at the New York Regional Office (NYRO) of the Veterans Benefits Administration also were spotlighted at the conference. In the break-out session "Managing Team Performance," Rita Kowalski, a program analyst in that Office, described the 5-year process the Office has used to shift to a team structure. She observed that performance management processes including goal setting, measurement, and feedback are key to managing team performance successfully.

NYRO teams set goals and evaluate themselves weekly on their performance. The team review process provides each team member with specific, concrete data about organizational outcome measures and team goals that support organizational goals. Because organizational outcome data are reviewed and discussed weekly, the employee never loses sight of the organization's goals and mission or the team's contribution to the core group, the division, and the NYRO. This process gives organizational goal achievement a high priority for all employees.

Measuring performance at the organization, team, and individual levels through a "balanced scorecard" approach has also helped align employee efforts with the accomplishment of team and organizational goals. Organizational performance is measured periodically throughout the year using a variety of tools and methods. Team-level measurements used on the scorecard assess the technical skills of the team and the stage of development to which the team has advanced. Measures at the individual level focus on individual technical skills and teamwork skills assessed through a 360-degree feedback method. Individual performance is summarized at one of two levels: Fully Successful or Unacceptable.

The NYRO is a reinvention lab and a Government Performance and Results Act pilot. It is proposed as a performance-oriented demonstration project.

Originally published on October 1996.