It challenges team members to make a difference in the marketplace. The team knew that less downtime meant more productivity - and an improvement in the company's bottom line. It makes the team act like a team. No team member could single-handedly reduce changeover time. But the team could see that it would nail the goal if members worked collectively.
Problems pile up.
The so-called leader impedes the team's work. You're suffering under a leader who can't lead. You wonder whether the team would be better off on its own. Maybe, maybe not. Wageman, an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, has studied self-managing teams at several major organizations.