Teams are a basic building block in every successful quality effort. They can be departmental, cross-functional, special project, or any other combination of people who touch a work process. Teams are the mechanism through which continuous im- provements are made. The IQS concluded that teams are most effective in the early to middle stages of an organization's implementation of quality.
Teams can really get the project off the ground and increase staff buy-in.
Teams are now organized spontaneously and Heverly can no longer count the number in operation. They've become the normal way to do business. At UCF, Jan Terrell, quality management director, is leading workshops to build teams. Since UCF is in the early years of implementation, as defined by IQS, the emphasis is on developing team skills. Participants need to acquire the skills and tech- niques for working in groups before they can be assigned to improve processes.