Case Study on Team Development
A strong team is the basis for mutual success! Customer support in Germany starts with two levers."
If performance of the team is not satisfactory - the customer suffers.
Situation in the team:
The customer service team in Germany has changed dramatically: three months ago, a former team member took over management and shortly after, five new colleagues joined the existing team.
The customer service team has been reassigned within the organization as a result of structural changes. The team members do not feel sufficiently involved in this area and have limited confidence in the new team management. The processes within the team are not running smoothly, which results in losses due to unnecessary friction during interactions.
All this is noticeable in the processing of customer inquiries, the quality of service has declined considerably...
The customer service team has been reassigned within the organization as a result of structural changes. The team members do not feel sufficiently involved in this area and have limited confidence in the new team management. The processes within the team are not running smoothly, which results in losses due to unnecessary friction during interactions.
All this is noticeable in the processing of customer inquiries, the quality of service has declined considerably...
The Group Becomes a Team
Challenge:
- Customer inquiries must be processed quickly and with high quality.
- This group of people can become an authentic team with a focus on collaboration.
- The interfaces within the team, as well as the processes, need to be revised and realigned.
- A common understanding of the roles and strategic focus, with a clear description of tasks, would give the team more focus.
- Team leadership could be supported to fill this new role and gain acceptance within the team.
- Communication within the team is a key factor.
Using everyday examples, all those involved work on how they want to improve the situation.
One Team - Two Days - A New Direction
SOLUTION:
We will start with a thorough analysis of all team members in order to define appropriate interventions for the entire team.
PREPARATION:
The focus is on clarification of the assignment:
We will interview team members by telephone (for about 30 minutes) and get an impression of their personalities and effective skills. An assessment of team members, team performance and collaboration, among other topics, is conducted.
These interviews offered us the following hypotheses:
WORKSHOP:
We will start with a thorough analysis of all team members in order to define appropriate interventions for the entire team.
PREPARATION:
The focus is on clarification of the assignment:
We will interview team members by telephone (for about 30 minutes) and get an impression of their personalities and effective skills. An assessment of team members, team performance and collaboration, among other topics, is conducted.
These interviews offered us the following hypotheses:
- The "old" team members do not understand why the team has been expanded and why team leadership has been staffed this way.
- The roles of each team member, and the team overall, within the organization is not clear.
- Trust between the team members is low.
WORKSHOP:
- With this information, we developed a two-day workshop. The content ranged from defining the roles of the team and its members to developing a common strategic focus, as well as confidence-building measures.
- Special attention was paid to the internal interactions and work processes. Through a visualization of the processes and reflection of all participants, we were able to trigger many "aha"-effects.
- Clarity about the roles and tasks within the team.
- Understanding for each other and mutual support during daily work.
- Customer inquiries were processed significantly faster and with higher quality.
