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Chapter 28
The Myth that Teams Work Everywhere

The two of us traveled to Sao Paulo to give a talk about teams. We flew down, gave our usual "teams-are-great-but-problematic " talk, and we witnessed something that disturbed us. It was something exceedingly simple that became exceedingly complicated.

We went to the Brazilian equivalent of a convenience store to get a bottle of water. The man at the canteen counter asked what type we wanted and how much you wish to spend. We explained that we wanted a mineral water in the half-liter plastic bottle. He told us the cost (1.40 Reales, about $1.50) and directed us to the cashier at the end of the counter, who took our money and then hand-wrote a receipt for it. We took this receipt back to the counter and waited for the man to show up again, as the cashier called him back from the back room. Momentarily he returned, not remembering us or the deal we had struck a minute earlier. After we went through the choices again, he opened a cooler door, and there we saw, for the first time, water. We handed him the receipt, and he surrendered the water.

It was a remarkably inefficient process, one that cried out for reengineering. Probably the store needed a "team of one" -- a single person to take the money and hand over the bottle. There wasn't enough work to justify the two people operating in functional silos.

But here's the problem. People are plentiful in Sao Paulo. They arrive every day by the thousands, without skills, drawn by the promise of jobs.

Since people power in Brazil is cheap (40% of the country make less than $120 per month), downsizing hasn't occurred there yet, as it has in Argentina. So organizations remain very hierarchical, with lots of bosses, and lots of levels. Our purpose for being there was to talk about a nonhierarchical approach, the self-directed work teams that have taken over American and Japanese business.

Brazil, like much of the developing world, still has one foot planted firmly in the era of control, of dictators, bosses, and the military model. If you don't commit to the idea of trusting people and to the free flow of information throughout an organization, teams isn't just a wrong idea, it can be catastrophic.

But business people we spoke to were still very interested. Their economy is handicapped by high costs and low productivity, which hamper global competitiveness. This book, which has done modestly well in America, is a much bigger deal in Brazil. We couldn't step into a newsstand without seeing it displayed. But by the end of our trip, because of the danger teams poses in controlling environments, we were tempted to hide the book behind other titles.

On the one hand, Brazil needs teams to achieve efficiencies, become more competitive, and generate more wealth for itself. But on the other, the process of becoming more efficient means downsizing that little convenience store, and a million operations like it. Just because teams and downsizing had a generally healthy (albeit painful) effect on the U.S., does not mean Brazil's pain -- which will be catastrophically higher -- is justified.

What happens when, using computers to replace people, you downsize a society where a quarter of the people are already living in cardboard shacks on the outskirts of town, along the banks of the city's two lifeless rivers, without running water or electricity?

In America, we're like ambulance drivers, helping teams that have been in car crashes. But abroad, where teams have not caught on, we're more like ambassadors for an idea that may do them more harm than good.

 

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What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right

"The American business approach to workplace teams is filled with powerful subtleties and is also quite different from the Japanese. The phrase, "How come all this quality stuff don't work," nicely sums up the challenge making teams work in America. Authors Robbins and Finley present practical solutions to the problems with and misconceptions about teams that will be valuable to any organization inclined to assign teams to work on legitimate operational issues. Pragmatic team tips covered here include team decision-making, communication skills with teams, reward and recognition ideas, the importance of effective team leadership, and the fundamental factor of organizational culture that could help or hinder team success. The authors swap narration of chapters, enlivening this useful handbook on how to make the commitment to teams a success. Serves well any manager's interest in maximizing productivity and quality improvement with teams. Recommended for all quality professionals." -- Quality World