In mid-2008 HR Services Adelaide began piloting the Mission-Directed Work Teams (MDWT) project with the expectation that the project will be driven globally and rolled out to other centres by early 2009. The MDWT project is a multi-module program aimed at building accountability and ownership of outcomes by providing the tools to continuously measure, manage and improve team performance.
HR Services Witbank recently embraced the first module of the MDWT program, the formation of a mini-business. This is a crucial part of the program for it involves getting the team focused on goal alignment as well as establishing the team’s KPIs. It is also important for putting in place a measuring instrument (usually a display board or chart), which, at any given moment, allows team members to visually track their results and identify how they are achieving their goals. Typically, a mini-business adopts a name that reflects the team’s vision. In this case, the Witbank team has dubbed their mini-business Team Ukuthembeka. Leading the program is Caetano Amurane, who explains that the term ukuthembeka denotes trust.
“In whatever we say to our clients, not only must they believe in what we say, but we also need to really believe in what we say to them. Basically ukuthembeka means we are telling the truth and we are a team that can be trusted.” The MDWT program is a long-term project that usually requires 10 modules to be rolled out consecutively over a period of 18 months to two years. During this time the mini-business is engaged in multi-level meetings—daily, weekly and monthly—to chart KPIs and report on progress. It is obviously too early for Team Ukuthembeka to have noticed tangible benefits, yet Caetano concedes that the first module has already made a difference.
“It has at least helped the team as a whole to track the main issues and for each team member to understand their measure or responsibility. Whereas previously that sort of knowledge would sit with a particular person, usually a team leader, who was solely responsible for either informing the rest of team of the issues or finding out how the issues were being handled. Now, because
we have all of that information displayed on our board and regularly report on our activities—some on a daily basis, others on a weekly or monthly basis—every team member is involved and aware of what is happening.”
But there is more to the MDWT program than making clear a team’s performance goals and objectives. It is about creating shared accountability and fostering a culture of ownership whereby team members have a direct and positive impact on results. For Caetano, this requires installing a greater sense of self-direction within Team Ukuthembeka.
“I’m part of the team and I’m happy to give the team guidance for the time being, but as the program moves along I’m obviously going to expect improvements and changes to the team structure. I’m sending a message that I don’t want to be the only one in the driver’s seat; instead, I want Team Ukuthembeka to be a business where we all drive.”
