【正文】 t VBSS was begun. 182。 On the people development front, an ― action learning‖ program was begun to teach people more about account planning. All these tools and activities were focused on achieving a new level of excellence in the core skill of VBSS that the pany knew was critical to its strategy. ?Accountbased ―action learning‖ program ?Multinational skill teams with 6 credible champions ?Pilot effort with leadership to get buyin and advice ?The leader skill for being $1 billion ?President as sponsor ?Input –Account plans –People trained ?Outputs –Price –Share ?Awareness building – President’s road show ?Skill building through workshops ?Reinforcement through VBSS work bulletins ?Account teams ?Global account managers ?Account planning Performance measurement Communications Vision and leadership Problem solving process People development Organizational infrastructure VBSS Associates will often step up to manager roles on engagements that address anization issues and/or implement change. These engagements often involve multiple client teams. Associates assume responsibility for managing one or more of these client teams. These engagements also seek the active support of a broader set of client managers. Associates assume responsibility for developing influential relationships with critical client managers. Engagements which focus on anization issues therefore provide exceptional opportunities for associates. The effective associate manager serves three functions: 1. The associate manager builds and sustains effective client teams that define, plan, and implement the change . 2. The associate manager leads problem solving on multiple client teams. 3. The associate manager fes a consensus of support for the change vision among critical client managers and ensures that managers maintain the energy level required to effect the change. All three functions are critical to success. However, in engagements that address anization issues and /or implement change, building and sustaining an effective team is often the necessary precondition to success in the other functions. The client team provides the critical insight, knowledge, and skills required to solve the anizational problem. The associate / manager needs to build an effective team environment to tap into the essential client input. The client team should hold the confidence of the critical client managers. Once the associate manager has earned the endorsement of the client team, the support of the client manager is much more likely. Client involvement Problem solving Team dynamics Consensus builder Chief engineer ? Focuser ? Structurer ? Quality controller ? Devil’s advocate Coach and team developer MANAGERIAL ROLES Since effective teams are so fundamental to success in anization work, the OP has invested considerable effort in understanding how to build highperformance teams. Follow these principles to build highperformance teams. PRINCIPLES OF TEAM BASICS Dimension Definition Meaningful purpose The team purpose must ? Inspire the individual team members ? Justify the investment of Firm and client resources, as well as the personal investment of each individual For an engagement team, the purpose must include reference to substantive and sustainable client impact Clear performance goals The best teams translate the purpose into a welldefined set of tangible and measurable goals. The goals enpass ? What will be achieved for the client in terms of performance ? What will be achieved for the team and its individual members ? Nearerterm goals, as well as ―pletionrelated‖ goals Welldefined working approach The best teams decide up front and throughout the effort how to work together daybyday, and how individual team members will apply and develop their skills as they produce collective results above and beyond what members working as individuals could produce. Their working approach allows substantive time for ―unstructured‖ creative team thinking/brainstorming Complementary skills The best teams are posed of individuals who provide or are expected to develop the full range and depth of skill needed to fulfill the purpose. Skill development is seen as a key reward for team participation. This applies particularly to functional skills, but also to problem solving skills and interpersonal skills Mutual accountability In the best teams, all team members feel mutually accountable for acplishing the team’s purpose and performance goals. Individuals do not succeed or fail – the team does Small numbers Superior team performance can only be achieved by a small number of people who can spend substantial time working together as a team. A group of more than approximately 15 people has little chance of being a superior team The principles are described much more thoroughly in The Wisdom of teams, authored by Jon Katzenbach. A team’s potential is defined by the quality of its membership. The associate manager should, whenever possible, participate actively in the selection of team members. Recent research by the OP has found that most successful change programs were driven by a few impassioned leaders. These ―real change leaders‖ exhibit a mon set of characteristics. Look for these attributes as you consider which client people to include on the team. . Once the associate manager has assembled the right team and built an effective team environment, solving the problem should be easier. The principles of good problem solving do not change for engagements that address anization issues and/or implement change. The way the associate participates does change, however. Here are a few recurrent themes taken from interviews with associates after their first anization engagement 182