Teams: Power continuous improvement with Kaizen Teams
Kaizen Teams, originally defined from the Toyota Production System, are used in continuous improvement systems. Kaizen Teams typically have seven member teams and are cross-functional. Kaizen Teams and related Kaizen Events grew from the manufacturing world, but have been successfully applied to all types of organizations and processes.
Related Best Practices
- Building a Team
- Action plan to build a winning team
- Building an Effective Management Team
- Building a High Performance Team
- LEAN - Kaizen Teams grew as part of the LEAN improvement system
- After Action Review
Resources
- Wikipedia article on Wikipedia:High-performance teams
- Wikibooks on Wikibooks: Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Build High-performing Virtual Teams?
- "The 6 Benchmarks of High Performance Teams" by Jesse Stoner is based on research of 500 employers that developed an assessment of visionary leadership behaviors and good management practices and the performance of their team.
- KSL Training in the UK offers a free downloadable PDF copy of their guide (copyright protected) on building high performance teams as well a basic description on their website.
- Teampedia has a team building tools, icebreakers and activities list and a global directory of Team Building Companies on their website.
Author
The author of this page is Terry Gardiner
Terry Gardiner is the founder and President of Silver Lining Seafoods and NorQuest Seafoods - a medium-size Alaska seafood processing company; and currently a Board member of the Anvil Corporation, an employee-owned company specializing in oil and gas engineering.
His co-operative experiences include member director of the Commercial Fishermen Co-operative association; creation of legislation for the Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank; and advisor to the US Dept of Health and Social Services for the state Health CO-OPs.
Terry served ten years as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives -several legislative committee chairmanships, Speaker of the House, Chairman of the Alaska Criminal Code Commission and board member on various state and federal boards and commissions.
His non-profit experiences include National Policy Director for the Small Business Majority in Washington DC; working with the Herndon Alliance and ForTerra.
Terry authored the leadership book, "Six-Word Lessons to Build Effective Leaders: 100 Lessons to Equip Your People to Create Winning Organizations".
For more check: Terry Gardiner Long bio