Column By Don Titterington    Tuesday, 23 February 2010

The ColorQube team was spread out among multiple locations around the world, including members in the United States, Canada, England and Malaysia.

While there’s no denying that proper machinery is critical for manufacturers to successfully complete a job, there’s another often overlooked area that is equally, and often more, significant – the people involved in developing the product. Xerox utilizes the Belbin® Team Role system within its team accelerator workshops to help its teams develop and leverage their strengths to create cutting-edge products quickly.

The Belbin Team Role system is incorporated into the Xerox Lean Six Sigma Black Belt curriculum and is de-signed to help product development teams identify members’ strengths, weakness, roles and skills. The system has been used by Xerox for nearly seven years on many teams, including the de-velopment of the Xerox ColorQube, which is the world’s first high-speed solid ink multifunction printer. The Belbin

system was developed in a nine-year study beginning in the 1970s by Meredith Belbin, a researcher in the United Kingdom.

He investigated what factors made teams efficient and inefficient, identified nine set behaviors (team roles) and concluded that a mix of the roles proved to be more effective than a group of like-minded members. Belbin found that most teams comprised of members who had similar roles were difficult to manage, prone to destructive and un-resolved debates, and were more competitive than collaborative.

These teams were also found to be prepared for some tasks, but un-equipped for others. The Belbin Team Role process can be implemented in a variety of industries, both before a project begins or once obstacles start to occur; however, it is most effective when a team is put together with the nine essential roles in mind rather than looking for roles within an established team. Belbin established that an optimal mixture of the below roles fosters the best results.

Plants are highly creative individuals

‘planted’ into teams to improve

creativity within the entire team.

Resource investigators collect new

ideas and opportunities through inter-

actions with others and bring them to

the team to incorporate.

Coordinators are dominant and com-

mitted to goals and seen as trusting

and accepting of others.

Monitor evaluators are serious-minded

and immune to infectious enthusiasm.

They prefer to think through issues

completely before making a decision. >

Implementers are practical and self-

sacrificing individuals that ensure

necessary tasks are performed.

Shapers are direct, argumentative and

challenging. They cure a half-hearted

team needing a stern voice.

Team workers maintain team morale

and rapport and often make timely

interventions to restore balance within

it.

Completer finisher individuals are

detail-oriented and excited to see

projects through their end.

Specialists are critical to specific

situations and obstacles. These

members provide expert level

knowledge necessary to projects.

Belbin determined that although there are nine roles, the ideal group is five to seven people; any less could create voids and more could have a surplus of roles. The ColorQube team was spread out among multiple locations around the world, including members in the United States, Canada, England and Malaysia. In addition to handling the technical challenges of the project, the team also had to find a way to share information and collaborate with colleagues in various regions.

For instance, the print head subsystem alone involved five teams located at different locations – two teams in Wilsonville, Ore., were responsible for creating a unified print head out of four separate print heads. The teams then sent the project to Malaysia for additional development. Meanwhile, the team in Webster, N.Y., developed the complicated coding for the subsystem and a team of engineers in England was responsible for integrating the complete subsystem into finalized machines. With complicated technical challenges and a variety of team members working on one solution, the opportunity for miscommunications and misunderstandings was high.

Jeff Blank, vice president of Direct Marketing Products, oversaw the entire project with Mark Tennant, director of advanced development, and myself. Tennant and I found ourselves focusing on team dynamic dilemmas that wasted valuable time. The ColorQube has more than 360 patents behind it, and with so many technical challenges, there was no room for inefficiencies.

To resolve these issues, we implemented Team Accelerator workshops for the team in Wilsonville, Ore. The team began by establishing team ground rules. Then, members were asked to develop their perceived needs and align expectations. Before the training, the team found that parallel solutions developed by different groups often led to conflict. This training helped the team identify these problems before they began. By utilizing Belbin’s Team Role analysis questionnaire, the team identified their strengths and weaknesses, their prominent role, and developed a better understanding of the group’s dynamics and how to better communicate to avoid problems.

By implementing Team Accelerator workshops, the ColorQube team learned how to draw on the strengths of each team member and work together to

create one of Xerox’s largest product launches of the year. The role process saved time and fostered a team mentality. Also, the processes learned from the workshops prevented team members from working in silos and developing their own techniques, in favor of group collaboration.

The Team Accelerator workshop program greatly benefited those responsible for the ColorQube launch, but its influence didn’t stop there. I found myself incorporating what I learned within my daily routine. I recognized that all supervisors will not fit into a perceived mold, and to be successful, I had to play to my strengths and recognize areas in which I wasn’t as strong. Because of the lessons learned in the Team Accelerator program and Black Belt training, I have identified my skills and altered some of my tendencies, so much so that I have updated how I run staff meetings to be more efficient.

After experiencing the success of the workshops first hand, Blank, Tennant and I see the value of the tools for any product development process. We found the Team Accelerator workshops can help to resolve issues in the process before they become problems and minimize duplication of work to improve overall efficiencies. The workshops can help the team recognize its potential and can benefit each member, as well as the entire team.

Xerox continues to find success with Lean Six Sigma and Team Accelerator processes when developing – benefits impact both employees’ corporate and personal lives. Whether developing a new project with teams spread around the globe or creating a manufacturing process to create a better product, there is always room for improvement.

Don Titterington, vice president, Print Head and Ink Research and Development may be contacted through e-mail at

Donald.Titterington@xerox.com or by calling 800-344-6200.