Joint Design Teams

The following is a summary from the comprehensive, step-by-step guide to joint design work, Joint Design Team Guide by King Chapman & Broussard, Inc., Copyright 2009.

Joint Design and Joint Design Teams (JDT’s): Engaging Employees in Strategic Execution

Over the years, many businesses, managers and leaders have explored how best to engage employees in delivering strategic business results in a quick and efficient manner. In order to address this strategic challenge, we at KCB have assimilated our years of experience and learning (from both successes and failures) into a collaborative process that we call “Joint Design”.

In Joint Design, employees from various levels of an organization team up to work together and achieve strategic business results in an accelerated timeframe. These Joint Design Teams can be populated with senior and mid-level managers, supervisors, technical personnel, operating staff and union members (where the facility is unionized).

Joint Design offers a particular value to businesses where the involvement of the worker is critical to the success of a strategic initiative. Joint Design Teams contribute directly to redefining the way business is done and help build accountability and ownership among workers. Where Joint Design is deployed, there is often a new level of work satisfaction realized by employees as they gain an increased sense of ownership in the business.

The Joint Design process is short in duration to accelerate performance and maximize the contribution of all involved. The Joint Design Team rigorously works to achieve line of sight to their outcomes and effectively reduces non-productive action as they pursue their goals. Because key stakeholders are involved continuously and in real time, Joint Design efficiently eliminates unnecessary and costly delays. Joint Design Teams effectively engage all employees within the entire organization, not only through solicitation of ideas, but through analysis, testing and implementation of the design.

The Joint Design Team approach is an alternative to a top-down approach when executing business strategy. Joint Design can take place in an individual business location or can happen simultaneously across multiple work sites. Further, launching Joint Design teams across multiple sites spreads best practices.

Stages of Joint Design

Set Up - Data Collection and Chartering

A smooth and efficient launch of a Joint Design process is dependent on leaders setting direction, defining desired strategic outcomes and communicating a business case to support these objectives. Researching for business information and possible site visits also help lay the groundwork.

Build a Foundation for Collaboration

Implementing Joint Design requires building an environment of collaboration and trust among individuals and workgroups (since employees may have limited experience with one another, or in some cases, may view each other as competitors or adversaries). Leaders managing communications and establishing public reporting events are key to team progress.

Launch the Core Joint Design Team (and Site Joint Design Teams)

A formal, public launch of Joint Design Teams symbolizes an organizational commitment. The launch is the formal start of a new way of doing business where workers and managers commit to solving problems and achieving strategic results.

Define Opportunities, Priorities and Design

The Joint Design Teams are prepared and engaged in identifying opportunities from the strategic view rather than from history and past experiences. Once engaged, the Joint Design Team will use a variety of tools to identify, prioritize, assess risks, analyze, solicit and report on opportunities, as well as to communicate progress. The output is a design plan that is presented to the leader oversight group for approval.

Implementation

Once the Joint Design Team reports on their design and has approval, the key structures and methods are deployed to move the opportunities into action and deliver bottom-line business results.