If your future depends on how well your teams do (and it does), you've got to invest in conscious team construction, using every tool and insight you can find.
Art van Bodegraven was, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy. He passed away on June 18, 2017. He will be greatly missed.
As football reigns and basketballs bounce in the wings, thinking about teams is inescapable. In most all team sports, split-second and intimate interactions are paramount to success. (Baseball is a bit of an exception, with more room for the freewheeling cavorting of superstars and misfits—not mutually exclusive categories.)
In our supply chain world, opportunities and needs for team effort and collaborative solutions abound—even overwhelm: Corporate implementation of an ERP. Installation of a new warehouse management system. A process redesign in the facility's pick/pack/ship operations. A move to a new DC. Integration of automated equipment into material handling operations. And on and on.
Teams have been a fact of life in our organizations for a couple of generations now. The once-vaunted cross-functional team approach has been around long enough to become a cliché. This approach, now an anachronism, was a useful beginning in assembling a variety of functional skills for complex problem solving. But cross-functional presence alone falls far short of what it takes to make truly effective teams—and can actually create seriously suboptimized solutions.
Without denigrating the importance of having competency resident in teams, there are a few levels of planning, selection, and leadership without which teams risk falling off the edge of a cliff into an abyss of failure.
TEAM FUNCTIONS, ROLES, AND BEHAVIORS
Classical team research shows that, while the nomenclature may vary, all teams must have embedded within them specific roles that are critical to success. For instance, in management consultant Glenn Parker's work, we find:
Contributors: Those who typically provide the nuts-and-bolts-type functional skills and expertise
Communicators: Those who, along with useful functional skills, work to foster a strong sense of group interaction, mutual trust, and alignment on goals and behaviors
Challengers: Those who test concepts, demand consideration of alternatives, and (while appearing to obstruct progress) keep the team from disastrous outcomes
Collaborators: The big-picture visionaries; the forward-looking folks who are committed to reaching the Shining City on the Hill, sometimes overlooking pesky details and dismissing challenges.
Other practitioners classify team members as task-oriented, goal-directed, process-oriented, and idea-challenging. Please note that the tendency to identify four classes of team member in no way indicates that the team should be restricted to just four individuals. Teams can be large and complex, with a number of each type of player present. Of course, any team that gets to be too large runs the risk of becoming a committee—a sure kiss of death.
No matter. What is important is that the team leader recognizes the legitimacy of each role. The next step is to teach the team members about themselves, and to help them value the other members and their roles and contributions to the end objective.
Importantly, a little examination will reveal that whatever the role nomenclature, team members' preferences, styles, and behaviors will map vary closely with the sundry assessment tools that have become popular in business, industry, the military, and government in the past several decades. This recognition is vital, in that simply knowing what you've got with respect to team composition is not likely to get you where you need to go in a world that demands results.
There are many tools available to help the savvy leader to build with purpose and determination high-performing teams; merely accepting what you've been handed has worse odds of winning than a Mega Millions lottery.
TEAM BUILDING AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS
When it comes to team building and personality assessment tools, perhaps the best known is the venerable Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Dating back to WWII, this indicator classifies individuals into one of 16 boxes in a matrix, with a four-letter code to provide a shorthand description. Despite its age, it remains a useful (if imperfect) device to assess personality.
Over the years, a number of similar personality assessment tools and temperament sorters have emerged. Usually simplified versions of the MBTI, they employ comparable categorizations. David Keirsey's work in this variant is probably the best known, along with Otto Kroeger's.
Other well-known assessment methods include the DiSC tool (now proprietary to Wiley), which focuses more on communication and styles. (DiSC, which stands for Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance, slots individuals into the usual number of boxes.) Perhaps the most sophisticated of this family of tools is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, which presents a nuanced profile of the balance (or imbalance) of styles, preferences, and characteristics.
Whatever the system used, it is imperative that the leader deliberately seek out differing personality types, with the four principal team roles in mind. It's not simply a matter of balance; it takes all styles to make a complete team and to achieve an optimal result.
Also important in team construction and assessment is the employment of a tool to determine conflict resolution preferences—you've got to know how team members handle contention and differing opinions, interpretations, and perspectives. For this, the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is invaluable.
You will also want to know how enthusiastic and committed team candidates are, and how they see their roles, how strongly they are motivated to lead—or to follow. You can't afford to have talented people on board who really don't care about the outcome. Nor can you afford to have two or three who are determined to drive the team bus, no matter who the preferred leader might be. Further, strong contributors might need a lower-key, calm leader, but more passive followers might do much better with a strong, even fiery, de facto floor leader. The right tool for these decisions is FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation - Behaviors). Btw, there is no such thing as FIRO-A.
Of course, there is no assurance whatever that a person with an identified style or preference is any good at using what might be inferred from the assigned nomenclature. Further, an individual might be highly skilled in the use of a style opposite his or her primary preference. All the more reason to get to know people beyond superficial levels.
READY TO THROW IN THE TOWEL YET?
This team stuff is not easy. But if your future depends on how well your teams do—and it does—you've got to invest in conscious team construction, using every tool and insight you can get your hands on. There's plenty of information online about each of these tools, and there is a multitude of skilled practitioners who can help you through the process. Tip: If you pursue any of these options, do not send one or two people to learn them and report back. Train your entire cohort in them at the same time for optimal internalization and adoption.
Maybe you can even use how well your teams, with you as ultimate leader, do to leverage your way up from logistics and supply chain management execution into a valued role at the highest levels of the enterprise. No promises, but going unarmed into the combat of corporate politics is not likely to be a winning strategy.
The U.S., U.K., and Australia will strengthen supply chain resiliency by sharing data and taking joint actions under the terms of a pact signed last week, the three nations said.
The agreement creates a “Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group” designed to build resilience in priority supply chains and to enhance the members’ mutual ability to identify and address risks, threats, and disruptions, according to the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade.
One of the top priorities for the new group is developing an early warning pilot focused on the telecommunications supply chain, which is essential for the three countries’ global, digitized economies, they said. By identifying and monitoring disruption risks to the telecommunications supply chain, this pilot will enhance all three countries’ knowledge of relevant vulnerabilities, criticality, and residual risks. It will also develop procedures for sharing this information and responding cooperatively to disruptions.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the group chose that sector because telecommunications infrastructure is vital to the distribution of public safety information, emergency services, and the day to day lives of many citizens. For example, undersea fiberoptic cables carry over 95% of transoceanic data traffic without which smartphones, financial networks, and communications systems would cease to function reliably.
“The resilience of our critical supply chains is a homeland security and economic security imperative,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a release. “Collaboration with international partners allows us to anticipate and mitigate disruptions before they occur. Our new U.S.-U.K.-Australia Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group will help ensure that our communities continue to have the essential goods and services they need, when they need them.”
A new survey finds a disconnect in organizations’ approach to maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), as specialists call for greater focus than executives are providing, according to a report from Verusen, a provider of inventory optimization software.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of the 250 procurement and operations leaders surveyed think MRO procurement/operations should be treated as a strategic initiative for continuous improvement and a potential innovation source. However, just over half (58%) of respondents note that MRO procurement/operations are treated as strategic organizational initiatives.
That result comes from “Future Strategies for MRO Inventory Optimization,” a survey produced by Atlanta-based Verusen along with WBR Insights and ProcureCon MRO.
Balancing MRO working capital and risk has become increasingly important as large asset-intensive industries such as oil and gas, mining, energy and utilities, resources, and heavy manufacturing seek solutions to optimize their MRO inventories, spend, and risk with deeper intelligence. Roughly half of organizations need to take a risk-based approach, as the survey found that 46% of organizations do not include asset criticality (spare parts deemed the most critical to continuous operations) in their materials planning process.
“Rather than merely seeing the MRO function as a necessary project or cost, businesses now see it as a mission-critical deliverable, and companies are more apt to explore new methods and technologies, including AI, to enhance this capability and drive innovation,” Scott Matthews, CEO of Verusen, said in a release. “This is because improving MRO, while addressing asset criticality, delivers tangible results by removing risk and expense from procurement initiatives.”
Survey respondents expressed specific challenges with product data inconsistencies and inaccuracies from different systems and sources. A lack of standardized data formats and incomplete information hampers efficient inventory management. The problem is further compounded by the complexity of integrating legacy systems with modern data management, leading to fragmented/siloed data. Centralizing inventory management and optimizing procurement without standardized product data is especially challenging.
In fact, only 39% of survey respondents report full data uniformity across all materials, and many respondents do not regularly review asset criticality, which adds to the challenges.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help users build “smart and responsive supply chains” by increasing workforce productivity, expanding visibility, accelerating processes, and prioritizing the next best action to drive results, according to business software vendor Oracle.
To help reach that goal, the Texas company last week released software upgrades including user experience (UX) enhancements to its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) suite.
“Organizations are under pressure to create efficient and resilient supply chains that can quickly adapt to economic conditions, control costs, and protect margins,” Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle, said in a release. “The latest enhancements to Oracle Cloud SCM help customers create a smarter, more responsive supply chain by enabling them to optimize planning and execution and improve the speed and accuracy of processes.”
According to Oracle, specific upgrades feature changes to its:
Production Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations improve manufacturing performance by providing real-time insight into work orders and generative AI-powered shift reporting.
Maintenance Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations increase productivity and reduce asset downtime by resolving maintenance issues faster.
Order Management Enhancements, which help organizations increase operational performance by enabling users to quickly create and find orders, take actions, and engage customers.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Enhancements, which help organizations accelerate product development and go-to-market by enabling users to quickly find items and configure critical objects and navigation paths to meet business-critical priorities.
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.