Step 9: Insist on Accountability and Team Learning

If as manager of maintenance you encourage ownership and team autonomy in your plant or shop environment, then this is the next logical step isn't it? It should be a natural fit.

If a team of technicians and their support group have shown that they can look after overall maintenance of a machine or group of machines without a manager breathing down their necks every day, then they are probably ready for a mission. A mission is a challenge. The challenge might be to increase the availability of a piece of mobile equipment, or it might be to beat last year's unplanned downtime by a certain number of hours in a particular corner of the plant. It might be to find an innovative practice that prevents a certain type of wear or a particular breakdown.

Once a reasonable challenge has been given and accepted, the autonomous team can be held to account. They accepted the challenge, therefor the results are theirs to speak to. Chances are great that they will beat the minimum requirement of the challenge. That's the nature of this kind of challenge given to an autonomous team. If they do in fact succeed they will have learned together in a powerful way.

If they don't succeed, then once again there is some team learning that can take place if it hasn't already. The function of accountability in this case is not to reprimand, but rather to help analyze where the efforts or execution of the challenge went off the track. A very open discussion on why the challenge was not met and what mistakes were made may find some tender spots in the egos of some team members. If blaming is avoided and amnesty is given for honest mistakes, the criticisms should allow team members to recommit and to carry what they've learned forward and to restructure the challenge and try again.

Was the manager leading this accountability meeting? Was the manager's presence even required in the discussion? What could or should the manager contribute to the team to coach their team learning? Your thoughts?