HomeBookBiographyConsultingAudioDownloadsContact
Taking a Fresh Look at the BusinessUsing the Team?s Intuition

Team Intuition

Two-day training
(contact Cynthia for pricing)

Senior executive, semiconductor manufacturing, Fortune 100 —
“The industry needs this approach to being more effective. People in the Valley need to know about you.”

In the 1980’s W. Edwards Deming told engineers at Livermore Labs (California) that if they followed a very simple team method, it would dramatically improve their processes and results. He was right. Unlike his well-known plan-do-study-act methodology, Team Intuition emphasizes rapid problem solving, so the learning cycle is very fast. Complex analytical techniques are applied only when the teams need them. Because employees have a wealth of untapped insight and process knowledge to be tapped, the need for time-consuming analysis is rare.

Quality VP, semiconductor equipment supplier —
“We learned that people are naturally smart. Given a better way, they will take it.”

“… we broke big problems down until the decision was ours.” In one semiconductor test equipment manufacturer, employees spent very little time in team meetings, yet one change per team per week x 52 weeks x ten teams = 520 changes per year. Three changes per team per week x 52 weeks x ten teams — not counting synergies — added up! Applying techniques from Team Intuition, teams transformed the factory floor from batch system to world-class “one rack at a time.” Result: The company went from being supplier-on-probation to sole supplier on their lead customer’s strategy team.

“… as soon as the solution was obvious, we implemented.” 35+ teams (voluntary; intact and virtual) applied Team Intuition to break down complex problems into easy solutions they could implement immediately — changing a sales detail bag, eliminating time delay in a communication loop, creating a better product guide, instituting monthly P&L reviews with the finance team, stream-lining a sales management procedure, eliminating repetitive paperwork. Result: Using this method with its bias toward action-learning and speed, employee-led changes kept pace with expanding needs as the market exploded (50% growth).

Manager, customer service —
“You taught everyone to take two steps back and look at situations and help others. Everyone in the company saw you as the saving grace to help us get things to happen and make suggestions to us, so we knew what steps to take.”

“… we developed a recommendation that was accepted.” A customer service team applied the techniques in Team Intuition to cut its inbound call abandonment times. Result: Service levels increased, and call abandonment dropped to zero, without adding staff.

Team Intuition is a four-step process, but teams only take the steps they need to take — and sometimes it’s just one — until the solution is obvious to the team. Then they implement.

“… we collected the data we needed.” Finance and manufacturing teams applied the tools in Team Intuition to reduce the company’s processing time for product returns. Result: Returns processing time dropped from 45 to 3 days, increasing the satisfaction of customer accounts.

Director, financial service —
“You have a very developed sense of awareness and intellect to see what’s really happening, what the direction should be, put together an employee program to go in that direction that works, and coordinate and manage it to facilitate the change. And you have the ability to do this in a very limited period of time. No one needs to tell you what to do. We just say we need it. These are unusual skills.”