Web2Print Best Practices - Part I: Team Development
Jack Perry November 16 2009 08:33:06 AM
Making changes in your print operation will impact several departments within the company including: sales, marketing, supply chain, finance, channel management, and IT, to name a few. To be successful, you must build a steering committee comprised of stakeholders from each of these departments. The steering committee will have several functions: gathering important business requirements throughout the business, measuring program impact on existing process and systems, and building momentum for user adoption throughout the organization and downstream constituents. Building a good steering committee is very important to the success of your program. Finding the right group of people is both a challenge and a diplomatic two-step. If you follow these basic guidelines, you'll have a much easier time and will build an effective team.
Select personnel who are in the trenches; those who understand business processes but who also report to department heads who can affect change inside their department. In many cases, the person may have a director title: Director of Sales, Director of Marketing Operations, Director of Finance, and so on. The person whom you select should understand workflow and personnel affected by changes in print operations. If the person does not understand how print changes will impact departmental operations, you have gone too high up the food chain. If the person has insight into operational impact but does not report to a department head who can affect change management within the department, you have gone too far down the food chain.
Select an executive sponsor. In most cases, an executive sponsor is self-evident. This person has either been the driving force behind starting a web-to-print program, or they own the responsibility for reducing print cost across the enterprise. The executive sponsor should preside over the steering committee. They will serve as arbitrator should conflict arise among team members. The sponsor will be a liaison to all the department heads. And the executive sponsor can help the team to build and defend financial cost justification for the program.
Select a program champion. The best program champion is the reader of this document. It's you. The program champion is responsible for facilitating team meetings, measuring team progress, holding members accountable for milestones, and maintaining program energy and velocity. The program champion is also the program facilitator.
Establish strict meeting times which have the support of department heads making it possible for team members to participate in steering activities without being overwhelmed by existing workload or pulled into projects that compete for time. The executive sponsor will be instrumental in helping to maintain the availability of team members. Reach out to your sponsor if a team member complains of conflicting obligations or a lack of time to finish assigned tasks. The sponsor can interface with peers in other departments and make sure team members are allowed enough time to participate as an active member of the team.
Establish strict meeting guidelines which are to be followed, honored and respected by all team members. In the team environment all opinions should be heard and considered. Team members bring different perspective to the steering committee. No more or less important than another. Team members should be respectful of each other and acknowledge that each person's job will be affected by the program. Each person has an equal stake in program success. Each person has an equal share of responsibility if the program fails.
Here are some good ideas on guidelines for team management:
1. Use the concept of a parking lot. A parking lot is a place to put good ideas that deserve consideration but may not directly impact your web-to-print program. Ideas placed in the parking lot should be documented and delivered to appropriate department heads for further consideration.
2. Always have the following tools available to support productive meetings: white board, large sticky pads, dry markers and erasers, regular markers, small, multi-colored sticky notes, colored push pins, string and tape. You'll understand why these tools are important as you read on.
3. Always document individual assignments with the following data: assignment name, assignment description, assignee name, assignee email, assignee phone number/extension, due date, deliverable, and impact the answer has on the project. This forces accountability for each team member to come to meetings prepared with answers or they affect team progress and deliverable timeline. The program champion should always maintain the assignment list and enforce accountability by team members.
4. Establish benchmarks; deliverables to be achieved and the timeframe for achieving them. Establish broad benchmarks at the beginning of the project, refining and narrowing the benchmarks as your team passes through different stages of the project. A broad set of benchmarks might include the following criteria: establish the steering committee and conduct and initial meeting within 14 business days ? finish documenting business requirements no later than August 15 ? evaluate the three top technology solutions by September 30. Refined benchmarks might include the following: determine the complete set of document user groups, workflows and payment options for the meeting on June13 - build document standards based on a template-driven workflow by July 9 - have technology solution evaluations scored and circulated by October 15.
Establishing a good team with the right ground rules makes the process of building a web-to-print program much easier and it increases the likelihood of success exponentially.
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