ability.
Be able to recognize others and celebrate the team’s achievements.
What Is the Role of the Team Leader
In general, the team leader sets the project’s strategy and facilitates the team’s progress in meeting milestones and achieving the project objectives. Specifically, the team leader’s role is to
Provide a framework for the team’s purpose that builds commitment and drives the project.
Collaborate and help team members clearly delineate their roles and responsibilities.
Help coordinate the completion of the project work according to the specified time frames.
Coach the team to accomplish both effective communication and constructive conflict resolution.
The responsibility of the leader is to establish clarity on the activities and goals that the team must achieve and then give them the tools they need to achieve them. The role of the leader is not to do everything but to facilitate the work of the QI team members. Many leaders feel a great deal of pressure to operate like surgeons (you have a problem, I can take it off of you) rather than a psychiatrist (you have a problem, let me help you figure out a way you can solve the problem) (Heifetz 2002). Having said that, as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan state in their book Execution. The Discipline of Getting Things Done, a successful leader needs to be “engaged personally and deeply in the substance and sometimes the detail of the execution” (Bossidy 2002).
THE TRUE ROLE OF THE QI TEAM
All improvement is a change, and acceptance of the need to change comes naturally when the front line is engaged in discovering the reason for poor performance and participating in the co‐creation of innovative solutions. “People support what they help create.” Given the importance of front line engagement in the improvement efforts, the role of the QI team is not to work independently to find solutions and implement them top down. A QI team is most effective when its members help create the conditions that allow key stakeholders to solve the problem that directly affects them.
A QI project is a partnership between four key actors: The Primary Sponsor, the Local Sponsor, the frontline professionals, and the QI team. The Primary Sponsors are the senior leaders who provide resources and legitimize the project; the Local Sponsors are the mid‐level leaders, managers, division heads, and departmental leaders who support the project, engage the front line in project activities, and support the change; the front line professionals are the people responsible for operationalizing the improvement and change; and finally, the QI team. The fundamental role of the QI team is to be the facilitator (see Figure 6‐1):
Facilitate the role of the Primary Sponsor. The Senior leaders and Primary Sponsor are the project authority. The role of the Primary Sponsor is general oversight and legitimization of the process improvement efforts; allocation of resources; communication and influencing opinion; and opening doors for the QI team. The QI team can help the Primary Sponsor by providing continuous updates on the progress of the project, coordinating the calendar of activities for meetings with the front line, and providing message content for written communication, meetings, and presentations.
Facilitate the role of the Local Sponsor. The Local Sponsors (managers, division heads, departmental leaders) are responsible for the success of the project at the front line; they are the QI team’s project partners. When the Local Sponsors support the project, they are important ambassadors for the change; they have a key role in project activities and acceptance of the change. Local Sponsors are responsible for making the improvement possible. They keep the front line informed and engaged, provide resources, coach performance, and arrange for training. The QI team can facilitate their role by providing continuous updates on the progress of the project, helping them coordinate calendar of activities for meetings with the front line, providing message content for written communication, meetings and presentations; and sharing tools, processes, and techniques to help sponsors with project activities and change management.
Help the front line be engaged and succeed. The front line has a crucial role. They are the project owners and should be engaged in understanding the problem, finding possible causes of poor performance, co‐creating solutions, and working through the technical aspects of the change. The QI team can facilitate their engagement by frequent sharing of information, creating the conditions for change (the Change Space), and providing coaching and training on the new process.
FIGURE 6‐1 The role of the QI team.
THE FIRST TOLLGATE REVIEW
Periodically, the improvement team needs to confirm that they are on the right track to achieve their project objectives. This is best done through a tollgate review with the Primary Sponsor. A tollgate review is a go/no‐go checkpoint where the team leader, team members and the Primary Sponsor meet to discuss ongoing project activities, review results and deliverables, and assure that the project is on track. The first tollgate review should be scheduled with the Primary Sponsor soon after organizing your team, at the end of the first “R”: the “Right People” (see Chapter 25).
EXERCISE: THE QI TEAM AT HEART MEDICAL CENTER
The Leadership at Heart Medical Center would like to reduce the long patient wait times in the emergency room (ER). Preliminary work has identified turnaround times (TAT) on routine blood and urine analysis in the main chemistry lab as the major causes of delay. You have been asked to assemble a team to address the issue. Using the hospital’s list of available personnel (see Table 6‐1), select six team members for your QI project.
TABLE 6‐1 Heart Medical Center Hospital Roster
| Hospital Roster: ER & Labs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Department | Position |
| Alens, F | Laboratory | Shift supervisor |
| Andrews | Laboratory | Lab tech |
| Anselmo, L | Administration | Hospital CMO |
| Bronch, G | Laboratory | Lab tech |
| Constatnts, D | Laboratory | Lab clerk |
| Deli, M | ER | ER physician |
| Dormund, M |
