Team Xerox Builds Teams With Kolbe

Xerox knows a little about building teams. It does, after all, call itself "Team Xerox." So it's no surprise Xerox has turned to the Kolbe system to build a better team.

Xerox's Quality Service Group recently formed a strategic alliance with Kolbe Corp to train and consult throughout the world. As part of its Team Enhancement Series, Xerox now provides its clients with Kolbe's pioneering management and TeamSuccess® programs.

John Barr, former Senior Managing Partner at Xerox Quality Services, was responsible for bringing the Kolbe system to the company. Benefits to Xerox became apparent almost immediately. Barr said productivity within his own team increased tremendously. His team was able to design and develop a training program in 50 days---compared to the usual 100 days.

"We work with a lot of senior teams and senior teams, almost by creation, are dysfunctional," Barr said. "People either clone themselves---they hire people who are like themselves and they get into groupthink very quickly---or people are bred by their function and when they get together as a senior team, they have different world views. World views can't be communicated effectively because people expect everyone to be just like they are."

When Xerox spots a dysfunctional senior team, it quickly implements the Kolbe as the center of a team-building program. Sixteen Xerox Quality Consultants have been trained and certified by Kolbe to lead team-building seminars.

"The advantage I see initially, is the fact that people can appreciate and understand each other better," Barr said. "As a result, they can perform better as a team. And since we are Team Xerox, it makes sense for us to act on behalf of our customers. The only way we can do that well is to act together as a team."

By recognizing how individuals and teams can accomplish goals through their striving instincts, validating individuals' innate abilities, communicating instinctive needs and utilizing diversity, Xerox has used the Kolbe to tailor its training programs to fit specific MOs.

"We have one customer where all the "Is" have to be dotted and the "Ts" have to be crossed," Barr said. "Because we've learned about ourselves, about how people learn and about their MOs, we're able to produce a much better lesson plan and much better training material. For us, that's a huge win."