Case Study: Critical Success Factors for Creating Superb Self-Managing Teams at Xerox

Abstract

To achieve their full potential, self-managing teams need to monitor their own work, assume responsibility for problemsolving, and develop task-appropriate performance strategies. How can team leaders help their teams mature in these skills and grow better and better over time? Conventional wisdom says that brilliant coaching—facilitating meetings well, drawing out the right kinds of conflict, building cohesiveness, and the like-is the magic ingredient. But conventional wisdom is wrong. Basing her conclusions on observations of 43 self-managing teams in the Xerox customer service division, Wageman shows that leaders of the most successful teams gave first priority to getting the teams set up right and arranging organizational support for them. Only then did the leaders turn their attention to coaching, to help teams take advantage of their favorable performance situation. Wageman provides concrete illustrations of the seven factors that most strongly distinguish superb from struggling teams, describes how great leaders get those conditions in place, and provides a new conception of the role of hands-on coaching in promoting team effectiveness.