Blasting Off: Achieving Team Success Using Quality Improvement Tools

Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence

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Date: 8/25/2017 10:24 AM

Related Categories: Performance Management, Quality Improvement, Workforce Development

Topic: Infrastructure, Performance Management and Quality Improvement, Strategic Planning

Tag: Management, Performance Management, Quality Improvement, Training, Tool, Technical Assistance, Strategic Planning, Workforce Development, Performance, Partnerships, Infrastructure, Evaluation

“Houston, we have a problem.” The story of the Apollo 13 mission stands as a shining example of a high-functioning and effective team, one that brought a damaged spacecraft, and its astronauts, home safely. But what should you do when your quality improvement (QI) team is stuck on the launch pad or isn’t soaring? Many QI initiatives face challenges when a team isn’t working well together, or is stymied by failures to reach consensus, distractions and disruptions, or uncertainty about how to move forward. Using QI tools focused on supporting team development and performance, teams can overcome their challenges, and rise to new heights.

Since the 2012 release of the Public Health Foundation’s (PHF) Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia, a book including 75 QI tools, PHF Experts and public health practitioners have developed over 30 additional QI tools. These tools are available as free downloads on the PHF website, and a set of these tools focuses specifically on team management.

Tools for a Successful Launch Sequence:

Team Charter - Set the initial direction a team needs to be successful, reducing confusion and lack of clarity
Roles and Responsibilities for Launching Teams - Understand effective ways to use, create, develop, and empower teams
Selecting Quality Improvement Team Members - Compare skills and characteristics of potential QI team members in order to assemble the most successful team
Facilitating and Coaching Teams: Tips and Techniques - Learn how experts have used facilitation and coaching techniques with teams to help them perform at maximum potential

Tools to Achieve Maximum Orbit:

Consensus Decision Making Matrix - Divide an issue into primary and secondary components as a framework for achieving consensus
Electronic Tuckman Tool - Assess the status of group development and identify next steps for maturing team infrastructureectronic Tuckman Tool - Assess the status of group development and identify next steps for maturing team infrastructure
Idea Parking Lot Matrix - Minimize distractions and unrelated disruptions during meetings
Taking the Pulse of Your Team - Understand a team’s behavioral performance over time using a questionnaire and checklist of tasks and processes
Ingredients for Effective Meetings and Team Communication - Explore ways to make meetings and other team communications more productive

The Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia can be ordered through PHF’s Online Store. If you have questions about how to use these QI tools, please contact Vanessa Lamers at (202)218-4412 or [email protected]. Have a favorite QI tool? Tell us about how you’ve used it.

Ready to Put These Tools to Work for Your Organization?
The tools listed above, along with the original 75 in the Public Health Quality Improvement Encyclopedia, are regularly used by PHF experts in the field to provide customized technical assistance and training services to public health, healthcare, and community organizations of all types to improve health outcomes. Ready to get started using these tools to improve health in your community? Contact Margie Beaudry at [email protected], (202)218-4415, or submit your information online.

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