T.E.A.M. is your best defense against EFCA. This model ensures that your employees have a voice, input and performance standards to live into at your company, which obviates the need for external intervention. But T.E.A.M. is little more than words, if it doesn’t include the “A” for Act. Touching and engaging your employees provides the fuel to act, or do something about what you learn.
The best way to act is in concert with your employees, by leveraging their skills and energy to solve some of the very issues they surface to you. There are countless formal and informal ways to involve your employees in making the business better. From Six Sigma, Lean and Work-Out, to round-tables, lunch and learns and the old stand-by, suggestion boxes.
Whatever your medium, the key is to take some sort of action. You are by no means obligated to agree, but you do have a responsibility to react. To engage your employees and then not act on their suggestions is worse than never having listened in the first place. Remember that a voice must be heard to be validated.
Better still is to involve your employees as part of the solution. That’s the beauty of process improvement tools such as Work-Out, where employees are asked to identify issues and then are enrolled in their resolution. When you ask employees to participate in the solutions, they are validated and you move the needle in focus areas. It’s the kind of win-win that leaves little room for a third party.