We are making progress… I have been working to improve team collaboration, by showing teams how to collaborate. When a project is successfully completed, I meet with the team that worked on the project. Here are some questions that I ask the team: 1. Did you have more than one option to solve the issue? 2. Did you have to weigh options, to determine how to proceed? 3. Did you have to go back because you needed one more associate’s input to complete or revise the option? We then discuss a better way to collaborate by: 1. Identifying associates who need to be involved to solve the issue 2. Holding preliminary meetings to discuss the project and required output 3. Discussing options 4. Selecting the best solution with a potential second option if required 5. Holding periodic meetings until the project is completed I also have been discussing the automation of processes, and learnt that many associates are capable of working on solutions. We have a very talented group of associates but have not gotten far, yet. At the forefront of my list to improve/automate, is the ability to speedily create new prototypes. I often thought that there must be a better way to quickly create new prototypes based on similar product designs. Designs are usually done in SolidWorks. I challenged one of the associates to see if he could find a better way – and he did, resulting in very fast new product designs. During a meeting of the minds, everyone was impressed by the new design solution. Associates are now starting to constructively challenge each other so they can come up with the best possible solution – with everyone’s buy in. Instances such as these lead me to believe that we are making progress.