LABORATORY AND RADIATION SERVICES PROJECT SUMMARY

The primary and most explicit objective of the workshop was to develop norms, or expectations for how people will behave and interact with one another (some say a secular version of the Ten Commandments).   Norms are considered an important aspect of effective teamwork.  The broader mission was to improve teamwork and develop a peak performing culture (where the sum is greater than the whole of the parts and each person is able to fulfill his/her potential). 

One impetus for the workshop came from a July 1996 report of an internal Department audit which recommended training in teamwork, communications and other areas.  A second source was the Division Director’s personal experience with a work unit which demonstrably increased productivity and morale in part because the unit established its own norms, (the Uranium and Special Projects Unit).

During the months of September through November ninety people (most of the employees and all the managers in the Division) attended a sixteen-hour Team Building workshop (four-hour sessions  conducted on four consecutive weeks).  The workshop was given five times to keep workshop size reasonable.   Workshop materials included a seventy-two page workbook (topical outlines, assessment questionnaires and abstracts of significant books) and  two videotapes, one a talk by Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the other an explanation of the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) theory of personality.  A Work Styles Questionnaire was developed based upon the MBTI personality theory to help participants understand how personality differences can create tension in the work place.  Accompanying activities focused on transforming differences from tensions into strengths.

From a list of 25 proposed norms developed during the workshop, the Division has adopted 14 major norms, 9 minor norms, and rejected 2 proposed norms, based upon the collective votes of attendees.  The supervisors met as a group after the completion of the workshop sessions to discuss the proposed Expectations for Supervisors.  At that session they accepted 12 norms (some were modified slightly), and the remainder were not accepted because they were redundant or inferior to other norms, or not acceptable.  The Division Director also adopted as set of norms for himself based upon suggestions from the workshop.