Improving Performance
Summary
The games discussed in this chapter focus on improving a team's performance in completing a complex task. The chapter points out that the greatest gain a team can make in efficiency is enhancing communication between members and teams. Teams can speed up a process by 50 percent or more, simply by improving their communication, trust, and team process. In a time when it seems like teams are continually being asked to do more with less, team process is the most promising area in which improvement can be made. The games contained in the chapter are exciting and popular because they can produce tangible results. In addition, if the same process is used the game highlights with a work process, the team can make similar gains in a professional setting that they do during the game. One team decreased the time it took to complete a challenge from 7:24 to 2:37—a 65 percent reduction. Another case study shows how a team used this process to turn a 4-hour process into a 3-second push of a button with no additional work. This kind of enhanced production will boost the team's morale and compel them to make significant wins in their work.