Many years ago I remember being trained in the 'ancient art' of Total Quality Management, or 'TQM' as it is known. For those not familiar with the name, TQM is one of the many management methodologies designed to create a more efficient and happy workforce.

Although there were many things that it taught me, there are two things that really stick in my mind.

The first is the 'strap line': Work smarter, not harder.

Although this may sound 'old hat', this is a principle that is so often overlooked in the busy office environment, because everyone is so 'busy' working 'hard' and there is 'no time' to do anything, normally because of that deadline looming on the horizon.

Working smarter isn't difficult though. It's simply thinking about the things we do everyday, and how we do them, to see if there's a better way of achieveing the same result.

The second thing that stuck in my mind was an exercise in team work and collaborative thinking (or 'brainstorming' as it was known back then). In a room of 15 people, each was asked to write down as many potential uses they could for a paperclip, apart from holding paper together!

I think I managed about 7 or 8 before the grey matter ran dry, but that was about average for the group so I didn't feel too bad.

The interesting part (for me, anyway) began when we worked around the group for a second time. Through association and the liberation of ideas through group discussion, the list of 15 suddenly started to grow. The floodgates opened and potential uses began to materialise, sometimes at a complete tangent (metal toothpick anyone?), but all valid. After 10 minutes our list of 15 had suddenly grown to over 40, with ideas still coming thick and fast!

If you want a fun and educative way to demonstrate the power of collaborative thinking you should give it a try.

In Practical Terms

Team morale and efficiency are both key to achieving quality deliverables in a cost effective manner. Practical processes can address both of these areas.

When implementing processes in an organisation you have two choices. You can simply document what you already do, or you can identify the best way to achieve your goals and collaboratively decide how you're going to get there.

By taking a social approach, and promoting collaborative process formation, your processes will overcome any frustrations that team members may have, by allowing them to be voiced and then working together to resolve the causes.

The final result will be a set of simple processes, formed socially, allowing your team to work smarter... not harder.