Selecting a Core Team
The Core Team has a vital leadership role in planning the EMS project, delegating the tasks, establishing deadlines, collecting and evaluating the work, and providing training, guidance and assistance where needed. The Team members are the organization’s EMS experts and champions. Some participants enlisted volunteers for their Team; others made assignments. Teams were varied in structure and in size. Successful teams have included representatives from both facility and city management domains, as well as up and down the organizational structure of the fenceline. Team members should have sufficient organizational knowledge and authority in their respective departments. The entire team needs in-depth EMS training and a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in order to plan and lead the implementation effort.
The Team functions in an advisory capacity, developing the project plan, enlisting buy-in from employees, collecting EMS information and disseminating it across the organization, and providing guidance and leadership as the requirements are being addressed. Implementation Teams need in-depth EMS training to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the intent of the EMS and how each of the elements can be integrated with the current programs
What is the Core Team?
- Appropriate facility staff and city management personnel
- from up, down, and across the organizational structure
- representing virtually every function in the “fenceline”
- chosen for their skills and aptitudes related to developing an EMS
- The EMS experts and cheerleaders in each functional area
- The organization’s change agents
Typical Responsibilities
- Gather, organize, and disseminate information
- The EMS experts and development leaders
- Delegate EMS tasks and general responsibilities
- Collect and evaluate the work
- Advise, coordinate and facilitate
- Manage reaction to change
Qualifications
- “In the know” in their functional areas
- A good communicator and sympathetic listener
- Available, enthusiastic, and committed
- Respected and trusted by employees and managers
- Pleasant personality, can handle stress
- Able to meet deadlines
In selecting the Core Team ask yourself:
- Who can give credence to your program?
- Who do employees trust?
- Who has responsibility for environmental issues?
- Which managers are most directly concerned with or potentially affected by environmental issues?
- What are the most critical environmental issues and where in the fenceline are they?
- Are the key functions represented?
Lessons Learned
- It takes time and effort to develop a team dynamic (EMS skills and “soft skills”)
- The Core Team needs training
- Each team member has to understand and be accountable for his/her EMS role and responsibility
- The Core Team facilitates the EMS effort; they are not responsible for completing all the EMS requirements
- Be prepared for resistance: organizations do not like change
- Remember the KISS rule
- The Environmental staff often thinks that they can do this without involving employees
- The Implementation Team is pivotal to the success of the EMS program
- The Team must have authority as well as responsibility