Road Map 3: Selecting the Project Team

Road Map 3: Selecting ISO 9001 Project Team

• The ISO 9001 Project Team leads in planning, implementing and maintaining the quality management system. These should be drawn from all the departments that will be covered by the quality management system.

Role of the Project Team

• Delegating the tasks to their subordinates,
• Help in establishing deadlines,
• Collecting and evaluating the work,
• Providing training, guidance and assistance where needed.
• The Team functions in an advisory capacity
• Helps in developing the project plan
• Help in enlisting buy-in from employees
• Collecting quality management systems information and disseminating it across the organization
• Providing guidance and leadership as the requirements are being addressed
• 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

Characteristics

• Experts and champions.
• Have sufficient organizational knowledge and authority in their respective departments.
• A clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in order to
• Ability to plan and lead the implementation effort.
• Have received in-depth quality management system training to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the intent of the ISO 9001:2008 Standard and how each of the clause can be integrated with the existing management system

What is the Core Team?
• Appropriate management personnel from across the organizational structure representing every function of the organization
• chosen for their skills and aptitudes related to developing an Quality management system
• The QMS experts and cheerleaders in each functional area
• The organization’s change agents
Typical Responsibilities

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
• 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 (QMS skills and “soft skills”)
• The Project Team needs training
• Each team member has to understand and be accountable for his/her EMS role and responsibility
• The project Team facilitates the QMS 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 QMS program
• The Team must have authority as well as responsibility