The STAR Concept of Team Leadership

STAR CONCEPT
　
Imagine a five pointed star. Each point on the star represents a particular function the team needs to perform. 　For example:

• Managing
• Operations
• Planning
• Human Resources
• Site

The STAR concept makes different team members responsible for a single function or STAR point in addition to their normal team duties. This is different from having all the functions performed by a single leader. In the STAR approach, leadership is diffused across the team members. This has the advantage of not overburdening one person with leadership. It also draws upon the best abilities of different members to support the team. It does require a broad level of competence across the team to have enough members capable of handling the points. Members can volunteer and be elected by the team to fill a STAR point. They typically serve in a STAR point position for a set period of time (6 mos. - 1 yr.) and then the role opens to other members. A member can be reappointed to the same STAR point for another term.

Here are some details of what a member in a factory might do in each of the five responsibility areas listed above.

Managing

• Overall direction.
• Gather data from outside the team and act as an information resource.
• Link & coordinate with other depts.
• Set performance challenges.
  

Operations

• Coordinate activities with other teams.
• Monitor performance.
• Plan, schedule overtime.
• Assign work within the team.
• Solve production problems.
• Improve work processes.
• Communicate with outside resources.
• Plan and schedule materials flow.
• Quality testing.
• Process checking and SPC analysis.
• Computer networking.

Planning

• Prepare budget input.
• Compare expenditures to budget and determine cause of variances.
• Report variances, causes, and corrective actions.
• Establish team objectives.
  

Human Resources

• Establish training needs.
• Plan and schedule training.
• Conduct new member orientation.
• Explain decisions to team members.
• Manage assignments to broaden team members' skill mix and flexibility.
• Structure work and document skill requirements.
• Do staffing planning.
• Screen and interview candidates.
• Deal with performance issues.
• Manage time cards and attendance.
• Schedule vacations and overtime.
• Assign, borrow, and lend team members.

Site

• Carry out safety inspections.
• Train team members in safe practices.
• Write incident reports.
• Carry out basic and preventive maintenance.
• Assist maintenance in equipment repair.
• Document downtime performance.
• Manage downtime schedules.
• Assist with new equipment installation.
• Improve operations layout.

There is nothing fixed about the categories or the list of duties above. Teams might use "Quality," "Safety," "Improvement," or other categories as their STAR points with their own unique tasks.