Seminar to Discuss The Effectiveness of Workplace Teams

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Strategies for measuring team performance in the workplace will be the topic of Team Forum '98, which will promote the understanding and development of effective team-based work environments.

Sponsored by the Center for Team Performance in the University at Buffalo School of Management and the Western New York Employee Involvement Council, the annual seminar will be held from 5:30-9 p.m. March 31 in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Team-performance consultant and author Jack Zigon, whose clients have included numerous Fortune 100 companies, will be the guest speaker. He will discuss his seven-step process for measuring team performance.

The event will include a presentation by employees and managers from West Valley Nuclear Services Co., who recently graduated from UB's Center for Team Performance certificate program. They will discuss how implementation of a team structure helped to improve customer satisfaction at the company.

"Using teams in the workplace is a growing trend among companies searching to improve performance and quality in a competitive marketplace," says forum organizer Jerry Newman, UB professor of organization and human resources and director of the Center for Team Performance. "A successful team structure can guarantee a wealth of easily implemented ideas for productivity, cost reduction and communication in our everyday work life."

Cost of the seminar is $30, which includes dinner. For more information, call 879-6898 or 879-6705.

Established in 1993, the Center for Team Performance helps business managers and owners understand and build effect team-based environments within their organizations through training programs and the dissemination of research about current team-based issues, practices and case studies. Clients of the center have included Graphic Controls, Fisher-Price, Nabisco Foods and General Motors.