The process of building a championship sports team has some well-defined steps. Can these steps be applied to building a winning service team?
The major steps are:
1.    Develop a play-book.
The starting point for any sports team is the development of a play-book. Using the collective wisdom of the coaching staff and senior team members, a document is created that describes in detail the plays that will be run and the responsibilities of each player during the play.
2.    Train the staff on the play-book.
In sports there is a tremendous emphasis on training. Prior to every season, there are training camps and exhibition games where each player has ample opportunity to learn the play-book. One of the most successful coaches of all time, John Wooden of the UCLA Bruins basketball team, developed a four step process for training his team. These steps were:
o    Explanation
o    Demonstration
o    Imitation
o    Repetition
These concepts can be summed up with a concept called the “seven times rule.” This rule states that it takes seven times, through the process above, before a new concept is understood and ingrained.
3.    Execute in “game situation” and monitor performance.
Teams always play to win, but it is also recognized in sports that each game is a learning experience. In order to have the opportunity to improve performance, detailed statistics are maintained on each game and game films are shot. This provides the coaching staff with the information that is necessary to assess the effectiveness of the play-book and the level of execution of the players.
4.    Review statistics and game films.
After every game, the coaching staff pours through the statistics and game films to isolate the positive and negative elements of individual and team performance. This is done regardless of the outcome of the game. There is always something that can be learned in order to take performance to the next level.
5.    Coach to improve motivation and skills.
Performance is determined by the combination of motivation and skill of the players. If you were to rate a player on a one to ten scale for motivation and do the same for skill and then multiply the two rating scores together, you would get a M-S score (motivation-skill score) that is between 0 and 100. By establishing an initial score for each player and then updating the score as additional coaching effort is expended, it is easy to track the progress of each player as well as develop a comparative ranking.
Often, motivation and skill are interrelated—if a player is not skilled at something, he is seldom motivated to do it well and vice versa.
6.    Make appropriate trades.
If your goal is to build a championship team, the unfortunate reality is that not all of your current players will have the motivation and skill (M-S scores) necessary to stay on the team. Astute owners, general managers, and coaches are always assessing their personnel and when appropriate (either to shore up a weak spot or to “upgrade” an already strong player) making trades.
If you examine the steps above and compare them to the approach you are taking to build you service team, it is likely that there are many gaps.
•    Do you have detailed, step by step processes that make up your play-book?
•    What is your initial training program for new staff?
•    Do you have appropriate metrics to measure the processes and their performance?
•    Do you know the M-S score of each of your staff? What direction is this headed?
•    Are you devoting sufficient time and energy to coaching and performance improvement?
•    Are you committed enough to building a winning team that you are prepared to make a “trade” when necessary?
If you follow these simple principals in your service department, or any department for that matter, you will be on your way to the “Service Superbowl.”
Les Silver is chairman and CEO of Mobile Productivity Inc. (MPi), a leading provider of profitability tools for auto dealer service departments. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .