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Laura Stack's F-A-S-T (Fairness, Accountability, Systems, and
Technology) model mobilizes teams to be the most effective they can be,
while keeping each other's best interests at heart. Teams learn to work
together Fairly, accept Accountability, apply Systems thinking, and
maximize available Technology. Each of the four Keys has three
corresponding Accelerators, which make your Team Car go faster. An
accelerator on a car is a device (usually a pedal) that controls the speed
of the engine; for your team, an Accelerator is a person or a thing that
will cause something to happen or develop more quickly. The
Accelerators represent the twelve chapters of the book:
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You can read this book solo and work to influence your team. If you lead
a team, you can get some ideas on how to help your team become more
productive. But the most effective use of this book is if the team works
on the Faster Together program, well, together.
First, your team should appoint someone to lead your efforts as you work
through this book together; however, that person doesn’t have to be the
formal leader. It can be the formal leader if you choose, but some teams
are fairly self-managed, so this will vary. The leader of this program will
be called the team “Car Chief.” In a NASCAR pit crew, the Car Chief
performs a majority of the scheduling and day-to-day preparations at the
shop prior to the race weekend. According to Wikipedia, this person is
“responsible for managing the crew throughout the weekend, ensuring
that the car meets all of NASCAR’s inspection requirements, and
overseeing changes to the car requested by the crew chief or
the team engineer.”
Who should be your Car Chief? In general, the Car Chief can be anyone
who’s a go-getter, a self-starter, and ready to engage. That should be easy
to figure out—who is your resident speed demon? Merriam-Webster
defines “speed demon” as “someone or something that moves or works
very fast.” In my mind, the term conjures up an image of the Tasmanian
Devil or the Road Runner from the Looney Tunes cartoons. Usually he or
she is apparent to everyone. It’s the person who would be most excited
about the team becoming Faster Together, and who constantly makes
suggestions about how things can be better. You should all nominate
this person.
The Car Chief will facilitate the Faster Together program using a special
manual. You may also choose to purchase workbooks to accompany the
book for each team member, which should be completed as you read this
book. As you implement the program within your work teams and
informal teams, this book and workbook will provide a blueprint on how
to accelerate your collective productivity. You’ll
bulldoze your team’s speed bumps, fast-track your Team Car, and achieve
greater results more quickly. Using this book, your team will learn to lead
each other, pick each other up when someone falls, and work
Faster Together.
Car Chief materials (for the FASTER TOGETHER program team
facilitator)
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