There is a method behind everything TeAM does.

It ends with a crockpot, and, on a sunny, late October day, a homemade stew.

“Taco soup,” gently corrects Gale Horn, a 10-year TeAM veteran who works fulltime on TeAM’s Defense Business Transformation contract, and also serves as TeAM’s Quality Assurance Manager and chef-in-residence.

It begins with a list of eight guiding principles and perhaps the three most important letters in TeAM’s corporate resume: ISO.

For the past eight years, TeAM has held certification in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization, a global practices setter whose organization principals are followed in more than 160 countries. (The name ISO derives from the Greek word for equal, isos, according to the organization, rather than a bungled attempt at an anagram.) TeAM currently holds 9001:2008 accreditation, the most stringent available for a professional services company.

ISO’s 9001 series comprises eight core principles, including customer focus, leadership, involvement of employees and continual improvement. To maintain certification, TeAM must pass audits on the span of several months and a recertification audit once every two years. Audits are conducted by a third-party on their timeline and typically last two days.

Horn leads TeAM’s ISO group, assisted heavily by Talya Johnson, who serves as the lead internal auditor, in addition to a full-time position as TeAM’s Facility Security Officer, and Asha Jones, TeAM’s human resources lead.

For the trio, ISO audits mark an exhaustive examination of every TeAM process, from timesheets to new-hire orientation, and employee appraisals. TeAM conducts ongoing internal audits, punctuated by the third-party audits roughly every six months.

“ISO is the method TeAM uses to ensure it follows best practices and operates efficiently,” Horn explains. “The audit is showing the paper trail, showing that we do what we say.”

If the auditor finds that TeAM is not compliant with its own proclaimed practices or out of step with the core principles, the areas of concern are noted and improvements expected by the next audit. Failure to rectify areas of non-compliance could lead to loss of accreditation.

That would mean loss of credibility in the eyes of current and future clients.

“The overall goal is to conform to customer’s expectations,” Johnson says. “We look at the processes that we do in our day-to-day activities, we monitor customer feedback, and we ensure that there is continual improvement. We want to ensure we are doing everything in the most efficient manner to provide a quality product.”

At TeAM, ISO begins and ends everything. It’s in the first paragraph of every proposal and in the signature file of every TeAM e-mail account.

“It’s a checkbox that ensures your Quality Management Plan is going to be sound,” TeAM CEO Charles Davis explains. “When the Source Selection Evaluation Board (the group that selects winning proposals) looks at a proposal, it is a vital check box to have. It speaks to the quality of our company.”

TeAM’s adherence to ISO principles has brought about many visible changes, including its recent adoption of digital timekeeping.

For Horn, who is known around the corporate office for her arboretum of an office (“We call it the botanical garden,” Johnson says of the leafy office) and down-home Louisiana friendliness, ISO has been an eight-year quest, consistently searching to keep all of TeAM’s processes compliant and evolving. While ISO adds another layer of work on top of a full project schedule, Horn finds the work a welcome challenge.

“It is a challenge, but a valuable one, to help TeAM create repeatable practices,” Horn says. “It is no small amount of work, but it pays off.”

Johnson joined the ISO audit team in 2009, which Horn described as a “Batman and Robin,” pairing. Jones, meanwhile, ensures all TeAM documents are up to date.

TeAM’s last audit in October found no areas of non-compliance and recommended TeAM retain its valued 9001:2008 certification. Yet the process never ends, as the internal audit is a continual fugue of examination and improvement.

Then there’s the end of the process. After the two-day audit, the auditing company requests a light snack be provided as a courtesy for its auditor, for purposes of lunch as well as mingling with the staff. For the last several audits, Horn has taken the requested process and, in ISO-inspired fashion, improved it, serving a homemade soup.

While the lunch may not officially factor into the audit, it further proves that in everything TeAM does, it does so as a best practice. In fact, TeAM’s lone challenge may be improving on October’s stew.

Excuse us, taco soup.

(ISO logo copyright International Organization for Standardization.)