A631.9.2.RB_HansardCarey

As demonstrated in the video, Steve Jobs was a very motivated individual with a clear vision. He knew what he wanted and through charismatic leadership, he was able to inspire others to leave Apple and work with him on his NeXT adventure. As for my ability to fit into an environment like that, my test results are mixed. Not everyone is able to fit into such a fast-paced and highly charged setting.

First, in the area of independence characteristics, my score was in the middle. I do not believe that I would leave to work for a start up company because I like stability, which is contrary to what the results showed. In general, my confidence level is high when I feel as though I am knowledgeable about my job role and responsibilities. In a start up environment, I would think that roles and responsibilities are not as clearly defined as they would be in an established company. Employees are more likely to be able to characterize their roles. The final attribute in this area shows that I have a strong desire for structure. Based on the video, Jobs appears to have vision but not a great amount of structure. I definitely like a certain amount of structure at work and even somewhat controlled chaos is not appealing to me.

Once again, my scores were in the middle for achievement attributes. What stood out to me in this section was my tendency toward conservative goal ambitiousness and a high level of motivation by challenges. The goals I normally set for myself are goals that I feel as though I can achieve. They do challenge me, but they are not so lofty that I feel as though I cannot attain them. In Jobs’s company, he has set a very hefty goal of launching his product in a little over a year. Although this is quite a challenge and I understand the need for deadlines, I do not feel as though I would be able to achieve that goal and do my best work. My philosophy is I would rather do it right that fast.

Risk is another area where my test results revealed a tendency to stay in the middle. In Jobs’s company, NeXT, there is great personal and professional risk involved. People left what I assume were stable, well-paying jobs to branch out with Jobs. Professionally, they are exploring new, unchartered territory which brings with it high risk. Even though the test results were not conclusive, I generally am not a huge risk-taker and am not sure that I would fit into this organization well.

Again, when it comes to innovating, problem solving, and being creative, my results put me in the middle of the road. In a new company, employees get to create their own culture and processes. The test showed I have an inclination for using rules and standards and am not a fan of creating new processes and being creative. In addition, Jobs was looking for people to be innovative and solve problems they were facing. The test indicates that I am more likely to identify problems rather than solve them and have an aversion to creating and inventing.  Because this business venture is in the highly volatile and rapidly changing world of technology, problem solving and inventing is an absolute necessity. Having someone on board who does not possess those qualities is more of a hindrance than a helping factor.

This venture is obviously one where individual recognition is not likely. According to the test, recognition is an area that was identified as important to me and with which I agree. The focus would be on the team effort rather than individual effort. In my eyes, both would be highly important but not necessarily provided in this environment.

Finally, the results showed that I do not define success financially and clearly, financial success is essential to this start up as they are already discussing how to cut costs just a few months in. 

If I were considering or being considered for a job at NeXT and only based my decision of employment on the results of the test, it would seem that I would be a fairly safe choice. Most of my results were in the middle of the spectrum, indicating that I am overall balanced and don’t fall on one extreme or the other. I think that I would enjoy being involved in something new and the challenges that come with it. However, after watching the video, personal instinct tells me that I would not enjoy working there. Although it would be exciting and challenging, the fast-paced nature, looming deadlines, and stress that accompany both of those do not appeal to me. I prefer to work at a more relaxed pace and reserve the right to change the deadline if necessary without severe repercussions. Therefore, I do not believe that I would fit into the culture at NeXT and, if given the choice, would choose not to work there. 

Nathan, J. (1989, Mar 17). Entrepreneurs. Nathan/Tyler Productions. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=related 

A631.8.4.RB_HansardCarey

I have taken the Myers Briggs test before during a retreat for work but, since it had been a couple of years, I took it again for this module. The results showed that my type is I (67%), S (12%), F (12%), J(11%). These results are similar to what I learned the first time I took it and accurate, in my opinion. As I was reading through information on my type, Heiss, (2007) says that ISFJ personalities, “tend to be harried and uncomfortable in supervisory roles” (para. 3). She goes on to discuss the “need to be needed” which definitely describes me (Heiss, 2007, para. 1).  ISFJ personality types are also purported to be genuine and good with people which is another accurate statement about my personality (Heiss, 2007).

When my department conducted this test, someone from HR who is certified to interpret the results of this test came to talk about the results with us. He asked us to stand in our groups from highest percent at one end to highest end of the opposing type at the other. For example, the person with the highest percentage for introversion was on one side and the person with the highest percentage of extroversion was on the other. What an interesting visual that was!! There was only one other person with a higher introversion score than me, so I was at that end of the spectrum. At the other end, the highest extroverted scores were Katy and the CEO. I heard many people commenting that they never knew that I was so introverted and that I always seemed so nice and friendly. The presenter went on to explain that a high percentage for introversion did not mean that one was antisocial but rather that that person derives energy in a different way. Introverts like to have quiet time to refresh at the end of the day. There does not have to be constant activity or large groups of people around for an introvert. This provided an aha moment for many especially the extroverts who are the social butterflies and want constant attention. We all saw each other in a new light after that.

There are many uses for personality typing in the business world. For instance, after our exercise, we were asked to put the acronym for our personality types outside our offices. Using the information we had been given, we were able to find out more about others and how to more effectively interact with them. I tend to be very self-aware, but not everyone is. This test could give a leader insight into what makes him/her tick and by doing so, understand how to more effectively behave and interact with others.  For example, one of the misconceptions about introverts is that because they are quiet they appear standoffish. If I walk into a group of people I do not know, I am not likely to seek out others to speak to. An extrovert might misinterpret that as rudeness or think that I do not want to talk to anyone and that is simply not the case. Most of the time, I am just observing what others are doing and saying and once I get to know you, I am very friendly and personable. Understanding these differences will help these personality types better deal with others.

I believe I am very self-aware. Part of my approach to dealing with the people that I work with is to build solid relationships with them. That does not mean that we agree on everything. But what it does mean is that when we don’t, I can have a friendly debate with the other person because I already have a good relationship with him/her. I use humor to try to get through difficult conversations and situations. I have a hard time understanding people who are only friendly when they want something from you and the moment something doesn’t go their way, they turn into someone else. One of the best resources we have available to us is other people.

Having said that, as the courses have gone by, we have read over and over again about traits that leaders possess and I have noticed that I am definitely the type of person that is more concerned with interpersonal relationships rather than strategy, budget, and deadlines. I understand that all of those things are still important but again, I have a hard time understanding people who only focus on those things. As a leader, knowing my personality type and what my strengths and weaknesses are will allow me to surround myself with different personality types with opposing strengths and weaknesses to balance out my traits. That balance makes for the strongest leaders.

Reference:

Heiss, M. (2007, August 20). Introverted sensing feeling judging. Retrieved from http://www.typelogic.com/isfj.html   

A631.7.4.RB_HansardCarey

Organization Development is not, in my opinion, a passing fad. According to Brown (2011), “OD is a planned strategy to bring about organizational change” (p. 5).  Organizations need to adapt and change according to the market and available technology. Therefore, as long as companies recognize that change is essential to their livelihood, OD will be necessary. Most of the time, those within an organization do not understand how to effect systematic change on their own and will require the help of an OD practitioner or training in OD techniques.

In general, I think that once top leaders understand the steps involved in OD, they see the benefit of aligning their systems, employees, and leaders, as well as receiving feedback on their processes. One of the key takeaways for me from these courses has been the fact that leaders need to be involved with any change effort from the ground up. “In attempting to manage today’s organizations, many executives find that their past failures to give enough attention to the changing environment are now creating problems for them” (Brown, 2011, p. 7).  I think with the right guidance from an OD practitioner, a leader’s past failures will serve as motivation to make the necessary organizational changes.

Communication is vital to the health of an organization and both communication and leadership involvement are necessary whether there is a change effort underway or not. Learning and understanding how systems interact with and affect each other are also useful skills for any leader. Identifying values for the organization and getting buy in from employees helps strengthen the company. In other words, the techniques and skills that leaders learn while going through the OD process can carry forward into the future and contribute to upcoming successes long after the OD practitioner has separated from the business.

Having said that, there will always be some organizations that are not ready for the OD process. Many of these companies’ leaders are probably the same people saying that OD is a fad. When preparing to begin an OD program, there are several issues to consider including whether the values of the company and practitioner are in sync, whether achievable goals can be established, and if the employees are willing to embrace the change movement (Brown, 2011).  Change is not a concept that most employees eagerly embrace even when they see the need. Change can be scary and the future is undoubtedly uncertain but motivated leadership and knowledgeable OD practitioners working together with employees can achieve success. There is not a one-size-fits all approach to OD. If the practitioner recognizes that a specific approach is not working, he/she needs to be flexible and adapt. He/she also needs to make sure that throughout the process, he/she is imparting the skills and knowledge to leaders in order for the organization to remain stable yet adaptable when necessary without the practitioner. By doing so, this will ease the practitioner’s transition out of the picture.

While I do not feel that Organization Development is a passing fad, every good idea has a period when it is the latest and greatest and another period where interest in it wanes. I can only hope that the central ideas of OD will continue to be used to create and sustain dynamic companies.

Reference:

Brown , D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

A631.6.4.RB_HansardCarey

I enjoyed watching the videos and considering the different approaches to change outlined in each. In the case of Gallery Furniture, the company was on the verge of going under due to outside forces beyond their control. The company was forced to take drastic measures to stay alive in the economy at the time. This approach included involving an outside practitioner. In my opinion, when radical change is needed, having an outsider step in to facilitate is a good idea. I relate this situation to having trouble with your children. I cannot tell you how many parents I had conferences with who told me that their child was rude and distant at home; but in the classroom, I did not see any of these behaviors. In fact, I was often able to communicate with their children more effectively about school related issues than their parents were at times. In a corporation, the manager is like the parent. The information they have to share about the need for change may be easier to hear from an outsider. The manager still needs to be actively involved but bad news might be better received from someone outside the company. When employees know that there is going to be radical change, they are often no longer trusting of management…especially if layoffs are involved. An outside practitioner has no emotional attachment to the management or employees and is able to deal with conflict in a different manner than those experiencing the change. It is still vital that the leader of the organization head the overall change movement and that employees understand he/she is invested in making the organization successful.

In the case of Gallery furniture, their main strategy was to change the culture. Cultural change can be risky. According to Brown (2011), Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy have identified one of the reasons for mitigating large-scale change as “mediocre or worse” performance of the organization (p. 409). Brown (2011) asserts that, “An organization. . .may need to change its culture in order to adapt to a changing environment or to perform at higher levels of effectiveness” (p. 409).  In a culture where customers were able to walk out and it was okay, it was difficult to encourage employees to move away from that behavior and begin to follow up by phone or email with their customers. However, their old practices were not very effective and needed to change and through the efforts of management and the outside practitioner, employees began to see that. More changes to the culture involved an effort to help employees be healthier, the addition of incentive pay for performance, and displaying sales statistics. All of these efforts encouraged employees to adapt to the new norms. By instituting a wellness program, the organization was communicating to the employees that their health and wellbeing was important.

On the other hand, Stanley McChrystal comes from a totally different environment. In his position in the military, he was the individual that people looked to for guidance. Most of these people are not empowered to make drastic decisions on their own and the commander does not have the luxury of bringing in an outside practitioner to redesign anything. He struck me as a very self-aware and humble leader who understands that sometimes, the answers are not available outside the organization but rather from your subordinates. He relied on those around him to be lead him through change. He refers to the challenges of keeping up with changes in technology and leading people who are doing things you have never done. McChrystal describes a strong culture in the military and Brown (2011) refers to many aspects of culture that apply to the one McChrystal was dealing with. Even though soldiers are unable to make their own strategic decisions, individual autonomy is still possible in the heat of battle. He and his direct reports were understanding of the needs of one another through the constant rapid changes they were experiencing and he was able to manage around the organizational culture (Brown, 2011). The geographic distance of his troops required methods of communication that he was not necessarily familiar with but that those around him were able to help him learn. The ability to quickly and easily communicate with the troops that were thousands of miles away from him encouraged open communication in his battalion (Brown, 2011).

McChrystal touts the importance of having a shared purpose despite different life experiences. As a leader, he understands that it is his job to create that common vision. According to Brown’s relative strength of corporate culture (2011), the military falls into the quadrant where members have a strong commitment to values and a high number of members sharing those values. The vision shared by McChrystal is a catalyst for the values shared by his soldiers.

References:

Brown , D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

McChrystal, S. (Performer). (2011, April ). Stanley McChrystal: Listen, Learn.. then Lead [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.html

(2012, September 17). Influencer: Gallery Furniture Case Study [Web Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4

A631.5.4.RB_HansardCarey

Becoming the kind of leader who can successfully promote and lead systematic change takes time and commitment by the leader and a certain amount of charisma. The first step to becoming such a leader is creating a vision for people that they can believe in and follow. Yukl (2011) says that, “Charisma is more likely to be attributed to leaders who advocate a vision that is highly discrepant from the status quo, but still within the latitude of acceptance by followers” (p. 262). Leaders whose ideas are too far out in left field are not likely to have buy in by followers. Charismatic leaders, in general, are also more willing to make sacrifices themselves to accomplish their goals and followers appreciate that (Yukl, 2011). As a matter of fact, the best leaders have, at one time, been good followers themselves and understand what followers want out of a great leader. In my opinion, a likable leader is one that I, as a follower, am willing to make my own sacrifices for to promote change.

The leader of my department is a visionary and very charismatic. However, many times, because she does not have great interpersonal skills, her followers do not trust her and become intimidated by her. In addition to having charisma, leaders need knowledgeable and trusting followers to lead system wide change. If the followers do not understand or agree with the vision of the leader, or do not trust this person, system wide change is almost impossible to achieve. The leader cannot be an expert in all areas of the organization and relies on the knowledge and trust of followers to make the right changes and decisions for all systems in the business.  The best followers and leaders develop a trusting relationship and understand that they are not always there to agree with each other. Followers should be able to let the leader know when bad decisions are being made and the leader should be able to take that information and learn from it. I think if the leader of my department had a better relationship with her followers, she would be incredibly dangerous (in a good way!).

We are currently in the process of trying to implement change within the colleges with the implementation of the multi-modality template. This template is one that has essentially been created for the online environment and been adapted for use in other modalities. This project has been in the works for several months now and was initially under the leadership of my direct supervisor. Within the past 2 months, he was removed as head of the project for several reasons. Among them was the fact that he was new to the university and did not know many of the stakeholders in the project. He did not have their trust and when he attempted to make decisions that were not popular, some of the other team members went to his supervisor to complain. I do not think he had a good concept of the big picture and he was not doing a good job brining all of the parties together to work out the concerns and determine the needs of the stakeholders. To make matters worse for him, instead of helping him and providing mentorship, his boss simply took over the project with very little explanation to others on the project. In my opinion, this leaves a negative impression on those who still do not know him very well and does not set him up for success when he works with these people in the future.

Although I can think of many times when leaders have been successful, I think the most recent is the transition to Campus Solutions from Datatel, the previous student management system. While the project was technically led by University IT, on the Worldwide side, there was a leader who called the shots and stood up for our needs. This person also happens to be a long-time friend of mine but I had never seen her in a work environment before. She was able to coordinate teams of subject matter experts and representatives from Campus Solutions to design the product to meet Worldwide’s needs. There was a lot of doubt surrounding the launch date of CS but she was able to allay everyone’s fears and lead everyone through the change successfully. The speed bumps that happened afterward were handled as they came along and, although I am sure it was stressful and frustrating for her at times, she was able to keep the confidence of all of her subordinates and complete the project.

As I have been reading about system-wide change, I have been wondering if I have what it takes to lead such change myself. I have been involved in a change project in a smaller context earlier this year when we upgraded EagleVision. I had the help of many colleagues and did not consider myself the lead, even though many important decisions were made by me in relation to the retraining of hundreds of certified faculty. It was a group effort and could not have been accomplished by any single one of us. So, reflecting on that experience, I think that the most important aspect of leading change is forming a great team that guides the change, like my friend did. The leader is important in the role of visionary and mentor but those who are really responsible for making the change happen are the followers. Putting them together in teams and utilizing their strengths is a vital part of instituting change. "Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success” (unknown author).

References:

http://www.teampedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=Team_Building_and_Teamwork_Quotes

Yukl, G. (2011). Leadership in organizations. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

A631.4.4.RB_HansardCarey

The idea of self-managed teams really intrigues me. In theory, it makes total sense. Who knows their job and what it takes to do it right than those who do it every day? Although my team is not currently self-managed, I feel as though we could be if given the chance. We are all subject matter experts and with training, I feel as though we can also successfully manage our budget and identify new academic technologies for use by our faculty and staff. My current supervisor leaves the day-to-day decisions to us anyway (on the training team) and is a facilitator who helps us focus on the ultimate goal, much like the external supervisor would be for a self managed team.  

Because the employees are the experts at what they do, I think putting them into self-managed teams demonstrates that the organization has faith in their ability to make the business successful. This confidence motivates employees to continue to find better ways to do their jobs. Another advantage to these teams is the reward system that is associated with them. We all like to feel appreciated for the work that we do and knowing that an individual reward is based on the success of our team makes us a better team member. I believe that I would like working in a self-managed team. Working in a group of people who know what their job entails and who are willing to work with you to achieve a goal would be a pleasure. It would remove from the equation interference from a leader who is making suggestion only on a superficial knowledge of the job and the employee’s responsibilities.

One of the drawbacks is that management has to be on board and that can be hard to do. In organizations with self-managed teams the hierarchy is typically flatter (Brown, 2011).  It is difficult for managers to let this happen and it is even more difficult for them to step back and not be so involved in decision-making.  A related drawback is that when you flatten the hierarchy of an organization, employees have little chance for advancement (Brown, 2011). I know that one of my aspirations is to move up the totem pole at some point in my life and working on a self-manage team would make that goal harder to realize.

Becoming the external leader of one of these teams would be a challenge initially. Learning to be a different kind of leader takes some getting used to and having a mentor show me the ropes would be helpful. One aspect of being the leader of a self-managed team that I find intriguing is the interpersonal aspect of it. Leaders of these teams help employees focus on the ultimate organizational and team goals. They can step in when there is a situation that is out of the ordinary to help the team navigate through the issue. The rest of the time, managers have the opportunity to develop relationships with team members. I enjoy having positive working relationships with my teammates. I look for ways to compromise when there is friction and attempt to ensure that all sides are heard and understood. I see this as being an asset to a leader managing these teams. I think that as for technical competencies like communication skills and conflict resolution, I do a good job but there is always room for improvement. I know that more work needs to be done on the behavioral competencies like inspiring my team and time management. I have always struggled with time management and hard fast deadlines stress me out even though I work best when I have a specific deadline identified. For this reason, I think mentorship would be necessary for anyone leading a self-managed team.

Brown , D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

(2008, Sept 28). Self-managing teams: debunking the leadership paradox [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM&feature=youtu.be

A631.3.4.RB_HansardCarey

The conscience development of goals is not something that we may do frequently, but there is obviously a lot of research indicating the importance of doing so. The setting of goals alone is not enough, though. They have to challenge us and be accompanied by feedback in order to be most effective. When setting goals, actions to reach the goal should be considered as well. If we set goals for ourselves that are too hard, we will certainly give up. The same goes for making broad statements and not having actions in mind (Wooten & Burroughs, 1991). I think this is why many people’s New Year’s resolutions fail. It is common to say things like, “I am going to work out more” and “I am going to lose weight”. However, both of these goals are extremely difficult for people to achieve and they require self-discipline which many of us lack, too. A better way to handle these situations is to partner losing weight with a specific action like joining Weight Watchers. The addition of Weight Watcher then makes this goal more likely to be achieved because now you have added the elements of feedback and support. Encouragement goes a long way toward helping people achieve their personal and professional goals. 

Professionally, I have begun to learn the importance of goals more than ever. When I was teaching high school, my goals were related to what I wanted my students to do more so than what I wanted for myself. I had very few personal goals but one of those professional goals was to earn National Board Certification in foreign language. I had heard it was the equivalent of earning a master’s. It was very challenging for me. There were several components to the process and I did not earn enough points to pass the first time. They provide the opportunity to retake only the portions that you need to and I believe that is the reason I tried again. If I had to endure the entire process, it would have proven to be too much for me and I would have abandoned the idea (Brown, 2011). What I did not like about earning this certification was that there is no feedback process. Your submissions are sent off for grading and you receive the results…without comments added. It is very difficult to alter your goals or processes when you do not understand where you went wrong. This translates into the job I have now, too. After each training session that I do, I push a survey to my “students”. Two of the sections ask for feedback about the presenters and about the content of the session. I rely heavily on this feedback to make adjustments to my trainings and my style. If I am not meeting the needs of my customers, I have to know. I think this anonymous method of collecting feedback really provides for honest answers.

As for providing feedback, this comes naturally to me now from my teacher days, I think. My philosophy there is that if someone is doing something ineffectively and nobody tells them about it, they cannot improve. My colleague is a perfect example. She has proven to be a great EagleVision trainer; however, she only wants to train on EagleVision and has (jokingly) made her feelings known. The university has many academic technologies though, and we need to be proficient in all of them and be able to train faculty on their use. So, even though I am not her supervisor, I have provided this feedback to her. I have offered to mentor her and I have even pushed her out of her comfort zone by assigning the Blackboard upgrade training to her. She spent hours familiarizing herself with the new features and assembling the training. Once she had a goal, she chose specific actions to take to accomplish it (like research and practice), delivered the training, received feedback from the survey and her coworkers, and felt a great sense of pride that she had accomplished her goal. When not faced with a specific goal, her performance level was low and she did not engage with the technology. Setting the goal with her definitely provided her with an avenue to be successful.

I find that I perform better when I have specific goals as well. In my current position, I have several projects (which equate to goals) in the works right now. It helps me to understand exactly what the end result will be so that I can outline activities to reach the goal. In my case, targeted feedback is not necessary. I do well with generic feedback, too. My supervisor or a faculty member telling me that I did a good job or really helped them is a motivating factor for me. As a leader, knowing that goal-setting and relevant feedback is important to motivation, I will make an effort to include this process when working with my employees. And when I decide to put NBCT next to my name, it reminds me to set challenging goals for myself, too!

References:

Brown , D. (2011). An experential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Wooten, W., & Burroughs, W. A. (1991). Setting measurable goals for better performance. Supervisory Management, 36(12), 3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/214224727?accountid=27203

A631.2.5.RB_HansardCarey

The team charter was created with very little conflict among the members. Some of the behaviors that contributed to this were organization, cooperation, good communication, and flexibility (How to be a good team player, n.d.). I have worked with two of the other team members previously and I think this has helped in the smooth formation of this charter. We understand that in order to move forward in a timely manner, organization is a big factor and we have agreed as a group to work on assignments early and decide which team member will be responsible for the compilation and ultimate submission of the assignment as well. We have been successful in communicating what our needs and strengths are and I believe that this cooperative attitude and flexibility have helped us create the charter as well as begin to prepare for the TA in module 3.    

There was not a significant amount of time spent on problem solving but we did experience an issue during the creation of the charter. One of the problems that we experienced was the fact that Katy and I both made the mistake of mentioning our old team member, Kurt, in our responses. Damien, who was the lead on this particular assignment, pointed out the fact that we made this error and sent it back to us to be fixed. While he could have fixed the problem himself, I think that once he noticed the problem, he told us so that we could be more aware of our work in the future. Making other team members aware of a problem allows those team members to work through the issue either individually or with the team. I do not feel as though our problem solving process was inhibited in any way.

Because of the virtual nature of our team, most of our information was shared through email and Blackboard. Again, due to the fact that three of us have worked together in the past, there was not a lot of information exchange needed, except with Frank. He was clear in the discussion board area about when he would be available and posting in the board. It is evident to me that this team is obliging and integrating (Brown, 2011). We are all in this together and are committed to communicating frequently using the tools that we have available to us. This was not the case on a team that I was a part of several terms ago and leaves me hopeful for the success of my current team.

So far, there has not been an issue of power on this team; however, having worked with two of these team members in the past, I can say with confidence that the potential for the team to be affected by a powerful member exists. Although I am calling this a potential power struggle, it may in fact be more of a personality conflict. This individual is highly motivated and this motivation occasionally causes conflict. Ultimately though, I think we are all willing to cooperate with one another for the good of the team.

As I have mentioned, my team members have exhibited high levels of cooperation and not much competition so far. I do not anticipate much competition because we are working toward a common goal. For that same reason, I expect that cooperation will remain high as it has been throughout the team charter phase. 

Process interventions were minimal but it was necessary for the team to clarify and summarize our strengths within the document. We were also able to provide support to each other through the process by setting a timeline for submission as well as helping identify problems within the document.

Overall, within the program I have been lucky to be associated with productive teams that have worked well together. That is my hope for the current team, too.

References:

Brown , D. (2011). An experiential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

How to be a good team player:Maximizing your contribution. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_53.htm

A631.1.5.RB_HansardCarey

Working as a team is an important part of life whether it is a team within your organization or working together as a family team with your spouse and children. There will always be ways to improve and strategies that can be employed that will help make the team more cohesive. EcoSeagate has developed an approach for its teams which involves traveling to an off site location and competing against each other in events that encourage teamwork (Brown, 2011). While I was impressed with the concept, several things occurred to me. First, Brown (2011) mentions that the participants have all applied to go through this process. Being that it is largely a physical challenge, this may deter some people from wanting to participate. Once the participant is there, the team provides support and encouragement; however, if an individual is worried about the physical challenges this team building exercise includes, he/she will never reap the benefits. In the videos, the participants looked as though they were having a good time. I was not clear as to what team building strategies were offered to the participants ahead of time. I noticed that there were individuals helping others cross something akin to a tightrope and others carrying bikes for their teammates but I wondered if this was happening spontaneously….because it is natural to want to help others we see in distress. Many of the tasks seemed as though they were individual tasks, like biking, rather than team related.

I also think that while this looks like a lot of fun, knowing that it comes with a price tag of $2 million and there have been no measurable results up to this point, I am not sure it is worth it (Brown, 2011). Employees have to return to work with a new sense of invigoration. It happened to me when I was teaching high school and would go off to a workshop on some new concept. I would be excited to return to work to try what I had learned. I feel the same way now when I return from department retreats or the Worldwide Conference…motivated to do something better or different than before I went. With this in mind, if the members are not working any better in teams than when they left, then is the goal being achieved? It would seem not. It is difficult to have teams where some of the members have been to one of these team building excursions and others have not and do not see the point of actually working on building a cohesive team prior to getting started on goal accomplishment. There have to be better and more cost-effective ways of team building that using an outdoor lab in the manner that EcoSeagate does.

While teams are a natural part of life to varying degrees for many of us that does not automatically mean that we are going to be good at working with others. Because of that, it is essential that high-performing organizations offer some type of training and experiences for their employees. These experiences have to be ongoing and allow members to work with different people each time. Organizations that spend a reasonable amount of time and money on such activities will reap the benefits because teams will be more focused and utilize each others’ strengths and compensate for weaknesses more effectively.

My organization thrives on teamwork; therefore, training focused on team building activities and strategies would definitely be helpful. This is not something that is currently being focused on in my organization but it could benefit us in so many ways. The extent of team building activities that have been incorporated recently was at the WW Conference where we had to work together to complete a series of events culminating with the building of a tower that would support a cup of M&Ms. This was not a successful activity in my opinion for many reasons. It could have been beneficial to all in the group had we been given some guidance and strategies to employ (consciously) ahead of time.

Brown , D. (2011). An experential approach to organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Chao, M.  (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 1/3 [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE&feature=youtu.be

Chao, M.  (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 2/3 [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etwuap-_Azk&feature=youtu.be