MSLD 631 MODULE 2 BLOG

1. What behaviors seemed to help your team successfully complete its task?

Motivation, organization, team-work, experience, and integrating behaviors all helped my team complete this task in as easy a way as possible. Right off of the bat team one had one of our team members decide that she wanted to take charge this week since she recognized that she would be a lot busier during the end of the term. The rest of the team followed suit by picking weeks to take the lead, this automatically gave us a start so that we all knew our roles and what we have to accomplish throughout the next nine weeks.

A large portion to us knowing that we needed to take the lead on certain weeks can be attributed to the experience that we all have thus far; this is not the first class for any of us so we are very accustomed to working in teams. Experience and team work can make any project very simple when everyone can recognize that we all need each to support each other and we all need to take the lead at some point. These types of actions all correspond with integrating behaviors which are a positive to have when working with teams. We all have a high concern for our self and for others, the integrating style is concerned with problem solving; “it uses openness, sharing of information, and the examination of differences to reach a consensus solution” (Brown, 2011).

2. What factors inhibited decision-making or problem-solving?

When working with long distance teams there are any factors which can inhibit a team. The first concern between all of us is of course the way that we have to communicate, we do not see each other in a classroom on a daily basis. Many people would have considered this a challenge which is hard to overcome but as technology has taken communication to a new level distance teams are not much of a challenge at all.

                In an article by Natalie burg from Forbes magazine she states that “As it turns out, the answer to all of the complaints about the evolving workplace wasn’t to abandon technology for a more human way of working, but to evolve technology to make the new way of working more human”( Forbes).  With this technology which has been provided by Embry Riddle University we have made communicating with our group very easy and personal; all I have to do is log in to my account to see the latest work and message from one of my team mates. 

3. How much time was spent on decision-making and problem-solving?

Surprisingly enough for this assignment I believe that there was minimal time spent on actual decision making. The experience which our team has with working in this environment helps us recognize a task and tackle it with out to much conflict or problem solving. I would say that within the first day we all knew what we had to do and got straight to work.

4. How was information shared among team members?

Information was shared via either the post or on a customized file exchange board where we are able to post all of our latest work for others to review online. I am sure that in the future if necessary we have other platforms which are available such as email and our phones which where all shared through the team charter.

5. How did issues of authority or power affect the team?

It seems as though we have a very compromising team, I did not get a sense of anyone person having a dominating type of personality. This is important because I do not think that we will have any conflicts among our teams. I see that we are all on the same level and are for the most part people that are very easy to work with. I have heard in the past that sometimes teams will need a third party to intervene with issues that may arise in the group; I have had experience with these current team members in the past and I do not see that being an issues as we proceed ahead.  As we have read in our text third parties are used for “ensuring mutual motivation, achieving a balance in situational power, and coordination confrontation efforts” (brown, 2011); I do not see either of these problems being an issue with our team.

6. How did collaboration and competition influence the outcome?

The only type of competition that I could see apparent in my group was who could claim the lead for certain weeks as soon as possible. I do not yet know if people were just anxious to take the lead or perhaps wanting to be the first to grab the weeks which where the easiest to be in charge of. Only time will tell what the outcome will be for the certain weeks which I assigned myself to take the lead on. 

7. Did team members make process interventions?

As a team we did make some process interventions as to what we all expect from each other and some of the ground rules which will be important for the success of our team. I believe that these type of interventions right from the beginning help set a positive atmosphere and one of accountability also. I do feel the need of making process interventions and I think that for the time being we have done so appropriately.

References:

- Brown, Donald R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.).    Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.  

-Burg, N. (2015, April 4). How Technology Has Changed Workplace Communications. Forbes.

The Eco Seagate Experiance

1. Do you see value in the Eco Seagate team development process?

Let me start by asking the questions, Can I work for Seagate technology! This is an amazing teamwork experience which is provided by the Seagate Company, not only is it a great tool to help employees but it is also a great recruiting tool. This experience has so many benefits I do not even know where to start.

When I think about all of the things that matter to a company and teamwork I think about subjects like accountability, conflict, trust, respect, and commitment. All of these different subjects truly matter when we talk about work being done by colleagues, it is essential to the success of any team yet we so often see it missing. What most impressed me about this EcoSegate experience which is done annually by this company is also the results which you see throughout this video. There is proof of positive results in every portion of this program, I saw people putting their heads together and coming up with solutions, employees helping each other out in a powerful river, and a bunch of middle aged men and women half naked chanting because of the pride which they felt for their team and newly established relationships.

There is so much value which people have to see in this whole experience, I find it hard to believe that shareholders would even critique the importance of an experience like this. It seems that the Company had a very rough start and eventually people were calling the Seagate Company “Slavegate”. For a company to have this type of nickname it is obvious to see that some major changes needed to be made. I believe that these employees which attend Eco Seagate will come back to the office as strong leaders with a lot more guts and tenacity to tackle any situation which they might be faced with. I believe that pushing employees and their leadership skills to the next level can have major benefits for any company which wants to improve productivity and profits.

2. Why would something like this be necessary in a high-performing organization?

When I think about high-performance organizations I think about high performance systems. High performance systems consist of forces in the environment, goals and values, technology and structure, culture, and the outputs produced (OD 2011, pg.41). An experience such as the ones which are produced at Eco Seagate will bring out the quality which we are looking for from our teams which go through this experience. Employees will learn to conquer forces which they might encounter in a business situations, create business strategies by achieving goals and having a whole new outlook on culture. These are important elements which need to be in place in an organization which will be considered a high-performance organization. These types of organizations are looking for the max effort from these employees and I think that an experience such as Eco Seagate can unlock that potential.

  

3. Could your organization benefit from a similar activity?

I think that my organization would not only benefit from an experience such as Eco Seagate but they would thrive on so many different levels. We all know how important teamwork is in most organization but for my organization nothing can be done without team work. I work for the railroad, this type of organization is dependent on so many different departments which have to work as one. We have operations, mechanical, maintenance, marketing, and many more departments; one cannot operate with the other. In my organization many of the things which can be improved at an event like Eco Seagate can lift my organization to the next level.

If we could improve things like accountability, know how to deal with conflict amongst each other, build trust and respect I feel that we would be a force to be reckoned with. My railroad is efficient but they are still working on improving themselves, activities such as this one are important so that our future leaders can learn how to deal with all of these different subjects. I think that many organizations need to take a look at what makes their employees tick and what goes on within each department, I think that they would definitely find room for improvement. I think that two million dollars is a small price to pay for a multi-billion dollar company if they would like to take their biggest assets which is their employees to the next level.

References:

Brown, Donald R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.   

Hiring and Rcruiting

• Does Schmidt's description of the Google Culture make sense to you?

In a way the Google culture is one of the best business culture atmosphere’s that I have heard of to this day. If you want to have a business which thrives on creativity than these are the types of norms which a business manager needs to put into place. I have noticed that there are many articles that talk about how America’s educational system is not as strong compared to many other countries, apparently our math and science scores are not where they need to be.

 Although this might be true I believe that there is something different which makes American Businesses so special; this quality which I speak of is the ability to spark creativity and promote it at the workplace. At Google they hire people that are able to work on their own and they give them that freedom which they need to exercise this creativity. The more we treat humans like robots and micro manage them the less creativity we will see among employees.

• Is this a reasonable way to view the work that most people are doing in your workplace?

I believe that at my job this behavior is encouraged to a certain degree, my line of work is a bit different because it is heavily regulated by rules and regulations to assure the safety of others. Although my work does follow strict guidelines I am also given the freedom to bend those rules as much as possible in a legal way to be creative and come up with the greatest solution. I believe that as Americans this is a trait which we are taught from a young age. Bending the rules and flirting right on the edge of our regulations is what makes American companies so creative and profitable.

• As a leader, does it take courage to have and to implement this point of view?

Hovering just outside of the norm does take a lot of courage, as a leader we are supposed to set the example for our subordinates. Sometimes being different does not go too well with your typical business model, leaders are judged on the way that culture at their business is carried out. Many times we have to go against the grain if we are to come up with something that is truly special. Items which people consider special are usually items which no one has ever thought of before, items which make life easier by introducing new ideas.  

• Could this approach backfire?

Allowing this much freedom requires a lot of responsibility and special employees to be able to wield this type of freedom and use it for the better. Many times employees will use this new found freedom and use it to be unproductive, as Eric Schmidt said “they look for employees which can work productively on their own”. This is an important trait because Google can only allow this type of freedom to their employees to be creative if they are responsible enough to handle it. If it becomes a situation where minimal productivity is found in the work area then this type of approach to business will definitely back fire.

• What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

I think that I will take away the value of giving subordinates the freedom and space they need to create something amazing. This is something which is contrary to a prior leadership style which I experienced in the military that consisted of micromanaging and keeping a “tight leash” on those below your rank. I would definitely like to have a culture at my work place which lets people feel relaxed and ready to be a part of the company. For this to exist I need to hire the right people that want to create an amazing work culture with me, like minded individuals who believe in the fact that creativity is important for every organization to succeed.

Reference:

Schmidt, E. (2011). Eric Schmidt on Business Culture, Technology, and Social Issues.

            [Review of the online video, produced by McKinley and Company].

Build a Tower, Build a Team

I recently came across a TED video for my class this week, it was an interesting educational talk which pointed out how different target groups work when tasked to complete a challenge in a short amount of time. The task was called the “marshmallow challenge”, this is a challenge which made like-minded groups of people come up with a structure that can support a marshmallow in a matter of eighteen minutes. Tom Wujec, the creator of the challenge used this exercise to see how these different groups of people worked and why certain groups had the outcome that they did.  Tom makes a comparison to the way that kindergartners and MBA students work and to my surprise the kindergartners out-performed the MBA students: I would almost say that the kindergartners made fools of the MBA students.

 Tom makes an analysis of the situation and explains why the young kids did so much better. The result was that the kids got straight to work and had a trial and error type of strategy, this proved to be a good strategy for the kids. The MBA students had a completely different approach they almost tried “too” hard, they would first jockey for power, try to take charge and then come up with the perfect plan. This strategy seemed to fail for many reasons but the most obvious being the fact that making the perfect plan just takes too long. Tom makes a good point which I can agree with when it comes to this challenge, sometimes the perfect plan is not needed for every job in life. It is sometimes beneficial to just get the task done and try to have the group work as one, a leader is not always necessary.

                I think that another reason why the kids worked so much better is for the simple fact that they are not afraid to fail, this I can observe in my four year old son’s behavior. As adults and especially as professional’s we tend to have a fear of failing in front of others, this can cause people to over think projects. Kids just want to have fun, be creative, and are not too concerned with pride; there is definitely a lesson for adults to learn from this example.  

                There was another group of people which did well at this marshmallow project and that was the CEO’s with an executive assistant in the group. I believe that this is the case because CEO’s are good at giving direction and assistants are good at taking directions, there is no pride involved in this group. With this combination no one is jockeying for power because they already know what the roles of each person are, this creates more time to actually work at the task at hand. The lesson that I can take from this group of individuals is the fact that sometimes having an established leader or set of roles can have a huge impact on how quickly a group can accomplish the work which they are doing.  

The results of all of these different groups were very interesting and I think that any of us can take away a lot from these experiments. I think that if I were to facilitate my own process intervention workshop I know that I would have to focus on a project which can highlight the skills which are required in process intervention.  I would try to show the importance of a group which has a strong influence on task functions and also maintenance functions. In other words I would make sure that my groups know that even though it is important to work and complete the task, it is also important to make sure that we have people in the group that are carrying out maintenance functions like harmonizing to keep the group on track. This video has shown that we need a good balance in a group and also the fact that a group with too many “Chiefs” will not be successful in the long run. This is a lesson which I will carry through my career and one that I have lived by for quite some time now; balance of power in groups is essential to the success of a group.

Reference:

Wujac, T. (TEDS). (2010, FEBRUARY 10) Build a Tower, Build a Team [Online Video]

                Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower#t-1820

Mastering the Art of Corporate Reinvention

• Michael Bonsignore, CEO of Honeywell, states that Honeywell will not be an extension of the old Honeywell or Allied Signal. He is creating a new culture that blends the best of the merged companies of Honeywell and Allied Signal. He says that Honeywell will compensate and reward people that look for best practices from both companies in creating a new corporate culture and punish those who do not. Do you predict Honeywell will be successful?

I do believe that Honey well will be successful, I say that because it is interesting to see where this CEO’s roots lie. I think that since Michael Bonsignore comes from a background of understanding the company and how it works through over twenty years of experience, this will be the difference maker.  Mike did not just walk into the CEO position because he knows someone or is the son of a former CEO, I feel that Mike earned his position. With that being said, it is my understanding that Mike has gone through a merger before and understands what it takes to continue to change and improve an organization. With this statement he is solidifying the fact that he believes in this merger, he understands that the best of both worlds needs to be brought into the current merger. 

It seems like merging two companies is never easy, you have to bring in people who are extremely comfortable where they are at and have them understand that the business will change. Along with the business changing the culture will be drastically affected by the new merger. Mike stands behind the importance of adapting and changing the culture and feel that anyone that is not willing to adapt will be punished. Those which adapt well will be compensated, compensating strong work from good employees is essential. We can see the importance of having a strong base of employees to change the culture of a company through the example which Gordon Bethune’s Continental Airlines has provided for us. Gordon Bethune showed us that by creating an amazing new culture for his employees has helped the company go from one of the worst airliners to one of the mist successful ones in the United States.  

• What barriers do you see based on what you observed in the video?

One of the essential barriers which I see in this video is the fact that many companies like the Honeywell Company will have a hard time keeping up with modern times. It seems to me that in this video the U.S is about to go through a technological boom which will cause many companies to continue to advance and modernize their corporate culture. I believe that at this point in time companies which cannot continue to adapt everyday will begin to fall very quickly. I am not exactly sure of the year this video took place but it seems like it was shoot over a decade ago. I believe that at that time period is when business took a big change and newer technology turned the business world upside down.  

• What critical success factors should Honeywell consider as it crafts its organizational strategies around a new culture?

I feel that Honeywell should consider the fact that the business world is a rapid changing place in which companies that get complacent can be left behind. A business that does not continually change can fail no matter how big the business is, just because Honeywell is considered a colossus does not mean that they are immune to failure. I believe that Mike realizes that times are changing at a very quick rate, he mentions in the video how no CEO should be in place for more than ten years. I do feel that Mike was being honest when he said that he feels like his time as a CEO is starting to become short. He knows that he will be the first person to recognize when his time is over, it is hard to keep up with modern times and keeping a modern culture is essential to the success of any business.   

• What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

As a leader I always thought that when I get along with my employees or subordinates it creates a great atmosphere, as Gordon said in the video “it is easier to motivate people when they like you”. I never believed in ruling with an iron fist, I actually think that it causes much more tension and rebellious behavior will not be too far away. The culture that Gordon created at continental is the type of organization which I would like to create and emulate, I hope that as a future manager I will be able to create a happy culture. My ideal organization or department would consist of happy employees who feel like they are part of the business, I want people to feel like they gain something when the company does well. I understand that there will be obstacles when creating this type of culture but as we can see with the example set by Gordon that it is definitely possible.  

Reference:

Films for the Humanities and Sciences (FFHS). (2012). Mastering the Art of Corporate   Reinvention. Available from 

http://digital.films.com/play/GWEU7L 

The Tribes We Lead

Change, how easy is it to create change? It is not very easy at all, it takes a lot of mental strength and conditioning. There are many times in life where people are faced with an opportunity to change but not many people would jump on board. Creating change takes a special person to be able to not fear the consequences, take a stand, and create change. At work I am surrounded by many people who do not spark a change they merely follow what the majority of the people are doing. It is easy to follow or to be a “sheep walker” as Seth Godin calls it, but as I stated earlier it takes a special person to break free of what the norms are.

At work I will hear my fellow co-workers say different things like “it is too hard to create change, it’s impossible, it will not work, there is too much change, and this is not our problem”.  These are the people that until they reflect on who they want to be will never be able to create a change which might better their life or the life of others. I do not find myself commenting much when people say things of this matter, I just simply understand that many people are content in life as long as their immediate needs are satisfied.

I on the other hand am not content with where my life is at yet, this notion seems to drive my wife crazy. She sees that I have completed my bachelor’s degree and I have a well-paying job so she does not see why I am not satisfied. She does not understand why I am working on my Graduate degree and committing myself to this type of sacrifice. At times I will myself tell myself the same excuses which I hear around me and for a second I will believe it. Sometimes I have to force myself to snap out of the want to just conform to my surroundings, I have to fight the urge to follow and remind myself of the vision which I have. Another way for me to overcome the thoughts of conforming is to think back to where I started in my life and know that I can never go back to that point. There is no way that I would ever want to take steps back in life and I would feel like I have let down my family if this was the case. Knowing that I have to continue to better myself every day is what keeps me going strong and pushes me to continue to change myself for the better.

I feel like I have been working on myself for quite some time, I know that I am almost at the point where I close another chapter of my life and take a leap of faith towards the next portion of my vision. I know that I have to take this leap soon but I have not known exactly how I will do it, Seth Godin’s TED’s talk has given me an idea. In his talk Seth discusses how change is driven by tribes, I think that he makes many valid points. A tribe will connect people and ideas, it is up to me to start my own tribe; I need to find like-minded individuals who are also ready to make a change in the world.

It is difficult to make a movement on my own but with strength in numbers many things can be accomplished. I might have many ideas but with a tribe we can find the one thing that matters the most to us and create a movement. Rather it be trying to find a way to make more money or to change an injustice in the world which we have an issue with; having a group of people that will back you up is essential.

 At the end of the TED’s talk Seth tells us how to create change, he said that we have to “challenge everything, change the culture, and then commit. Once I have completed school and I am ready for that next step, I will make sure that I distance myself from those who say change is impossible, force myself to chase my vision, and surround myself with a tribe that believes in me and our goals. These are definitely key ideas which I can take from this exercise to better myself and push myself to someone who I do not yet know or recognize yet.      

Reference:

Godin, Seth (TED). (2009, February) The Tribes we Lead [Ted Talks]

            Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead#t-797175 

NASA Cultural Changes

Recently NASA has gone through a very traumatic situation which it is hard for any agency to cope with, on February 1^st 2003 space shuttle Columbia and the seven crew members were lost. Before that happened NASA had almost a magical presence and its reputation was flawless. No one could have ever seen something like this happening, everything was running so smooth and then before anyone working for NASA knew what hit them this accident occurred. NASA jumped into action after a short grieving period, they began to assess how something like this could happen and what they could do to prevent this from ever happening again.

Sean O’Keefe the leader of NASA needed to address his employees at of all of the proposed changes which would eventually be implemented. A diagnosis of NASA was done and there was a very obvious need for a change in the way they did work and the way their leadership handled the issues at hand. After carefully studying many of the surveys which were conducted the leadership at NASA was able to recognize certain problems with the culture that had been at NASA for a long time.

The results were that this study made it obvious that the general consensus is that employees do not have enough professional respect for one another. This was one of the major problems at NASA, behavior like this can have huge implications on an organization like NASA. If employees do not have enough respect for each other and their professional opinions, it might be harder for someone to come forward with a safety issue in fear of getting disrespected or mocked. Among some other big issues is that there is very little upward communication and perceived organization support, these issues also go along with my theory of employees being scared to speak their minds. I think that Mr. O’Keefe recognizes that this is an important issue and this is why he choose to speak publicly about it rather than just pass the new agenda on to his leadership.

I think Mr. O’Keefe was very believable in his address to the employees of NASA, he was very sincere about wanting to bring a change to the culture of NASA and recognized that in part this incident was also his fault. They always say that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem, in this video Sean O’Keefe does just that. He tells the world that the leadership at NASA including himself had failed, he talked about an email which he received that day and said that it was suggested to him for leadership to just get out of their office and go interact with all of the employees. I think that since Mr. O’Keefe reflects on himself and his leadership at NASA so that they can improve; these statements make him sound very believable. He recognizes that no one is perfect including himself, this brings out a very human characteristic in him and it shows that he does want to change NASA’s culture for the better.

Mr. O’Keefe talks about NASA’s values because an organizations looking to improve needs to take into consideration their ethical, value, and goal considerations if they are to improve. By taking this into consideration Mr. O’Keefe can “understand the old culture, encourage change in employees, involve employees, and lead with a vision” (OD, pg. 70). Sean O’ Keefe recognizes that large-scale change takes time and this why I do feel that they are on the correct path.

There are many lessons to be learned from this whole ordeal, I know that I will definitely take a page out of Mr. O’Keefe’s book when I look to becoming a better leader. I see that it is imperative to not make anyone feel as though their opinion does not matter for this person could save a tragedy from happening. If we do not let our employees be free and respect each other’s professional opinions a lot of important information can be lost. It is important that every voice in an organization be heard and that every voice have a channel for them to be heard. I think that this incident at NASA could have been avoided had the culture been different. I will remember this exercise and use it to propel myself to ensure that my work place culture has a much more open atmosphere; I will also make it a point to “live in the new culture”(OD, pg. 70) and not regress back to the old way of doing things.     

Reference:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (Eighth ed.). Prentice Hall.

C-SPAN (NASA). (2004). NASA Cultural Changes [Video]. Available from http://www.c-span.org/video/?181348-1/nasa-cultural-changes