Bbus 402: The Team That Wasn't

Thomas Gray

BBUS 402

Case 1

Question 1. What is the nature of the problems experienced by the team? Why are these problems occurring?

• Team members are leaders in their departments. This tends to draw power, hungry people that like to be in charge. When a team is compiled with multiples of said personalities, it can make agreeing on anything very difficult.  

• Members of the team tend to not value and respect each other’s thoughts and ideas.

• Randy has a big ego and he does not listen to the team member’s contributions. He knows he is a valuable asset, but he purposely causes chaos.

• Maureen is a complainer and is looking for recognition from colleagues.

• Eric is in a doubtful and negative demeanor. He is not in an ideal mood/position for facilitating a team project.

• Eric is new to the company and doesn’t know his colleagues.

• Ray has low self esteem and jokes to hide his insecurities. He has emotional outbursts that create disunity.

• Employees are unaccustomed to team processes.

Question 2. What recommendations would you make to Eric, not just for dealing with Randy, but also for more effectively managing the team?

• My recommendation for Eric is to spend time with his team members individually to build unity prior to the next meeting.

• When meeting with Randy, ask him to actively listen and to be encouraging to other team members. Challenge Randy to mentor others through his experience, not mock them because their lack of it. He has the largest potential to impact the team. All Eric has to do is engage him, aka: have him apply his skill sets in team discussions.

• In meeting with Maureen, I would tell her how excited I am about this chance to change the company and to work with such a talented artist.

• In meeting with Ray, I would talk about his ideas and tell him they are great. Tell him he did a great job presenting his ideas. Encourage him in his ideas and skill sets.

• Next group meeting: Have coffee and cookies at  the meeting to break the ice/ prior to the meeting starting. The refreshments will remove potential tardiness issues and help the team to become acclimated. Then as a leader thank everyone for making an effort to come and participate. Be positive about the future and remind the team about the goal and encourage the team often.

• Prior to discussing ideas, do a small exercises that engages all the team members in a group activity where there is one goal and together, they work to achieve it. For example, the sugar cube experiment we did in class as a team. This will help the members understand other member’s points of views and that teams are capable of achieving challenging goals together.