Teams In Modern Organizations

WHAT?
Recently in Leadership class we have been learning about teams in modern organization. One of the types of teams we discussed in this unit was work teams.Work teams function together to achieve goals both individually and as a group, and have several ways to keep in check with their achievement of those goals. Whether it's through reward systems or scheduling meetings as a group to check on the team members work process and contribution, work teams usually find ways of succeeding as a team and achieving their goals.

SO WHAT?
Last year, in my Alumni Leadership class, we were responsible for shadowing at least one Alumni of Virginia Tech who graduated with a degree in the major we were studying. In my case it had to be a businessman or businesswoman, because I am a Marketing Major (At the time I was Business, Undecided). My neighbor from back home in Lorton, Craig Griffith, is a State Farm Insurance agent in Springfield, VA. Over my spring break in the Spring Semester 2010, I shadowed him for his Chamber of Commerce meeting, which was a group of businesses who called themselves the BNI Chamber of Commerce of Montclair, VA. At this meeting, I leanred that a Chamber of Commerce is a group of networks of businesses who want to benefit one another by referencing eachother and increasing customer interest so that each business excels in their own way. This team was a great example of a work team because it was a group of leaders of several different businesses who all shared a common interest of helping eachother achieve each business's goals. I observed that the goal of each business was to steadily increase the amount of clients or customers to their company in order to successfully increase their companies net income and wealth. They had several ways for doing this, including writing what was called a "testimony" which was basically a recommendation for other business members in the chamber of commerce in order to achieve more clients. There was a reward system for how many testimonies you would write out that actually gained the other business a client. From what I observed the reward was BNI member of the week, and conveniently enough Mr. Griffith received this reward that week for receiving the most new clients and gaining the most for other businesses.

NOW WHAT?
Through my recent studies of Teams In Modern Organizations, as well being able to observe work teams in modern organizations trough attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting, I have increased my knowledge in what it takes to be a leader in the modern day business world. I one day want to be able to join a Chamber of Commerce and use my knowledge to help contribute to the success of the different businesses in that chamber.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

WHAT?
In the last unit, our leadership class has been reading from the novel The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The book consists of a story about a retired CEO named Kathryn Petersen who came out of retirement in hopes to educate a group of executives on what causes teams to fail, so that these executives can successfully lead their teams or businesses by knowing how to deal with the common issues. The story, as well as the closing excerpt "The Model" are all based on the Five Dysfunctions of Leadership Model. This model consists of a pyramid of five issues that teams often come across, which include inattention to results, avoidance of accountability, lack of commitment, fear of conflict, absence of trust.

SO WHAT?
After examining this model, I have observed that my group, Team Back Corner, has been able to avoid most of these common issues through both communicating to each other and showing dedication to team success. However, there is always of course the occasional conflict that teams will go through. The conflicts that our team have come across relate mostly to absence of trust, and avoidance of accountability. The absence of trust and avoidance of accountability go hand in hand with each other because if you don't think you can trust an individual or certain group members, you won't hold them accountable for their responsibilities. There are only certain group members that the other members of the group occasionally feel they can't entirely trust. Yet, I feel that as a whole our group is very resilient and works together to get through problems. We haven't had to particularly tell anyone to step up their game at any point, because I do feel that a majority of the group members are strongly dedicated to the groups' success and want to get along with one another, and we are therefore able to complete the tasks at hand.Everyone makes mistakes, including myself. But we have been effective enough as a group in our thought process and willingness to contribute in order for our team to succeed (shown in our score for the Maroon-Orange game, haha).

NOW WHAT?
Because our group has not yet performed our service project , we have to make sure we finish strong.  We have just finished reading on the five dysfunctions of teams, therefore we have a new found background on issues teams often have to overcome and how to avoid or solve these issues. We have a few team meetings left before we will execute our workshop, so we must communicate and make our final plans effectively so that our service project runs smoothly and we are able to pass on our knowledge of leadership to the new members of Sigma Kappa.

Online Classes: Virtual Team Aspects

WHAT?

This semester, I have chosen to take Accounting 211 online through my community college back home,

Northern Virginia Community College. This class is required for business majors, and I had heard that it is easier to understand when taking it online rather than through a lecture style classroom. In this class, one of the requirements is to work within an assigned group and communcate to eachother through email by posting on the discussion board forum.  On the discussion board form, we write about case studies that we read in each chapter and then respond to eachothers' posts. This leads to a discussion within our assigned group, and we are graded on the points we make during our posts and entries and how we have evaluated each case study.
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SO WHAT?
These online groups are perfect examples of Virtual Teams, a type of group we recently read about in leadership class. According to chapter 15 in the textbook, virtual teams are teams "whose member interactions are mediated by time, distance, and technology" (Levi, 259). The chapter discusses how virtual teams can be both beneficial and harmful. Virtual groups usually have improved technological communication (email, cell phone, chat rooms), but they can also lead to isolation and lack of social relations due to no face-to-face communication. I have never met any of my group members because I am so far from Northern Virginia, but have only communicated to them through the forums and email. When our group formed, we were not cohesive at all and showed very poor communication skills. Some group members were not checking their email or doing their part by posting on the forums. An act known as "flaming" or offensive message posting online may occur as well because of the increased level of anonymity in the group. In the chapter, some of these communication setbacks are what were listed as the disadvantages of Virtual Teams There is also always the risk of miscommunication through improper interpretation of emails and forum posts. 

NOW WHAT?
 Using the Knowledge I have gained from reading this chapter, I want to make sure my group improves its' communication, doesn't remain isolated, and establishes some sort of social connection with eachother so that we aren't so anonymous to one another (more than knowing just the group members name and email). I plan on doing this in a creative way, such as creating a Google Document that requires any contact information group members are willing to give out, and possibly some background about each group member. I also will personally never use any offensive or langauge that may be miscommunicated, and hope that the group reaches an understanding of what language to use when sending emails and posting on the forums. If the group continues to improve our communication and itneraction with eachother, I believe we can all receive very good grades on the case study forums and portray the beneficial side of Virtual Teams.

Reflection: Team Back Corner

WHAT?                                            SIGMA KAPPA NEW GIRL PLEDGE CLASS
In Leadership class, we have officially come up with a name for our team: Team Back Corner. It fits, because we sit as a group in the back corner of the room in class, and it's unique. The group has been discussing what we are going to do for our service project. Last week, we concluded that we would give back to the Greek Community here at Virginia Tech. We are going to pass on our knowledge of Leadership skills to the new girl pledge class of Sigma Kappa Sorority.  We made the decision as a group through having one group meeting to discuss what we wanted to do as a service project first, then another meeting where we decided who we would spread our knowledge to as well as how we were going to do it. We then brainstormed activities we could conduct for them to do to teach them about teamwork, communication, and cooperation. This process that Team Back Corner carried out in deciding what to do for our service project relates very closely to the brainstorming and group creativity discussed by Levi in Group Dynamics for Teams.  In Chapter 12, he explains how creativity can be limited by groups, unless everyone is able to contribute to the decision making of the group. Because we took our time deciding what to do and didn't rush into it, and everyone in the group was able to contribute their ideas, we successfully brainstormed and came up with creative ideas.

SO WHAT? 

We have chosen to do this as our service project because in order to be in a sorority, it is very important that you develop leadership skills, as well skills needed to work properly within a team. There are many jobs delegated to girls who have served time in the sorority, and these jobs require working with girls within the sorority, with sororities throughout campus, and sorority chapters throughout the country. To teach these new girls proper leadership and teamwork skills (discussed by Levi), we are holding a workshop that consists of an opening intro presentation, three activities that involve working within teams to accomplish a goal (Human Knot, Trust Walk, Designing), and a closing presentation that summarizes what they have learned for the day. The workshop will only be an hour long, so they only have ten minutes at each activity. We are hoping that these activities will help them to practice and understand what it takes to work together successfully within groups and reach their goals as quickly (but efficiently) as possible.

NOW WHAT?

The group needs to contact our liaison in the sorority named Carly to make sure that the service project is confirmed. Once it has been confirmed, we are going to set up a date and time to run the workshop. We have completed our list of resources that we need, so the next is to collect the supplies that we will need in order to run the workshop. We have to create any important slides for the intro and outro presentations. Most importantly, we have to finish our proposal that describes the service project. I feel very confident that this workshop is going to run smoothly, and that we can successfully spread our knowledge gained through leadership studies.

Team Effectiveness

WHAT?
The team that has taught me the most about the importance of team effectiveness, cohesion, and vision was my high school boys varsity cross country team. My senior year, I was the captain of this team along with another senior leader on the team. There were 7 guys who ran varsity, and we were some of the best of friends. At the start of the season my senior year, some of the varsity runners seemed to be much more focused on individual achievement, rather than goals as a team to try and make it as far as we could. As my co-captain and I realized this, we worked throughout the season to bring the team together.

SO WHAT?
As a captain, I was a designated leader and wanted my team to succeed as much as we could. Our goal as a team was to at least make it to the northern region meet with everybody in the best shape possible. In our Team Leadership class this week, we read about Team effectiveness which included the input-process-output model. I believe that this model is very closely related to how our team functioned throughout the season. The article states that the best functioning teams are usually between 2 and 10 members. The team was a perfect size at seven people, not too big, and not too large.  The team was cohesive because we all knew each other on a personal level. This helped us because we were able to comfortably communicate. I wasn't afraid to let someone know that they needed to help contribute more by showing up to practices or working their hardest, and they weren't afraid to challenge me if they disagreed with how I thought we should approach a race. Furthermore, in order to reach our goal, we had to practice teamwork. Cross Country is no doubt a team sport.  My job was to make sure everyone was trying their hardest and not getting discouraged, whether it took motivational speaking, or breaking out into "Living on a Prayer" during workouts to reassure the runners that the work we were putting in was going to pay off. When the season was coming to end, we were able to perform to the best of our ability because team output exceeded the sum of individual output. With our vision focused on our goals throughout the season, we were able to place second at the regional meet.


NOW WHAT?
Through the experience I gained as a captain on the cross country team, and applying some of the key components of Team Effectiveness, I now know what it takes for a team to be able to achieve its goals.