MSLD 635 Module 7-INSEAD Reflection

Most of today’s businesses have become complex to the point that the traditional “one leads all” method is often times the least-effective way of running an entire organization (Obolensky, 2014). Since there’s too much responsibility and information for a single leader to handle, we rely on a team of people who practice self-management. As Paul Tesluk explained in this week’s video, a self-managing team has formal responsibilities and authorities to make their own decisions on how they organize and plan to get their work done (INSEAD, 2008).

My current workplace heavily relies on self-managing teams and they have both their benefits and drawbacks. Aside from splitting the workload, one important aspect my organization obtain from self-managing teams is that each team have and obtain unique information per-campus. As an online university, my organization consist of over 100 campuses around the world to provide advisement to current and prospective students. Due to demographic, environmental, and other differences, some methods the university encourages us to practice may not work for all campuses. For instance, my campus mainly consist of Boeing employees. As many of them work at the typical 8-hour day and travel constantly, we worry that telephone calls about non-urgent information (such as on-campus offerings) would be a distraction to their work. Since many of them prefer emails to begin with, we therefore send emails that provide the information the campus wants us to distribute.

            While each self-managing team split the company’s workload and usually increase efficiency (due to unique set of information), there are also some negative aspects to consider. Due to a number of people working together, there is a higher risk of conflict. Conflicts in the organization can occur either within or with other teams: as someone or a group have a completely different view or idea of something (Kokemuller, n.d.). Having strong support of one’s own ideas and operations can also increase the risk of a group going off-track. This can create an assortment of problems that could eventually hurt the entire organization. To minimize these drawbacks, it is important for organizations to periodically check-in with teams to ensure that they’re doing their jobs correctly and efficiently. Coaching, training, and interviews are some examples that will help employees on track (Brown, 2011). For my case, the university offers mandatory as well as optional online conferences in addition to an annual summit meeting that provide reviews and brand new information. In some cases, these meeting allow us to provide and share feedbacks with one another: which can help us learn and enhance our everyday campus operations.


References:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

INSEAD. (2008). Self-managing teams: debunking the leadership paradox [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=GBnR00qgGgM

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). UK: Gower Publishing.

Kokemuller, N. (n.d.). The advantages & disadvantages of teams in the workplace. Chron. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-teams-workplace-21669.html

MSLD 635 Module 6- EcoSeagate

Prior to establishing EcoSeagate, the employees of Seagate Technology: a computer hard drive manufacturer experienced some problems within the company. Due to constant firing and other issues, employee reputation was poor: often times renaming the company “Slavegate”. CEO Bill Watkins was very well aware of the situation and established EcoSeagate immediately after becoming president in 2000. Watkins’ goal was to transfer the values and experiences of teamwork from the multi-day lab back to their work (Brown, 2011).

EcoSeagate is a five-day, experience where Seagate employees from around the world travels to New Zealand to participate in various outdoor activities including kayaking and racing. After watching the videos for this week’s module, I recall a similar experience I had and can relate some of the values obtainable from EcoSeagate. In 2004, I participated the annual Yoron Island Adventure School. The camp is an International Youth Association of Japan program in which fifth graders build relationships with others from different countries (Fisher, 2009). When I participated, the camp mostly consisted of DODDS and Japanese students.

Just like EcoSeagate, the Yoron Island camp lasted a couple days and we participated in various activities including holding dragon boat races, as well as building bamboo rafts. Since every activity involved teamwork, it was crucial for our team to communicate with one another. As I communicated with my team members, I was able to make new friends. This made me feel more comfortable and open: which made communication and trust stronger and easier. Since the program consisted a mix of kids from different schools and countries, we were also able to learn various things from one another. Similar things can be seen in the EcoSeagate video: where employees from various departments, locations, and cultures come together. Just as I did in my camp, employees can meet new people in addition to teaching one another. An example from the video included an individual replacing a bike tire for another team member. While it’s uncertain, we can see how the individual changing the tire likely had previous experience and knowledge than the one needing help (Chao, 2008). With new information, ones can not only obtained new information, but they can use that information to enhance their work.

After watching the EcoSeagate video and relating to my own experiences, I believe that my organization can gain some benefits for hosting a similar event. In my organization, there are over 100 different campuses scattered around the world. Each campus is unique and consist of different operations and student demographics. By occasionally bringing everyone together, we can enhance relationships and learn from one another. Recently, my university had a mandatory month-long training program where every campus and their employees reviewed and learned an array of campus standards, operations, and procedures. Throughout the training, we were encouraged to communicate with one another. Often times, we were able to obtain new information and ideas and used them at our own campus to improve everyday operations.

References:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Chao, M. (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE

Fisher, C. (2009). DODDS students relish Japanese adventure. Stars and Stripes. Retrieved from https://www.stripes.com/news/dodds-students-relish-japanese-adventure-1.89834

MSLD 635 Module 5- Video Debrief of Team MA

            Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple is often seen as one of the most iconic leaders of the century, as well as a pioneer who revolutionized the usage of personal computers. Like all leaders, they all start someplace small. For this week’s module, we watched a short documentary on Job’s earlier days when he founded NeXT Incorporated. The documentary mainly focused on the first couple days when the company was founded.

            One of the most noticeable thing throughout the documentary was that Steve Jobs had a clear vision on where he’d like NeXt to be rather than focusing too much on the details on how to get there. Placing myself in the scenario, I personally find Job’s ideas to be interesting, and I believe the key here is motivation. As a former business student, we’ve mainly been taught to find the single right plan to achieve our goals. To do this, we “branch out” and focus on the small details of the organization which includes anywhere from marketing to budgeting ideas. From an honest standpoint, these details are often times pretty boring and can sometimes lead to confusion, as well as people to go off track.

On the contrary, Steve Jobs focused on the possibilities for his company. For this case, Jobs brought awareness to employees that college and higher education students are starting to rely on computers for learning opportunities. To explain, Jobs talked about simulated learning environments: where it allows something that’s intangible (such as a linear accelerator for physics students) to be tangible, as well as providing a more cost-efficient option for both students and faculty (as an example, he mentioned a five-million-dollar DNA Laboratory). To motivate his employees even more, Jobs acknowledged his employees’ skills and passion on technology. He states a couple times throughout the documentary that he wants people to put their “hearts” to their products (Nathan, 1986).

Perhaps the most capturing moment of the documentary was when Jobs talked about putting some “heart” into their work. While I currently work at a non-profit organization, I can refer and related to Job’s approaches with NeXT Inc. Prior to working at my current position, I was a student from the same university that I currently work for. While my advisors provided me some assistance throughout my degree, they were almost always rushing: causing me to feel lost and hesitant to ask for further assistance. Now an advisor, I knew that I had the ability to make things happen. Since day one of my job, my goal was to ensure that students do not have the same experiences as I did a few years ago. To do this, I try to not only provide the resources to students, but I try to know each and every one of them. Despite my experiences with my past advisors, I overall (and still do!) had an amazing experience with the university. To enrich my advisement, I often times share experiences and tips. A few months into my job, I started to notice a difference at the campus. More people were contacting me for assistance, and some of us have established a closer relationship: where we engage in small side conversations.

References:

Nathan, J. (1986). Entrepreneur [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=255&v=loQhufxiorM 

MSLD 635 Module 4- Build a Tower, Build a Team

Tom Wujec’s Build a Tower, Build a Team was an interesting TED talk that mainly focused on the results of the “marshmallow problem” from various group members. The goal of the team-building exercise was to build the tallest, freestanding tower that consist of 20 sticks of dry spaghetti, a yard of tape and strings, and topping the tower with a single large marshmallow. During the talk, Wujec mainly focused on the results of two groups: the MBA students and kindergartners. The results were interesting: where kindergartners yield taller towers than MBA students (Wujec, 2010).

Personally, the results were not really surprising: as I personally experienced similar results to the MBA students in a past group activity. Back when I was studying business, my class was divided into two groups to silently build a bridge that can hold and support the weight of a thick textbook. We only had 30 minutes to build the bridge and had a very limited supply of cardboard, tapes, glue, and other craft items. Since we were not allowed to talk, our group communicated using body language and mostly by drawing. Just as Wujec stated, business students are trained to find the single right plan (Wujec, 2010). While part of it was likely because of the silent rule, we spent more than half of the time planning rather than building, ran out of time, and failed to make an effective bridge (it’s funny since both groups failed!).

After watching Wujec’s talk, I agreed with his analysis of the experiment. Unlike the MBA students, Wujec found that Kindergartners performed better because of their ability to continuously make prototypes, and build on to successful ones. In addition, they did not bother to “jockey for power”: saving them time to establish the prototypes (Wujec, 2010). Personally, I believe that the children performed better than MBA students because of the variety of kids that were in the group. This was seen when Wujec compared the results of architects and engineers, CEOs, and CEOs working with an executive admin (Wujec, 2010). His results reminded me of how the Google Company promotes innovation within their company. To do so, the company established the Google Café: where employees from various departments were encouraged to communicate with one another. This not only help establish stronger company relationships, but it was also used as a learning opportunity to employees (He, 2013).

In my organization, we follow some similar strategies Wujec shared in his talk. At my level, I can only cover very general advisement to prospective and current students. When I come across any unusual or complex situation, I rely on the help of my coworkers: who have the knowledge and skills they specialize in from their department. As we collaborate, we sometimes come across flaws and other information. From this point, employees can then focus on them and can either add on or enhance our current campus operations.

References:

He, L. (2013). Google’s Secrets Of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-innovation-empowering-its-employees/#7913604657e7

Wujec, T. (2010). Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team [Video File]. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower/transcript