Group - Team, Communication, and Leadership

 

Some important insights that I have learned from the third week’s learning materials are three solutions for good team outcomes, lectured by professor Melissa Thomas-Hunt. These three solutions are: identify and leverage your expertise; enlist early support; and engage others. These keys make a successful team. What does successful team mean? According to Thomas-Hunt, the successful team is measured by team output, team viability, and member development and growth. These three recommendations will leverage member knowledge and help people to expose their unique ideas into the team and this will lead the team to create effective outcomes. Identifying and leveraging your expertise is the most helpful knowledge for me because I am not a person who likes to talk in meetings or discussion. It does not mean I do not have any ideas in my mind. But I personally do not like to talk in a big group. This performance is not good in management or even in study, so that is why I think this technique is important. Thomas-Hunt reminds that air time matters, so jumping into the conversation early can also help your idea be identified, and also do not forget to prepare to explain it with evidence. This is the rewarding technique that I have learned from this session material, and I will use it to improve myself in class discussion, group meetings, and my future career. I do not have any outstanding questions concerning the concept since Thomas-Hunt and the other three people in the talk (Gina, Kim, and Odette) explained and gave some thoughts in a variety of cases clearly in the talk.

The second most important concept that I have found from reading “Are Great Leaders in Control of Their Companies?” written by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, is “Believing That You Are Powerful Can Wreck Your Organization,” one of the recommendations that the authors suggest in “What Should Good Leaders Do?” Leaders, who act with too much power, excess centralization, talk more, ignore what other people say or want, and have also too much influence and control can create billions of lost productivity (health, happiness, loyalty, and productivity of their subordinates), and bring failure to the organizations (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006, p.191). To be good leaders, these kinds of behaviors should be avoided. There are ways to avoid these problems such as reducing power differences and shattering illusions of leaders’ superiority by surrounding themselves with people who do not hesitate to tell them they are wrong and why (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006, p.207). For instance, Ko Nishimura, the CEO of contract manufacturer Solectron, did not have a reserved parking place and sat in an open office. This concept and its key implications are useful in managing people in the organizations. Sometimes the hierarchy and the difference of power affect the team dynamics. I have had this kind of experience in my old workplace. The leaders of my department were in too much control. All the subordinates including me had never have an opportunity to share ideas, knowledge, and opinions. So the turnover rate in my old workplace was, and is still, very high. The centralization in my old workplace is excessive and this has also created mum effect (see p. 207 in Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense) in the company too. “Believing That You Are Powerful Can Wreck Your Organization” is good in theory, but tough to do in reality. I wonder, if it happens in the big organization like my old workplace, how in reality can this problem be reduced or solved because people in high position do not want to change themselves and get out of this system.

4 Reasons to Grab a Drink With Your Employees: How Bosses Can Use Informal Social Events To Improve Culture And Teamwork by Ian Jackson, a managing partner with Enshored, an operations consultancy and outsourcing business based in Los Angeles. Ian had 20 years experience in financial technology, leading global businesses for BARRA, Multex, Reuters, Dealogic and Fitch Ratings. I chose this recommendation to discuss because it is from the person who works in the operation consultancy. I would like to see if he uses any scientific evidence to support the recommendation besides the personal experience, ideologies, or other non-scientific evidence. In addition, this topic is similar to the recommendation that Alex “Sandy” Pentland, a professor at MIT's Media Lab advises in “The New Science of Building Great Teams” that the center’s manager should revise the employees’ coffee break schedule so that everyone on a team took a break at the same time. That would allow people more time to socialize with their teammates, away from their workstations.

This article is not evidence-based. However, it is based on Ian Jackson’s 20 years of personal experience of working in financial technology and leading global businesses. The recommendation is based on his own opinions and experiences. I would like to see more studies and examples that can help readers to visualize each particular situation that can support his arguments.

Leadership is a skill that nobody can teach you to do, it is a craft that you can learn only through experience (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006, p.211). I agree with this statement. I have never stood in the high-level position, but used to work as a small team leader. I mentioned that my old workplace exhibited excessive centralization, so what I acted and performed to my team members was in such contrast with them. I managed my team with my understanding, and respected people’s performances. So I think the reading from chapter 8 ensures that I am in a good direction of how to avoid being a bad leader. Next session I will be learning about group - power and politics, conflict and negotiation, which is my team project’s topic. I am so excited to learn more about how to deal with the conflict within the organization.