Based on this week's readings from the Denning text,
identify the elements of
high-performance teams and apply them to teams with
whom you have worked in
your organization.
Next, Identify the importance of shared values and
discuss the influence of
shared values on your team's performance.
Finally, examine the four patterns of working together
and detail one positive an
one negative experience. What could
you have done to influence the outcomes?
During my 20 plus years in the A.F. I had the unique
opportunity to have
participated five times, in an airlift competition
named “Airlift Rodeo”. Airlift
Rodeo sponsored by the
Air Mobility Command is the Mobility Air Force's, or MAF, readiness
competition. This competition focuses on improving our worldwide air mobility
forces' professional core abilities.
The experience that I
along with my fellow airman from maintenance, operations, and aerial port
squadrons, were astounding from the standpoint of team bonding of the many
disciplines and in a compressed, predetermined timeframe stemming from team
selection to preparation to competition.
In several instances team
members were total strangers before and some the best of friends afterword.
Even those who had challenging relationships quickly forgot and became part of
a team driven toward the ultimate goal of winning. The team was so successful
because we all quickly realized early on that this is something bigger than any
one individual. And in order to win and to not be the first looser (aka) second
place, we would need to combine our specific expertise and become one cohesive
team that went to completion and won as a team, or lost as a team, with no
specific outstanding prize to any one individual or blame to any one individual.
The importance of shared
values were so important for the overall success of the team, that if any one
member were to have differing values the risk of loosing the competition or,
compromised safety could not be tolerated. The level of commitment of shared
values was so high, that after the competition(s) were completed and we
returned to our respective squadrons. Most
would often have conflict with what had become the new norm of shared values
vs. what was the current norm for our work centers.
In fact during subsequent
deployments Rodeo competitors would look toward working with one another, to
revisit the level of commitment and working relationships again.
The four patterns of working
together:
Work groups according to
Denning, are the traditional subunits in an organizational department or
division.
A positive experience would
be during an acceptance check of a particular weapon system, the group I was
assigned to encounter setbacks. As a result the team that was comprised of
various engineering disciplines of mechanical, electrical including a
functional test engineer of differing aerospace companies and myself the
customer, who were able to assess the root cause of the problem and tailor a
corrective action including functional test and acceptance portion.
A negative experience would
be a similar circumstance as the one previously described. Only now a
perception of compromise of proprietarily information between contractors
(KTR’s) leads to a rift between two KTR’s of a similar nature. Rightfully so,
they were protecting there companies information and shareholder interests.
I along with contracting
experts, proposed a closed-door meeting between the respective companies legal
and management personnel. The root of the issue was a contract clause requiring
the two rivals to have instituted a joint venture team for the purpose of this
program and that there were those from both sides who were unable or unwilling
to abide by the contract requirement clause.
What I would eventually do
differently is to have a pre-meeting citing specific contract clauses and a
constructive change notification as a stop-gap toward any Gov. to KTR
misunderstandings.
Teams are an organizational
group of individuals that are interdependent; share a common goal and who
coordinate their goals, sharing the overall responsibility for performance of
the team.
A positive experience would
be the previously discussed Airlift Rodeo experience. And the can-do attitude
displayed by all team members during the selection, preparation, execution and
continued new high standard taken back to the work centers as a result of
Airlift Rodeo.
A negative experience would
be addressing an organizational shortfall and the team comprised to address the
corrective action and implementation. Several members were not on board with
the root cause or the need for a corrective action. Thus they were party to
fake collaboration and were instrumental in disruption and delay of policy
revision and implementation.
I individually had no leverage
to positively influence the outcome. I as the identifier of the shortfall found
the culture was lacking toward implementing this type of corrective action.
Several post closed-door meetings with command staff citing the outcome
convinced command staff to implement by direction and not from organizational
consensus as had been hoped. This of course left some animosity in the
organization, and at times directed toward yours truly.
Community is a group that
has emerged in recent years in an organizational setting as a group of
individuals who are geographically dislocated.
The Interagency Committee on
Aviation Policy (ICAP,) is an executive level committee I serve on in
Washington, DC. The committee is comprised of various federal agencies with
aviation programs, with the goal of commonality and safety for the federal
fleet of non-military aircraft.
The committee is very close
knit, meeting quarterly and traveling to agencies to asses their aviation
safety programs, making recommendations and then utilizing lessons learned to
enhance federal regulations and distribution of information through a
list-serve and continued collaboration.
The negative side is dud to
federal budget cuts, the frequency the committee meets and the impact it
currently has on the federal fleet of aviation programs is in jeopardy.
At this juncture we are
looking at alternative methods of communicating like webinars and
teleconferences. Unfortunately these are not a proven venue for collaboration
and discussion of topics or salient points made during the course of a live
meeting, considering the cost of set-up and the fact that less than 10% of
effective communication is verbal. There will be a lot of vital communication
lost in the translation.
I have recommended
abandoning the purchasing of webinar and teleconference equipment and do a cost
comparison between travel cost and equipment purchase.
Networks are a collection of
individuals that maintain contact with one another either professionally or
personally.
Like most effective programs
or projects, it is the individuals who stay in-touch after the fact that are
instrumental in getting the correct individuals for the next team and project. Mediums
like email, phones, linked-in, Facebook (not a member) and even the golf course
are all acceptable methods of staying in touch and utilizing as a networking
tool.
I do not have a negative
side for this pattern except that possibly the human touch and interaction can
be and in certain circumstances been lost in cyberspace.
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