Monday, October 24, 2005
Understanding Work Teams
This is a good chapter. We have been working in teams for our team presentation and the chapter is quite relevant. I would say that our team has been pretty strong. everyone is a good performer. We have had the setback of one team player, but from the sounds of the other groups, that isn't very bad at all. We are doing our presentation on Crisis Management. At this time the team seems to be firming up pretty well. Although one person has been off to a shaky start, he is trying to commit and we are working with him to get him back on track. I think one of the hardest things can be communication. WIth the one person on the team only showing up to 1 of the 1st five meetings, it was hard to keep him on track. He was also slow to answer voice and email. but as we keep the pressure on, he is performing as tasked. It will be interesting to see if the team accepts him back into the fold again. I really see these exercises more about teaming than presenting our topic and I let the rest of the team know my opinion, so rather than continue on without this member, I think we will do better in the class with him.
As far as the chapter topic, I enjoy work teams. I have worked under Integrated Product teams for quite some time. Many projects I work on involve teams, and I think it is important that we do not just work within departments. Teams tend to collaborate better, there is less chance of building borders within teams, but more subversive confilct can take place. I also work alot with virtual teams. I think Robbin's text finally hot the nail on the rhead with virtual teaming, non-verbal cues, limited social context and ability to overcome time and space constraints are an issue. I think he also left out that virtual teams tend to with more formally that face to face. You usually have constraints that resist break down groups from forming quickly and brainstorming is more difficult. Also if people are meeting in a room, it is difficult to capture graphical data, such as someone drawing on a whiteboard without expensive equipment. I have consulted a couple of times where I did not have any face to face interaction and I found it kind of difficult to work. But it beat getting on a plane.
It's kind of curious why this was written as such a controversial or new topic, I think teams have been around for quite some time wand will be there for quite a while as well.
As far as the chapter topic, I enjoy work teams. I have worked under Integrated Product teams for quite some time. Many projects I work on involve teams, and I think it is important that we do not just work within departments. Teams tend to collaborate better, there is less chance of building borders within teams, but more subversive confilct can take place. I also work alot with virtual teams. I think Robbin's text finally hot the nail on the rhead with virtual teaming, non-verbal cues, limited social context and ability to overcome time and space constraints are an issue. I think he also left out that virtual teams tend to with more formally that face to face. You usually have constraints that resist break down groups from forming quickly and brainstorming is more difficult. Also if people are meeting in a room, it is difficult to capture graphical data, such as someone drawing on a whiteboard without expensive equipment. I have consulted a couple of times where I did not have any face to face interaction and I found it kind of difficult to work. But it beat getting on a plane.
It's kind of curious why this was written as such a controversial or new topic, I think teams have been around for quite some time wand will be there for quite a while as well.
