Simulation – Luxurion Auto - 1
The purpose of this simulation was to measure my effectiveness in creating and managing effective teams. The company was Luxurion Auto, for which I was to assemble a team to discover the most desirable luxury car design and features and innovations through independent research and benchmarking. The team members would be drawn from different departments and would have varied expertise. The company goal is to launch a line of first-class cars sought after by luxury car fans everywhere. At the conclusion of the project, the team would disband and return to their Departments.
I was the General Manager for Luxurian, and it was my job in this project to ensure that the team succeeded in identifying a luxury line cars. I was mentored in this task by Sarah Fisher. My task was to assemble the cross-functional task force that included employees from the same level in different work areas. I was to select the best candidate for the key roles for best results.
I selected Harvey to serve as the Accessor & Advisor; Amrita as Creator; John for Controller & Organizer; Janice for Promoter & Maintainer; and Marcell for Linker & Producer. Although my team composition was not the same as Sarah would have chosen, I was able to achieve success with the team I assembled. That said, I may have had an easier time as manager, and the team may have had less hurdles to cross, had I selected differently. However, the purpose of the exercise is to see how well I can manage a team, manage conflict, and keep on track to achieve a goal. That purpose was achieved. In addition, in the real world at most companies, I would not have been able to pick the best and brightest from every Department. The truth is that Department Heads occupy their best and brightest with their key tasks, and it would be difficult to obtain the best from each Department for the team.
In retrospect, I would have had an easier time if I had selected John as Accessor & Advisor, Marcell as Controller & Organizer and Petra for Linker & Producer. I made my decisions because John used to work at BMW and he has 15 years experience managing automotive development and manufacturing; and he also mentors entry level designers. I chose Amrita because she is an Interior Exterior designer with 6 years experience and used to work at Ferrari. She has also been awarded best selling design awards. I chose Harvey because he is a Senior Designer and considered a jack of all trades. He also has 15 years experience in sales, design, manufacturing, and production. I chose Janice because she was a former public relations rep. at Mercedes Benz and is very creative. I chose Marcell because he has excellent project management skills and can keep others from getting off track and maintaining focus.
According to Dorian Wales, a manager must "use the differential knowledge of team members and enable diversity of opinion and approach. (Wales, 2007)
Once the team was assembled, I met with them and emphasized the common purpose. Establishing the expectations and guiding principles were an important part of this activity. Susan Heathfield, Human Resources Guru at About.com, in her article titled, How to Create Norms: Adopting Guidelines for Team Relationships, reinforced this concept:
Once developed, team norms are used to guide team member behavior. Team norms are used to assess how well team members are interacting. Team norms enable team members to call each other out on any behavior that is dysfunctional or that is negatively impacting the success of the team. (Heathfield, How to Create Norms: Adopting Guidelines for Team Relationships, 2009)
Establishing a common goal and vision for the team is a high priority. It takes establishing the common goal and then refocusing on the goal as the team proceeds, This is one of the hallmarks of successful teams, as discussed by Structured Training in their article titled, What Makes an Effective Team,
This seems obvious but many teams do not have it. They are a collection of individuals who say they are trying to do the same thing. We see many sales teams who don’t have any overarching team target or team incentive scheme but are expected to share best practice. The common purpose should also be more than a set of numbers; it should connect to the organisation’s vision and the strategy for delivering it. Every sports team common purpose is to win (the numbers), it’s the ones that have a common purpose that includes the way they are going to win that more often succeed, especially if you are looking for repeatable success. (Training, 2009)
I took that advice to heart and made it the centerpiece of my management of the project. In addition, I established a foundation of trust with them and worked to ensure the team members that they could trust me and each other. This required a set of ground rules for resolving conflicts. Some conflict, of course, is healthy, but it helps to have ground rules to keep conflict from escalating. In addition, I provided incentives, motivation, and training to help overcome obstacles that arose during the project. I wanted the team to look at themselves as a team, and after the initial stages, they did. These are factors in successful teams, and, according to Susan Heathfield, About.com Human Resources Guru,
The lone ranger, even if she is an excellent producer, is valued less than the person who achieves results with others in teamwork. Compensation, bonuses, and rewards depend on collaborative practices as much as individual contribution and achievement. (Heathfield, How to Build a Teamwork Culture, 2009)
In managing the team, I had to make sure that personal interests did not conflict with business interests and I also had to make sure that everyone in the group was staying on track and staying involved. I had to make sure that people understood why their decisions were not always accepted and help them think outside the box. I had to help and make sure their objectives were looked at from all aspects, positive and negative.
Harvey's busy schedule was a conflict. He had a lot of social events to attend to which caused him to miss a lot of meetings so we decided to invest in software that would allow everyone to meet with Harvey via the web. I also had to find a way to help Amrita see why her decisions weren't' always the best ones. We created a Devil's Advocate session.
To direct individual performance, I tried to make it as easy as possible for all to attend an equal amount of meetings and see that all of their ideas were heard equally. To direct team performance I tried to let them know that there were no favorites and in order for everything to work they had to stick together as a team. They also had to be able to handle positive and negative feedback and use it to their advantage.
My team was very effective. They all got and all expense paid trip to Hawaii. I think they earned this award by utilizing all of the situations that were given to them. They used resources given to them to include everyone in the team and they used feedback appropriately. They were also successful by Wales' measures, "Effectiveness of teams can be described as effectiveness compared to the target set at the forming of the team or as effectiveness compared to resources (Wales, 2007)."
I ran the simulation again and I got the same results. This was interesting, but not surprising. I found that the skills and challenges in managing teams is fairly universal. As I reviewed the simulation, I identified a component from each of the four contextual factors for team effectiveness, and evaluated how each of those components was important within the simulation. The components and their importance were:
- Context - Adequate Resources
- This was important to the simulation because in one instance I had to use a web cast to allow all members to attend meetings and I also needed incentives to motivate employees and get them to come up with innovative ideas.
- Composition - Member Flexibility
- This was important to the simulation because since Harvey had a lot of social events to attend to he was gone a lot. This required him and other members to come to an agreement that could be convenient for him and all of the other members.
- Work Design - Task Identity
- This was important to the simulation because when Amrita was disagreeing with others over her designs we had to re-evaluate everyone's roles and the importance of acceptance from all and consumers as well.
- Process - Team Efficacy
- Everyone on this team is successful in one area or another so this helped us harness success in all areas.
References
Heathfield, S. M. (2009). How to Build a Teamwork Culture. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from About.com: Human Resources:
Heathfield, S. M. (2009). How to Create Norms: Adopting Guidelines for Team Relationships. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from About.com - Human Resources:
Training, S. (2009, March 21). What Makes and Effective Team? Retrieved March 21, 2009 , from Structured Training:
Wales, D. (2007, November 06). Creating and Managing Effective Teams in the Workplace. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from Associated Content: Information from the Source: