Charlemagne's web poster was about Front Line Employee. The poster was very informative and useful. I work in a support organization and management repeatedly stresses the importance of this and the importance of people who interact with customers how the process and understand their concerns.
Last week I personally experienced how Front line employees can impact the company. I was having trouble with my home VoIP phone and contacted the phone company, their wait times are outrageous but I was OK with waiting as they provide a cheap service with good quality and might not have any resources. When finally I got hold of them they asked me to do all the normal things in spite of me repeatedly telling them that i did them all and I know what is bad. After this process they said they will send a replacement router and there was no response for a week and when I called back they started asking me to do the same things again even when i was telling them i had a open case. Finally, i had enough of it and canceled the service. If still believe they have good product but the people helping them in providing the service are stopping them from being good.
Pink Lady's Web Poster was about "An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership". The poster very well organized and the illustrations made it easier to understand. Lot us work with Virtual teams and we all have to deal with the time differences, understanding the cultural differences. The summary of her research was very helpful. I completely agree with her points about the communication issues and the information overload with emails etc.,
The sources of conflict are very important to remember and make sure we don't fall into them . Also, the Organizational Dispersion sometimes creates as us versus them attitude even we all are working for the same organization and on the same project.
Zamoradesign's Web Poster explained about Creating Transparency and its importance in Businesses and Corporations. This is a very important topic. Most Organizations today try to be or pretend to be trying to be transparent. I think Transparency will help Organizations that follow the correct practices. if organizations are transparent more people will know about things they are doing and this also helps them find out things that they might be doing wrong unintentionally as other might notice them which we might not have from with in the Organization. But for companies who want to do things which something that is not completely correct or not the standard practice for them is difficult to be transparent as this might lead to more scrutiny.
In my opinion if we are ethical in all the things we do, it will be easy to be transparent
Cathy's web poster was on "Communicating Change Effectively". We hear about this a lot and is a very important topic. Any change comes with some resistance. To implement any change successfully it should be communicated effectively. One way to do this is to involve all the parties involved from the early stages so that they feel part of it is possible. Change should come with a positive message and reasons for it. Also, it has to be communicated well in advance of when the actual change will happen. There are certain changes where communicating early will not be possible like layoffs where communication becomes even more important as the people affected by change were not ready for it.
At work, we follow a FAQ approach for communicating any change, where we come up with a list of questions and through them communicate the necessary information. This approach was very useful and was successful in multiple projects.
Kartik's web poster was on the subject of "Cross-cultural Communication Issues in USA and India Organizations". He did a very good job on summarizing the articles and presenting the important things to consider. I am from India and I had to go thorough similar experiences when I came to this country initially. Kartik makes a very good point about expatriate employees working for US organizations in India and this might help organizations deal with the cultures better and be a good interface between the headquarters an the offices in India. After reading the this web poster and points about how people in India might expect more feedback from their managers, I went to my companies website and looked for the Organizational Chart of some of the Business Groups and their teams in India, I could clearly see the number of people reporting to a manager were much less than in US and also there were team leads assigned that were responsible for sub-groups under a manager.
The views of gender appropriate differ from culture to culture and are a very important consideration in communicating global work/project teams. In US men greeting women by shaking hands is considered normal and is a common occurrence. But some women in India and Middle Eastern countries due to religious customs and culture do not make physical contact with males. It is important to be aware of these customs and should women to come forward approach to shake hand before other proceed to do so. Comments which are acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in others and when conversing with people from other cultures we can try to restrain from making personal comments and is better to keep conversations restricted to business needs until we understand the cultures and customs.
Clarity is very important when communicating with people from multiple cultures.We should try not to combine words and sentences together (shoulda instead of should have), avoid slang, acronyms and words with multiple meanings. We should use short and simple sentences and summarize key points.
I read about this example and it is very a nice real life example of understanding the local culture and clarity in communication. The vacuum cleaner maker Electrolux had a add some time back saying "Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux" and did not recognize the word “sucks”, in its marketing slogan is a slang disparagement in United States of America. This worked fine in some other countries. Hence, the reliability of their marketing communication was compromised because, at least at first sight, this slogan has a different meaning to different recipients. There are multiple examples of similar situations.
When I Started working, I used to think that somebody taking meeting notes and then sending an email or publishing them somewhere for reference was a waste of time. The meeting notes used to include what everyone talked about etc,, which i used to feel was not useful. But now in our team meeting, especially in our team meeting we take notes but one thing we definitely do is to note down actions. Who will do what and by what time. This I think is really helpful. Sometimes during meeting as there are so many things discussed we tend to miss some of the issues. But by sending notes and by clearly stating actions for each one there is no chance for anybody to say they forgot or missed that part.
I think meeting notes done properly and following some accepted template add value to a meeting and after.
Meetings are a very important part in the success of a project team involving global teams.
Meeting facilitators should be prepared and planned. All the meeting participants should be prepared in advance on the agenda of the meeting, inform who will be attending and they are expected of them in the meeting. Participants should be informed of what decisions if any that the team to trying to make during this meeting.
It might be good practice to ask meeting attendees to submit written comments if possible before the meeting. This practice is especially effective if the meeting involves people who are not fluent in English. Meeting facilitators could try to make sure that all the participants get a chance to speak and no one member times up all the time. Also, it is good to follow up with key meeting participants after the meeting to make sure all the issues are clear and confirm agreements.
Figure 6 below are some of the ground rules suggested by Aperian Global, a company that works with clients in developing strategic global approaches to leadership development, organizational change and innovation when handling multicultural conference calls.
Figure 5: Ground Rules for handling Multi-Cultural Conference Calls
1. Identify self before speaking 2. Speak slowly and clearly 3. Speak so that everyone can hear (directly into the microphone) 4. Refrain from long monologues 5. Do not interrupt speakers (except to clarify) 6. Interrupt to clarify if necessary 7. Explain what is happening on your side (laughter, who is joining or leaving, etc.) 8. Check periodically if there are any questions; allow “processing time” 9. Summarize periodically 10. Allow short side conversations in native language 11. Ask permission for side conversations 12. Summarize side conversations briefly 13. Make suggestions for process changes 14. Get agreement from all for process changes 15. Take turns when sharing ideas 16. Keep time; announce time updates 17. Keep on track; reschedule additional topics 18. Intentionally provide “air time” for people who have not yet spoken 19. Summarize and confirm results at the end of the meeting 20. Debrief the meeting process at the end 21. Allow thinking time
During last two years i did some reading on this topic and collected some notes. Wanted to share some of it. The first topic is about Establishing Credibility.
Communication is very important for implementation and success of projects involving global virtual teams. Effective communications are important for establishing credibility, knowing and understanding the global team members.
Establishing Credibility
Ernest Gundling states that “Experienced managers tend to take their own credibility for granted. They have long since learned how to establish their credentials with ease when meeting new business contacts. Under normal circumstances they can accomplish this quickly before proceeding with the business at hand. In cross-border setting, however, the code for establishing one’s value in the eyes of new colleagues and customers may differ from what one is accustomed to, and even this seemingly rudimentary step in creating business relationship can become a significant stumbling block”
Establishing credibility with others is crucial if one is going to be effective in any culture. The manner in which credibility is established can vary from culture to culture. In general, it is useful to keep the following points in mind:
Proper Introductions In some cultures, it is perfectly acceptable to introduce yourself. In other cultures (Eg., India), a person in the proper position of authority should introduce you and explain the context within which everyone will work together.
Transmitting qualifications In cultures like India, individuals feel that is appropriate and necessary to talk about one’s own accomplishments. For people in other cultures, this would be interpreted as arrogant. In those cultures it is better to transmit qualifications indirectly, through third parties. Even in a job interview, some people will feel reluctant to talk about their own skills, strengths and accomplishments.
Level of formality and Protocol Some cultures appreciate formality and protocol more than others. It is always wise to find out before hand the level of formality expected and the appropriate protocol for different situations. If unknown, it is best to err on the side of the forma, and observe and follow protocol.
Listening well Listening well is very important to understand local situation. In some cultures, quick action is valued. However, in other cultures, people who come into a situation and make quick changes are sometimes viewed as shortsighted or arrogant, and are not likely to gain cooperation.
Demonstrating Interest Most people like having their culture appreciated. Showing an interest in learning about local customs, history, and current events and making an effort to learn the language - at least the greetings and phrases for showing courtesy will help gain respect.
Patience For some people, credibility is established in the first stages of a task. For other people, trust and credibility are developed overtime, through interactions that begin to feel more and more comfortable. This is a process that cannot be hurried.
Chapter 11 page 335 talks about keys to creative idea generation. From my personal experiences in projects i worked on at school or work we had the best results when every one is involved in the process. The best approach that worked for us is for every one in the team to come up ideas (its a requirement not a option), discuss each ones ideas, spend a considerable amount of time on discussion. Most of the time the discussion will bring up things that none of the team members thought of before the meeting, most of the time the team used to end up with a plan that was not close any one of the team members initial ideas but was very concrete and clear. This discussion and brainstorming is useful only when everyone participates and comes to discussion with their ideas and suggestions.
Chapter 11 talks about Change and challenges that come with it. I think change is difficult for a lot of people to adjust to. I do not like changes, if something is working good or some thing is in some place for a long time, I have great difficulty in changing them. In organizations when changes are done people tend to compare them with the things or process they were used to before and normally feel the old one is better as they learned to use it or get accustomed. In our company, a year back we changed all the phone infrastructure from traditional phone lines to VoIP phones. Before to change there were a lot of complaints about the existing system and people are not happy with it. But when the new system was introduced even small issues are considered serious and users would complain the previous one was better. But the reality is a lot of features they are complaining about were not even there in the old system. But as they get comfortable with it they will accept it. I think change needs time to be accepted and messages about change should come with very positive energy and enthusiasm so that people can feel that energy. If we can convince people that the change is for good I think it will be easier to gain acceptance.
Chapter 10 page 300 takes about various functions of social support. Emotional Support Involves the provision of messages of care and regard for the other person. Informational support involves offering facts, opinions, and advice on matters of concern. Instrumental and material support involves the provision of tangible resources. Appraisal support involves evaluative message that encourage an individual to continue performing well.
From my work experiences I feel that I always had good emotional support from other people at work and are good at this. Instrumental and material support is also acceptable and is provided if asked for. One thing that clearly lacks is informational support. When I started working I was really surprised to see in meeting etc when someone raised concerns about issues they were facing with certain things, people would just keep quiet and do not say anything. But when my manager assigned some one to help me or anyone with that then i could clearly see that they knew the problem and the solution but were just not trying to help on their own unless they are asked for. When I was in school doing my undergrad this never used to be case, people around you would always volunteer to share information if they knew the solution. Even when asked for feedback unless managers force people to do it with in a certain time normally no one would really care about providing feedback which is really important.
I was reading this article "World Class Negotiating Strategies" by Frank L.Acuff. The article presents 10 strategies and explains in deal how to handle each one of those. I wanted share this information as I felt the article was very informative and useful.
Ten Negotiating Strategies that will work anywhere
Strategy 1: Plan the Negotiation Strategy 2: Adopt a win-win approach Strategy 3: Maintain High Aspirations Strategy 4: Use language that is simple and accessible Strategy 5: Ask lot of questions, then listen with your eyes and ears Strategy 6: Build Strong Relationships Strategy 7: Maintain Personal Integrity Strategy 8: Conserve Concessions Strategy 9: Make Patience an obsession Strategy 10: Be culturally literate and adapt the negotiating process to the host country environment.
The five conflict-handling modes discussed on page 290 are based on a person’s strategic intentions along two axes: (Source: K.W.Thomas, "Toward Multi-Dimensional Values in Teaching: The example of Conflict Behaviors (1977)"
a.Assertiveness-desire to satisfy one’s own concerns.
b.Cooperativeness-desire to satisfy the concerns of the other party.
Below are some of the appropriate situations for the Five Strategic Intentions presented by K.W.Thomas
The five conflict-handling modes are:
1. Competition
- When quick, decisive action is vital
- Against people who take advantage of noncompetitive behavior
2. Avoidance
- When an issue is trivial, or more important issues are pressing
- When others can resolve conflict more effectively
- When potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution
3. Accommodation
- When you find you are wrong-- to allow a better position to be heard, to learn, and to show your reasonableness
- To minimize loss when you are outmatched and losing
- When harmony and stability are especially important
4. Compromise
- When goals are important, but not worth the effort or potential disruption of more assertive modes.
- To achieve temporary settlements to complex issues
- As a backup when collaboration or competition is unsuccessful
5. Collaboration
- When your objective is to learn
- To merge insights from people with different perspectives
- To work through feelings that have interfered with a relationship.
Chapter 9 page 263 discusses about Systems of Control in Organizations and ideal types for it.
1. Simple: Supervision is direct, personal, and arbitrary, and monitoring of work processes is also direct and personal. 2. Technical: Supervision is mostly indirect, impersonal and highly standardized. 3. Bureaucratic: Supervision exists in variety of forms, but is chiefly done through implementation of rules, regulations, standards, procedures, and policies. 4. Concertive: Self Supervision, employee empowerment, and team-based peer supervision are encouraged within a broader mission or vision and within parameters set by top management.
The last one as the textbook mentions is similar to what most high-tech companies follow with some adjustments.
I guess most of us know where we heard "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". This is one of the statements that I really like. Any kind of power if properly used will help any organization. For example, In some countries where corruption is a big issue people with power use it to exploit people and make money. In those situations they are not responsible with the power they have and are misusing it. Also, people with power should try to analyze how they need to communicate and Box 9.1 on page 247 gives very nice explanation of this. In some situations persuasion might be better and in some others you might need to be authoritative
Page 221 in Chapter 8 list the Deming's 14 points for Total Quality Management (TQM). One of the points is to Break down barriers between departments. This is one thing we hear about almost everyday. Issues between Sales and Marketing etc., I see some companies now trying to integrate the different with issues into one like Sales & Marketing so that the management chain has control over both functions and can try to achieve better communication between the teams. Another interesting that happened few years back in our company was IT was made part of Finance group which when i told people they were surprised. But this decision was made because they can have the finanical expertise working closely with the IT experstise as lot of money is spent every year over IT infrsturcture and projects.
In Chapter 12, page 219, authors present three main categories of management-sponsored programs. 1. Employee participation as problem-solving or decision-making groups that are to some extent outside of or beyond regular work activities. 2. Employee participation as a restructuring of work processes and activities, using self-directed or semi-autonomous work teams. 3. Employee ownership as economic investment in and/or overall governance of the organization.
I think the first approach is more suitable for Japanese culture, where spending lot of time at work and time with co-workers after time is common. In Silicon Valley, I think the third approach is widely seen where employees are commonly involved in stock plans, Incentives linked to companies performance etc.,
In Chapter 8 page 214, authors talk about how terms like "Teamwork" means something very different in Japan than in the United States, in Sweden than in Israel. This is the exact issue that makes teamwork more important in United States. The definition of these terms and understanding is developed from a persons culture. In United States there are people from different countries especially in fields like Computers. This makes is really challenging to instill the sense of these terms as the meaning associated by various people is different. But by trying to clear explanation and written expectations of what the words mean in a particular organization the task will become easier for employees as they can then try to follow the instructions and adapt and understand.
In Chapter 7 box 7.9 talks person-centered organizational principles:
1. Pay attention to "golden gripes". The things people complain about the most are the most important to them, and they often have great ideas about how to fix those problems. 2. Encourage open communication between associates at all levels of the organization. 3. Provide all associates with access to leadership. 4. Promote an honest, open, humane culture. 5. Support employees personal and family lives and needs.
Often in organizations, when people go and complain about somethings a lot of managers i knew would say they would look into it or something. They normally never used to ask for their suggestions on how to fix it.
In some organization, they have a open door policy where if the door to a manager or senior executive is open then people can go in and talk to them if they have something to discuss.
Chapter 7 Page 191 talks about Hersey & Blanchard's Life-Cycle Model of Leadership. They say that Leadership Style is the pattern of influence behaviors used, especially directive (task behavior) and supportive (relationship behavior).
The initial stages in learning involve more of the directive style and the directive behavior is gradually reduced as the person gains skill and confidence, and supportive behavior is increased to encourage the person. Supportive behavior is reduced as the person gains confidence to work their own. For someone at high maturity level they recommend delegating style.
I think the most difficult and important task for leaders in this approach is to understand in which stage the people he is leading are in. For example, a kid might know how to do their math homework and just need guidance when they ask questions, but parents might still try to sit with them and guide through each step as they did when the were learning the initial numbers. I think the challenge is to understand that which is difficult when you are not looking from outside.
In Chapter 6 Page 153, authors talk about Charles Redding's studies. Redding Concluded that more competent supervisors are: 1. Communications Minded. 2. Empathic Listeners 3. Persuasive 4. Sensitive 5. Open
I think the above are very important, and from my personal experiences I have a supervisor who is normally very silent and man of few words but in meetings and discussions he is very involved. He is very patient in listening and I feel people who talk while others are talking or cannot wait to put their point across are not good listeners. They are more interested in sharing their own opinion rather than trying to be part of discussion. I clearly observe this in class discussions when people repeat the same point that some one else already mentioned and was discussed in length. They concentrate all their energies in getting their point out and do not concentrate on the discussion. People who listen have a lot of questions and normally are clearly understood when they ask something.
In Chapter 6 page 146 discusses relational dialectics and types of it like connection-autonomy, openness-closeness, novelty-predictability, equality-inequality, instrumentality-affection and impartiality-favoritism.
The authors explained openness-closeness as the desire to allow information to be disclosed or free flowing versus the desire to maintain privacy. Sometimes at work we get requests for information that are very cryptic and raises a lot of questions in the minds of the team members. Recently, we are asked to provide the list of tasks we own and we work on regularly, describing our duties and responsibilities. This raised a lot of rumors in the team about a possible reorganization etc., The reason for this was when we were asked for such information last time there was a reorganization that followed it soon. To clear the issue after a week we asked the manager in the team meeting why he requested that information. The reason was so that he can enter the tasks in the new time sheet portal we have, he was planning to enter them so that we can enter time cards easily. If he mentioned this in the email when he requested information there would have been no unnecessary discussions about it. I think openness in communication is very important when there are chances for assumptions.
In Chapter 6 authors present a scenario of a relationship being build between a customer and the store manager. They talk about "moment of truth" which creates a lasting impression of the Organization.
The way the store manager interacted with the customer is very nice and definitely helped her make the sale. But from my personal experience the more important thing is to make sure the lasting impression is not a negative one. I normally do not remember the stores where I had good experience and service, there everything was good so normally I do not make a conscious effort to go back to the same store but they have equal chance of me buying at the store like any other store. But if had bad experience with service in a particular store I tend to remember that avoid those stores in future. I normally do not go back. I think negative things have more impact on us than positives.
In Chapter 4 authors talk about socialization in organizations and how new members socialize. They break down work-specific socialization into three stages. The anticipatory stage which happens before we join the organization, the encounter stage in which newcomers learn from their day-to-day tasks and experiences and finally the metamorphosis stage in which the newcomer seeks to become an accepted and participating member of the organization by learning and adapting to the organization's expectations.
In our company whenever someone new joins the managers normally send out an email to all the extended team members. (In my case people who work in engineering side of IT) This makes everyone aware that there is a new person and they normally look his photo etc on the internal site. This helps that person in communicating with others and become part of the group. Most people will introduce themselves when they run into him.
I think this is very important thing to follow. When I Joined my manager then did not send the e-mail and I had a very difficult time knowing people in the group. As most people do not know who i was and in my culture in India people do not introduce themselves to somebody, but is done normally by someone who knows both the persons.
When i changed the group, the person that was hired in my place who i used to work with a transitioning work was facing a similar situation as the manager again did not send that introduction e-mail. I took the initiative and introduced him to most people in person and i can clearly see that it helped him.
Managers should try to help the newcomers by introducing them to at least the people with whom they work routinely.
In Chapter 5 authors talk about Struggling Just to be Heard. That talk about how Avis positioned itself by saying " We're #2. We try harder". This marketing strategy acknowledges that they are not the best and clearly communicates the message they are trying to be better. For a lot of companies today when I see their advertisements, I get confused whether they are trying to promote their product or just compare and talk badly about their competitor. In my opinion the slogans we pick or advertisements we do should more about our company or product and should be unique rather than being imitations or modifications of our competitors strategies.
In Chapter 5 authors talk about Organizational identification. I think Organizational identification becomes our personal identification if we really are attached to the organization and are proud of the place. This also becomes much easier when the organizations are big and easily recognized by others. A lot of people who work for IBM or Google normally would answer to a question like what do you do by saying they work Google, not mentioning much details about what they do at Google etc., Some people would say something like i was as "something" at some company. For them may be they identify themselves with the work or the work they do rather than the Organization.
In Chapter 4 the authors say that the work ethic also shapes our very idea of what it means to be busy. Few years back one of co-workers gave me a book about "Time Management for System Administrators" by Thomas A. Limoncelli. This book helped me understand how as a System Administrator I can manage time. As System Admins, we get interrupted by phone calls from customers, someone looking for information, an important ticket, or unexpected outages etc., and it is very difficult to have 3-4 hours of continuous uninterrupted time. I used to write post notes and paste them all over my desk to remember things, my thinking was by doing that I will not get distracted from the task i am doing then. Now I categorize things, I look at the task and if it takes less than 10 minutes i will do that then itself as I am already distracted and posting a note will keep distracting me until it is done. For tasks that take longer i look at my schedule and make an appointment so that at that time i can get it finished. This helped me get more organized.
Chapter 4 talks about Culture and Subcultures. The authors mention that the members of a subculture identify themselves with a distinct group within the larger culture, interact regularly with this group, and often share perceptions and understandings of central problems.
While reading this I was trying to think how this is at work. I was initially part of one group in IT and then transferred to another group last year. Even though there are a lot of things in common, there were some clear differences in the way the took groups look at certain things. Most of the things are directly related to the work we do and how we prioritize the work we do. Each group has a different perception on which is important and have their own definition of which is more important.
I have a team now and we are going to work on "Communication and Cultural Considerations for Global Teams". We will try to narrow the topic down further so that we can cover it in detail rather than trying to cover too much material and not having clarity in the final product. I planning to find how local cultures effect communication styles, the effect of gender on communication, what type of English we need to use as this is very important when communication with people who do not use English regularly and is not natural for them, also thinking of looking into details about guidelines on how to conduct a multicultural conference call. What effect does local power /authority have on communication styles etc., There is so many thing of interest over the next week we have to come up with some outline on what we will focus on.
I want to research into something that would be helpful for me in my day to day duties at work. One thing I think sometimes as a team we have trouble with is communicating with global teams. Teams that are not in US and are from a different culture. I would like to research on "Communication and Cultural Considerations for Global Teams". In this I would like to concentrate on one or two cultures like Japan, India, Germany etc., and try to analyze how the cultural differences between them and US like work patterns etc., affect communications. Need to understand what are some of the must do's and what are definite no-no's.
I anyone is interested in this topic, I am looking to team up with them so that we can do more elaborate research.
Chapter 15 talks about features of language. The authors present very interesting things about this. One thing that was really interesting was the use the use of "Active versus Passive Voice". This raised more questions for me and i tried to do some reading on which is better to use. I was not able to come to any conclusion except that it depends on the situation in which the message is being composed for and the audience. But still what is the correct way might depend on the perspective of the readers. I think we can use sentences like "It has been decided" but we definitely should make sure that the message includes some details on how some one can express their concerns or questions they might have.
Chapter 15 talks about four categories of data gathering: artifacts, surveys, interviews and observation.
I think out of the four techniques interviews provide the most reliable and productive way of data gathering when we are trying to obtain details or opinion about something that is ongoing or current. Even though this is more time consuming, if the process is important this gives personal one on one time with people from whom you would like to gather information and people are more likely to get involved in the discussion and provide more useful information than just going through the motions. Survey's might be effective in some cases as well, but they might not help people express their opinions and tend to be more Q & A (yes/no).
When implementing new systems or process in a company if we send e-mails or surveys to collect the requirements, most likely people end up missing at least some of the requirements. If we conduct meeting with people not necessarily individually but with groups, we can understand the requirements better and this eliminates the need to make changes or modification later.
In Chapter 15, authors talk about reputation and how a positive reputation can be built. For communications with in the organization or with other organizations having a consistent message with reliable information together with actions that back up the message the information are very important to establish credibility an build positive reputation.
At work, we had a senior manager who was in in charge of setting up guidelines, standards and procedures for IT support for all the customers with in the organization who sends out messages which are very descriptive and clear with very well laid out explanations on how to deal with a task or process. But most of the people in the organization do not really value his message or respect it. When discussing with other people i found out that are mainly two reasons for this one is that the tone he uses is the e-mails is very authoritative and lot of people who worked there for a long time have a issue with that and feel he tells people what to do but does not provide details why he wants it to be done in a particular way. The second one is lot of people pointed out instances where he himself was not following the procedures therefore they feel that it is not important. I think we need to make sure we are following the message we are communicating with others
Chapter 3 talks about the Emotionality in Organizational Life. Developing a casual atmosphere at work I thinks helps in creating a better environment. We are by nature emotional beings and by thinking about ideas or proposals with some emotion might help us come to some decision easily. Also, when there dis-agreements if we can discuss and come to a common ground. If employees do not show some emotion, may be they might just agree to everything which might not be helpful.
As long as we can manage our emotions and do not let them get the better of us they can be really helpful.
Chapter 3 talks about the flow of information, information overload, information under load,and information quality.
I think most companies today need as much information as they can get. In today's markets, where slightest details can make a huge difference, information is very important to remain competitive. With careful planning and some amount of research and work done upfront we can save a lot of time with tasks like information processing, report generation etc.,
If we have a process that simplifies data management it becomes easy to manage and people will not end up spending lot of time on generating reports etc., that are not really very important. In our company, we designed some standard very simple to use tools that any person can use with little to no guidance using which he can generate data that he wants. To achieve this there are defined rules like all the data should follow particular format etc., and after that we just put them in the correct places and send links to management so that they can get what they want.
In Chapter 2 authors talk about the Self-Organizing teams. I wanted to share some of finding from a research article that I read recently. (Source of Information: How to Lead a Self-Managing Team Author(s): Vanessa Urch Druskat, Jane V. Wheeler)
The article talks about how to lead self-managing teams that are left to run themselves with some guidance from an external leader. Below I will list some of the important points made in the article.
Some surveys report that 79 percent of companies in the Fortune 1000 and 81 percent of manufacturing organizations currently deploy such “empowered,” “self-directed” or “autonomous” teams.
The most important skill that external leaders that contributed most to their team’s success have is “managing the boundary between the team and larger organization”. External leaders who excel at four functions of relating, scouting, persuading, and empowering were able to drive their teams to superior success.
The hardest part for the external managers is that even though they are not directly managing the teams they are held accountable for any wrong decisions that the teams might make. The job of external leader exists squarely in the middle of a managerial no-man’s land.
The external leader must avoid any heavy-handed attempts at managing. Case studies have shown that external leaders who struggle with their role usually end up exerting too much control, which then undermines self-managing team’s ability to get work done.
Four Functions, 11 Behaviors:
To making self-managing teams work is to delegate considerable authority to the group, granting its tremendous flexibility in making its own decisions.
1. Relating:
External leaders must continually move back and forth between the team and the broader organization to build relationships. Success in this are requires three behaviors:
Being Socially and Politically Aware
Building Team Trust
Caring for Team Members. (Authors say that in their study, average leaders were more likely to see the personal problems of the team members as impediments to getting work done, where as superior leaders more often recognized them as opportunities to build relationships)
2. Scouting:
To scout efficiently, external leaders must demonstrate three behaviors
Seeking information from Managers, Peers, and Specialists.
Diagnosing Member Behavior
Investigating Problems Systematically
3. Persuading:
Effective Persuasion requires two behaviors
Obtaining External Support
Influencing the Team
4. Empowering:
External leaders can empower self-managing teams by demonstrating three behaviors
Delegating Authority
Exercising Flexibility Regarding Team Decisions (“It’s not what I think; it’s what you think”)
Coaching (teach people to manage)
The article says superior leaders in their study were able to develop strong relationships both inside the team and across the organization. An important thing to remember about team autonomy is that self-management is not an either-or condition. Instead, it’s a continuum, and external leaders should also be constantly guiding and developing their teams so that they become increasingly independent.
