A635.6.3.RB - EcoSeagate
Value
of Team Building
Leaders are always looking for
opportunities to integrate their team members in ways that allows them to feel
included and a sense that they are contributing to the team. My leaders are
always giving away rewards such as movie tickets, free lunch, or providing time
off for exceeding expectations. There is a disadvantage for doing this type of
perk or reward is that is promotes a culture of rewarding individualism verses
team work. Brown (2011) talked about how an outdoor lab is a setting where no
one has a distinct advantage and people participate on equal footing, where
leadership styles, teamwork and interpersonal relationship is discussed. This
type of environment also allows people to push their own personal boundaries and
potentially allow for other leaders to emerge, perhaps someone they did not
expect. I liked reading that the CEO even lost his own races and often came in
last. One could assume that the CEO lost intentionally to allow others to win
or the problems were truly challenging and designed to challenge each personal
equally. (Brown, 2011)
What I did like hearing in the video, is
that the retreat was not about you as the individual but about who you can be
and the experience was about trust, conflict and commitment. Over the years, I have
heard that you have to have trust and commitment, but not conflict. Conflict
tends to be something that most of us try to avoid. But in the video, Eco
Seagate instructor stated that “conflict is necessary because we should be comfortable
with bringing up difficult topics without upsetting other people.” Reflecting
on my own workspace where we have embraced the Culture of Accountability (COA)
and one of the most critical elements is feedback. Feedback isn’t always
positive and it is never easy to give or receive. I do wonder if Seagate had
COA would they have been labeled as a “slavegate” company and would they have
had to gone to this expensive outdoor lab to reenergize teamwork and
collaboration. I do agree with the video comments that trust is a mutual
respect and commitment is impossible without healthy conflict, which is based
on trust. I highly support the Seagate strategy and think there is value in
having large retreats such as this to basically recalibrate your leaders to
make sure they are feeling valued and providing value. Overall their concept is
creative. (Chao, 2008)
High Performing Teams
Being a leader and a member of a high performing
team we are expected to deliver a service or a product and every step of the
process has a metric telling us how well were doing. I recently created a
process for my new team that captures all the logistical requirements for an
aircraft going into a depot or maintenance status. This process integrates with
contracts, finance, scheduling, supply, and depot facilities, meaning there is a
lot of people involved and being tracked. I have seen this video before in
another course buy I did not realize until this week that my tracking mechanism
could be sending the wrong message as I am constantly tracking people down and
outlining who is or is not getting things done. The process was designed by coordinating
the requirements with the team and I am very cautious to never point out
someone fault, especially because most of the time it is not fault of their
own. However, no one likes to tracked and I probably need to look a bit more
into the delivery of this product to my leadership team. We are a high performance
team and we require “energy, engagement, and exploration” and Seagate’s ability
to take the team to a remote location is fostering a culture where teams can communicate,
engage together and explore with a common goal is very inspiring and creative. (Gray, 2013)
In my short time in my organization, I am the
only girl who has enough energy for everyone. Engagement activities is something
I am very good at however my team prefers to be left alone most of the time.
Our team does try to have lunch together and I have tried hard to get them to
come and run in my 5Ks on the weekend, however I get the we are too old and my
knees can’t handle it saga. But they do care, because they ask me every Monday about
my race and how well I did. Our team does have a morning breakfast club where
we congregate in an empty cube to eat breakfast before we start our day. I was
recently invited to join them, which means I am officially in the boys’ club. I
do think the outdoor labs would be cool are benefit high performing teams who
are always so wrapped around performance and we forget to stop and realize that
are team is made up of people who have ideas, feelings, emotions, and energy. I
think it is important for leader to know the team balance and ensure they are
taking steps to fuel creativity.
My
organizational benefits
I think my organization could benefit from
something like this, especially since we have undergone two major corporate reorganizations
within five years. Over the last five years, I have seen more than 1,500
employees leave the company as a part of the volunteer and non-volunteer layoff
program. I have seen leaders who have been with the company for decades be
forced out of the company, downgraded, or lose their leadership roles
altogether. When there is large amount
of uncontrolled change it is hard to find ways to keep your team or oneself energized.
Right now there is rumor of another layoff coming by the end of the year and my
site will be one of the hardest hit due to the completion of another legacy
program. When this happens, people start hoarding what they know because they
are afraid they may lose their jobs and they want to be the only ones who know
how to do their job. It creates a lot of
silos and individualism. Alongside this future shift our local union is
planning another strike, which will put the entire organization in a mess because
people will be torn to do jobs that are typically held by employee in the
union. I would love our group to do some type of outdoor lab but I don’t think
it would ever work due the associated costs and attitudes are just broken due
to the amount of change. Majority of my group travels more than they are at
home, therefore going on another trip would not be favorable. But I would be
the first one to go on an adventurous team development and I think I will recommend
sky diving since it is on my bucket list!
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organizational
Development. (Eighth, Ed.)
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Chao, M. (2008, April 28). Eco Seagate 2008. Retrieved September
15, 2017, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=zCOfOFMiLtE
Gray, B. (2013). The Three ‘E’s to High Performance Teams:
Energy, Engagement and
Exploration. Retrieved September 15, 2017,
from Jostle: https://blog.jostle.me/blog/the-
three-es-to-high-performance-teams-energy-engagement-and-exploration/
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