1. Using the material assigned for this module (you can pull in information from other modules if
you desire, but be sure to use material from this module primarily), why doesn’t the team
discussed in the case work?
Even though the team was meant to do good for the company it had many issues from the start.
The two people that Eric thought were going to have issues in the team ended up not being his
biggest problem. His biggest problem ended up being Randy and his negativity, disruptiveness,
and vagueness in answering questions. Ray felt intimidated as it was to be in the team with not
having higher education and Maureen didn’t feel that the artists in her department were being
appreciated enough. When they gave their presentations both Ray and Maureen showed their
vulnerability however Ray caused issues with his negativity after they gave their presentations.
Ray was the person that made this team toxic he caused the other team members to feel as
they could not speak up. In addition, there was no trust and respect within the team when it
started. Also, there was no common commitment for what the team was formed to do along
with how they were going to reach their goal.
Another problem with this team is their brainstorming this team needed to brainstorm ideas.
However, in teams when it comes to brainstorming individuals tend to match their performance
to the least productive member. This results in a low level of performance and a low
benchmark.
2. What one thing did you learn about teams this week that was the most surprising or influential
to you and why?
One of the things I learned this week that was the most influential to me was something that I
learned from the, Improving the creativity of organizational work groups article. In this article, it
talked about brainstorming and how, “Individuals working in brainstorming groups tend to
march their performance to that of the least productive member.” After reading the article it
made sense why it would happen and looking back I can see that it happened in many groups I
was a part of. When working in a group you want to come up with great ideas however with a
managing the team members.