http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca2009091_828190.htm
In this article, the author address that everyone has blind spots. Whether we are comparing good managers or bad ones, everyone is susceptible to blind spots and the only way to eliminate them is to be aware of them. Us as students have to become aware of them because of our lack of experience in the field. Some of the consequences of blind spot are bad decision-making, decreasing the scope of awareness, producing enemies, destroying careers, and poorly impacting business results. This article recognizes some common management blind spots so leaders can realize them and increase organizational performance. One is to share the burden. Managers tend to lean on the statement "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself", which is okay in some situations, but bad more often than not. If people see you acting as a team of one all the time, they will get frustrated and feel devalued altering their behavior. Another one is impact awareness. When people step into management positions they don't always realize how much impact they have over people resulting in insensitivity. People judge and respond to behaviors, which means you don't want to come off as insensitive or your team will dismiss a lot of what you have to say. The last blind spot for discussion is bottling it up. In a managerial situation, there is no room for avoiding difficult conversations because believe it or not, this will only amplify the problem. If you cannot talk about a specific problem, then it will never get resolved.
-Greg Calabrese
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
CSI Normal
1. During this activity, I think that we all had different task roles. Richy, Kenny, and Steven were all mainly contributors because they used the three debriefing sheets to find and share information about all of the suspects. I would say that I took the completer role because I was writing down the info that Richy, Kenny, and Steven were sharing on the warrant sheet so we could narrow down who was innocent. We were all playing the role of the critic because we were all trying to be the "devil's advocate" to make sure the right people were innocent. As far as the social and boundary spanning roles, we also played all of them because we were all communicating and working toward our team's goal.
2. I think that the most important role was the contributors and the creator. The contributors are the ones who are actually trying to depict through the debriefing sheets and the creator could change our task so more people could read through the same sheets. This would allow us to discover that the debriefing sheets had different information on them.
3. Given our current group status, I would say that our group is in the performing sage. We are definitely past the forming and storming stages because we have met plenty of times, and no one has their guard up anymore. Norming is a little different I feel. We have set ground rules or norms but they could be subject to change. With that said, since we do have norms, one could say that we are now in the performing stage.
-Greg Calabrese
2. I think that the most important role was the contributors and the creator. The contributors are the ones who are actually trying to depict through the debriefing sheets and the creator could change our task so more people could read through the same sheets. This would allow us to discover that the debriefing sheets had different information on them.
3. Given our current group status, I would say that our group is in the performing sage. We are definitely past the forming and storming stages because we have met plenty of times, and no one has their guard up anymore. Norming is a little different I feel. We have set ground rules or norms but they could be subject to change. With that said, since we do have norms, one could say that we are now in the performing stage.
-Greg Calabrese
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Three Leadership skills that count
http://www.businessweek.com/management/three-leadership-skills-that-count-10212011.html
This article focuses on the good side of management. The three leadership skills that are talked about are productive paranoia, empirical creativity, and fanatic discipline. Productive paranoia is important in that you have to be aware of things that can hurt your company and take steps to ensure safety from possible hazards. Empirical creativity is using creative measures that are based on evidence, not opinion. Fanatic discipline is being consistent in values, goals, and hard work. This article is relevant to our class because it shows good leadership traits that we can work on to make us all better leaders. We could all become more effective leaders by becoming stronger with all of these traits
-Kenny Palmer
This article focuses on the good side of management. The three leadership skills that are talked about are productive paranoia, empirical creativity, and fanatic discipline. Productive paranoia is important in that you have to be aware of things that can hurt your company and take steps to ensure safety from possible hazards. Empirical creativity is using creative measures that are based on evidence, not opinion. Fanatic discipline is being consistent in values, goals, and hard work. This article is relevant to our class because it shows good leadership traits that we can work on to make us all better leaders. We could all become more effective leaders by becoming stronger with all of these traits
-Kenny Palmer
CSI Normal
1. Our team worked together very well in solving the mystery. Most of the ten roles were in play, but the one I noticed the most was cooperator because we all took turns switching papers and looking at the different information. We were all coordinators as we told our findings to the person who designated themself as the communicator who took down all of the information. The role that i played most would be the completer because i noticed the different sheets and was able to get a few names off of our list fairly quickly. It was a fun exercise where we all worked together.
2. All of the roles were helpful in solving the mystery, but the most helpful would have had to been communicator because it helped us to all share our findings with one another.
3. I feel that we are in the Performing stage because we all understand who is good at what and are all doing our own part to accomplish tasks. We all work together well now and tasks are becoming easier to complete as a team.
-Kenny Palmer
Monday, October 24, 2011
Management Improving Behavior
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2009/ca20090828_011424.htm?chan=careers_managing+your+team+page_top+stories
In past blogs we have talked about the bad and ugly things that go on in business involving Organizational Behavior. Today I am going to talk a little bit about the good side of that same topic. Creative Management Practices for Making Work Work, is an article written by Ellen Galinsky, Tyler Wigton, and Lois Backon about different ideas companies are coming up with in order to keep workers engaged and why they are coming up with these new ideas now. The article talks about the fact that companies are finding it especially important now to help inform there workers about dealing with different situations because of how poor the economy is right now. Companies are informing workers of ways to deal with managing work and home life, welcoming a new baby, as well as dealing with a spouses job loss. With this new information being put out there many people are finding it easier to cope with different challenges and therefore employees are working better and working happier. What are some different ways that you might suggest a manager go about informing employees of challenges they may have? Read the article and write about what may help others through their struggles. Are some struggles inevitable or is there always a way to cope with a situation to reduce stress?
Ricky Hearden
In past blogs we have talked about the bad and ugly things that go on in business involving Organizational Behavior. Today I am going to talk a little bit about the good side of that same topic. Creative Management Practices for Making Work Work, is an article written by Ellen Galinsky, Tyler Wigton, and Lois Backon about different ideas companies are coming up with in order to keep workers engaged and why they are coming up with these new ideas now. The article talks about the fact that companies are finding it especially important now to help inform there workers about dealing with different situations because of how poor the economy is right now. Companies are informing workers of ways to deal with managing work and home life, welcoming a new baby, as well as dealing with a spouses job loss. With this new information being put out there many people are finding it easier to cope with different challenges and therefore employees are working better and working happier. What are some different ways that you might suggest a manager go about informing employees of challenges they may have? Read the article and write about what may help others through their struggles. Are some struggles inevitable or is there always a way to cope with a situation to reduce stress?
Ricky Hearden
Crime Solving
On Thursday in Organizational Behavior class the different team were asked to solve a murder crime using clues in a story that we were given. There are many different roles that different people need to take amongst the teams in order to complete certain tasks. During this exercise I really felt like Kenny was the communicator which is a social team role. He was the first to begin communicating the differences in clues and information on each persons sheet. I felt like Greg did a great job in a contractor role as he was the one writing down all the information in order for us to sort out which persons were innocent. And Steve was a major contributor finding many different clues that led to us solving the murder. I would say that I played the role of completer simply because I found the final clue and then brought the paper up to the professor. All of these roles were important and none more important than another.
I think one role that we did not seem to have in the group was a coordinator. I believe if we had a coordinator that we would have finished the mystery first rather than third. It would have allowed us to ask the questions that we needed to as well as share information amongst the group in a more efficient manner. We discovered that the sheets were different pretty quickly, but if we would have had someone to coordinate between the sheets we would have discovered all of the specific differences much faster.
Lastly, I really feel after the past few team exercises that we have done that our team has really gone into the Performing stage of team development. Each person really knows their individual place on the team and we have set norms or standards for what our team expects to get done on certain occasions. We communicate very effectively and have gotten past any forming issues that we may have had.
Ricky Hearden
I think one role that we did not seem to have in the group was a coordinator. I believe if we had a coordinator that we would have finished the mystery first rather than third. It would have allowed us to ask the questions that we needed to as well as share information amongst the group in a more efficient manner. We discovered that the sheets were different pretty quickly, but if we would have had someone to coordinate between the sheets we would have discovered all of the specific differences much faster.
Lastly, I really feel after the past few team exercises that we have done that our team has really gone into the Performing stage of team development. Each person really knows their individual place on the team and we have set norms or standards for what our team expects to get done on certain occasions. We communicate very effectively and have gotten past any forming issues that we may have had.
Ricky Hearden
Thursday, October 20, 2011
CSI: Normal In Class Excercise
During class, we were assigned an activity that deals with working in groups and teams, and using analytic thinking in order to solve the problem. While doing the exercise, I noticed there were multiple different types of roles each person assumed to get the job done the right way. Some of the roles are, but not limited to; coordinator, contributor, completer, cooperator, and communicator. One person may have held more than one specific role type, but we all collaborated these types to do the task effectively and efficiently. On a personal level, I feel like I mostly fell under the contributor role. While some of my teammates coordinated the different notes we had, and others filled out the arrest warrant sheet to complete the task, I contributed here and there with little facts of information regarding the type of person it could have been.
A role that was very helpful in the assessment was coordinator, because the coordinator was the one who figured out some of the sheets were different, therefore allowing us to exponentially use more information to solve the case. Also, the communicator role was very crucial in determining the sheets were different, as well as helping narrowing down the suspect list in the end.
The stage of development our group is in currently can change depending on the context. For this specific in class exercise, I would say we are in the performing stage. This is because we had to figure out and solve a problem. However, overall we are in the norming stage of the development cycle. Being halfway through the semester, we now are settling in to clear roles and responsibilities. Additionally, instead of arguing over specific ideas, we now are able to come to agreements easier, and find consensus within our team.
Posted by Steven Krygowski
A role that was very helpful in the assessment was coordinator, because the coordinator was the one who figured out some of the sheets were different, therefore allowing us to exponentially use more information to solve the case. Also, the communicator role was very crucial in determining the sheets were different, as well as helping narrowing down the suspect list in the end.
The stage of development our group is in currently can change depending on the context. For this specific in class exercise, I would say we are in the performing stage. This is because we had to figure out and solve a problem. However, overall we are in the norming stage of the development cycle. Being halfway through the semester, we now are settling in to clear roles and responsibilities. Additionally, instead of arguing over specific ideas, we now are able to come to agreements easier, and find consensus within our team.
Posted by Steven Krygowski
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