Oladele just couldn’t take it anymore. She got up from her cubicle and put on her coat. “Where are you off to?” asked her coworker Wei. “I just need to get away from here for a few minutes,” replied Oladele, “I’m going for a walk and I’ll be back in 20 minutes.”

As she walked around the downtown core of St. John’s, she wondered how to fix the problems her strategy team was having realizing their goals. Three months previously she and four others had been taken away from some of their regular duties at the headquarters of LifeLong Learners Inc. to form a special project team. The company offered customized courses to mid-sized businesses. Their instructors travelled to the company site to teach anything from occupational health and safety to leadership development. Recent developments in online education, however, were starting to make their services redundant. Many of their clients could now buy similar courses online and have their employees complete them any time they liked. Many employees at LifeLong Learners thought in-class instruction was more effective, but the market didn’t seem to agree. A special strategy team was formed to determine whether the company should begin to offer online courses and, if they did, how best to implement the change. The strategy team was to report to the CEO and the chairman of the board of LifeLong Learners.

When the team first met, they spoke with the CEO and the chairman of the board in separate meetings. The CEO told them she had serious concerns about online education. She was concerned they were moving too fast in an uncertain direction. “If we do go into online education,” she stated, “it will be important to have all the details sorted out and a good quality control process before we begin. We’ll only get one chance to get it right; otherwise, our reputation will suffer.” The chairman of the board had a different perspective. “I am very excited about this initiative,” he said, “and I think we should plunge in, find out what works, and correct as we go along. The most important thing is to have a product out the door as quickly as possible to begin to claim the online market.”

Three months later, the team seemed mired in inertia. Three of the members had devised an online development course contract, and wanted to invite employees to submit proposals and begin development right away.

The three supporting the initiative were Oladele, Katie, and William.

Oladele had emigrated from Jamaica four years ago and seen many successful online learning initiatives that reached out to students in remote areas in her home country. She thought LifeLong Learners was ridiculous for waiting so long to get started, something she explained to her colleagues at every opportunity. Katie and William had both been born and raised in St. John’s and they also couldn’t understand the slow pace. “Results, results, results,” William was fond of saying. Well, after three months they had no results to speak of. In fact, they couldn’t even get the entire team to agree to move forward and try something.

The other two team members were very concerned that no formal process had been under taken to fully assess the market. There hadn’t been any professional legal consultation around creating the online course development contract either.

“We can’t just make something up,” complained Wei. “This will set a precedent that will impact us all moving forward. I’m not sure online education is right for us, but if it is we should have a detailed plan formalized before we move ahead. We can’t just figure this out as we go.

Resources have to be in place first, not to mention training.” Wei had emigrated from China two years ago, and he struggled to understand the careless attitude displayed by Oladele, Katie, and William. He secretly worried about their commitment to the project’s success because they wanted to move forward so hastily.

The final member of the team, Ranj, had moved to St. John’s from the Philippines seven years ago. He agreed with Wei’s assessment, but was very concerned about saying so and contradicting the chairman of the board; nor did he want to contradict the CEO. So when the team had discussions, he would often abstain from commenting much.

This afternoon’s meeting had been the final straw for Oladele. Not only would Wei and Ranj not agree to support their new contract, they were threatening to complain to the chairman that she was being difficult and disrespectful—all just because she had forcefully reminded them of the importance of doing something soon. Oladele knew the team was disintegrating. After a long walk to clear her head she decided to …

Discussion Questions

1. Is there anything this team might have done at the beginning to avoid the difficulties they are facing? If so, what is it?

2. Outline some of the underlying reasons why the individuals in this particular work team may have difficulty communicating with each other. What might they do about it?

3. What strategies might Oladele use now that would move the team forward in a productive direction?