NWO Project Masters - Part 1

The Company:

Welcome to NWO Project Masters! We are a full service consulting and project management firm.We have been operating in Northwestern Ontario for 26 years and employ 42 people. Our work includes a wide variety of projects including organizational development, engineering, infrastructure and change management. We employ a number of different experts, and teams change based upon the projects.

Kelly - Team Leader:

You are Kelly. You have been working as an organizational development expert for NWO for 14 years.For the first 5 years, you worked in data collection as an Inquiry Agent. Your main responsibilities were conducting surveys, interviews and focus groups. Your job was to collect all of the information that the senior consultants needed to design workplace interventions. As a data collection specialist, you had exposure to many different types of organizational problems.

After 5 years with NWO, you were promoted to Senior Consultant within the organizational development area. For the next 9 years, you were responsible for small projects which helped organizations to develop new programs or products, restructure, implement new processes, and redesign policies and procedures. Much of the work that you were responsible for included working with both employers and the employees to make sure that the change projects were successful. You really enjoyed the work, and felt that the majority of your projects met the goals of the organizations. The feedback from clients was generally positive and some clients repeatedly asked you to return to help them fix problems when they arose.

Three months ago, there was an unexpected opening for a Team Leader at NWO, and you applied. There were a number of Senior Consultants who were competing for the position. The job was first awarded to Pat, who declined the promotion, and decided to stay as a Senior Consultant. You were then offered the job!

Your new job as Team Leader requires that you coordinate larger scale projects, including the management of project teams. You have very limited experience as a manager.You have worked on many small projects, and provided management consulting services, but you have never been responsible for a team before, nor have you headed up a larger, more complex project. However, you feel that your experience in organizational development has you well prepared to design and lead the task aspects of large projects. The management of a team will be a new experience, but you have always had good co-worker and business partner relationships, and have advised many organizations on how to manage employees.

The Team:

You have been assigned a team of 6. Following are their profiles.

Name	Expertise	History	Other
Sally	Organizational Development with a focus on HR and technology.	Senior Consultant with NWO for 10 years. Frequently works on larger projects. Is known for technically sound solutions to complex problems.	Has extremely strong relationships with clients. Co-worker relationships are ok, Sally is seen as a resource, but not a friend.
James	Change Management with a focus on employee satisfaction and empowerment.	Senior Consultant with NWO for 12 years. Only works on large projects.	Everyone likes James. He is non-confrontational and easy going. He speaks up when something is important to him. He is always willing to do bit extra.
Pat	Organizational Development with a focus on teamwork, leadership and change management.	Senior Consultant with NWO for 15 years. Turned down the team leader job as he decided the extra pay wasn't worth the stress.	Pat is known to be a leader. People often seek him out when a client is having team issues. He is highly respected throughout NWO by consultants and management.
Mary	Inquiry Agent with a focus on HR.	Inquiry Agent for 1 year. New to the workforce and NWO. Excels at using technological solutions.	Quiet and shy. Mary prefers to work in a silent place and struggles with building client relationships.
Ellen	Inquiry Agent with a focus on finance.	Inquiry Agent for 1 year. New to the workforce and NWO. Has a general working knowledge of most functional business areas.	Friendly and social. Ellen engages well with clients and co-workers. She is seen as young, bubbly and willing to learn.
Sam	Summer Intern	3rd year HBComm student in General Management. Has worked on one other project. Joined NWO a month ago.	Sam is willing to learn and easily expresses his opinion. He asks lots of questions.

The Project - Your First Assignment as Team Leader:

A large local employer with 3 satellite offices and 140 employees wants help with an organizational development project. The client, TechShop, wants you to help them with three projects, all to occur at the same time:

1. Restructure the work units so that there is less travel for all employees. Consider flexible work arrangements.
2. Implement a new bonus structure, so that those employees who produce the most, or bring in the most new business, are rewarded financially.
3. Expand the communication methods used by the company. Currently, they are over-reliant on electronic communication.

Meeting #1:

You call your first team meeting. You are really excited to share all of your ideas with the group. You book a 2 hour introduction meeting, so that the team members can all learn about the project and give you initial feedback.

The meeting starts with basic introductions. Each member provides background information on their areas of interest and expertise. They share a bit on their educational and work history, as well as the projects they have worked on for NWO.

Once introductions are complete, you start to describe the project. You spend half an hour reviewing the history of TechShop, provide an overview of the current structure and policies, and present the three main goals of the project.Some team members ask questions about the project and/or the client. The discussion goes all over the place as the team members attempt to understand the problems and the desired outcomes for TechShop.

As the team members are discussing and questioning, you come up with a great idea. You have a team with 3 experienced experts, and 3 relatively new, junior employees.You decide that a mentoring arrangement would be the best way to go.

You: You know what, I am thinking that I would like to assign each Senior Consultant a team member to mentor. That way, we can all share our expertise, while providing training to the new members.What do you think?

Sally: Ummm, I'm not sure about that. I guess it depends on what part of the project we will be working on and who the employee will be. It could be more work than it is worth.

James: I've never been a mentor before. It sounds interesting.

Sally: Neither have I. This sounds like a complex project that we will be working on for TechShop, are we sure that mentoring is a good idea, when we haven't even started the project? (James and Sally exchange looks).

You: I think it would be great. You can learn from each other.

Pat: Learn what?The teams I have worked on haven't really used that approach. There is a lot of initial data that needs to be collected before we truly know what the issues are. But you know that Kelly, you were an Inquiry Agent. You know the structure here. We need the data before we can start designing a solution.

You: Absolutely.We know that getting a good handle on the project, problems and developing a workplan will be essential first steps. But why not try something new? We might all learn something.

Sam: I like the idea. I would like to spend time with a Senior Consultant so that I can apply more of my skills to a project. I have lots of ideas. I don't often get a chance to show my abilities. I would like to have a mentor to guide me. (Sam looks at Ellen).

Ellen: Me too.I have always wanted to meet more of the employees and get to know clients.

Pat: It really isn't that simple. These relationships are both important and complex. How clients are managed can influence whether or not we are successful.

Sally: I agree with Pat. I don't have time to train someone when I'm in the middle of a project, especially someone that doesn't already have a basic understanding (whispers to James: or someone who won't stop talking).

Sam: Sally, we have a basic understanding.

Sally: That isn't what I meant. Managing an aspect of a project is complex, and jumping right in isn't always the best alternative. (Sally rolls her eyes, and looks at James).

James: I'm not sure how mentoring works, how does it fit with the workplan? What would a mentor be responsible for?

Pat: I think we are jumping ahead, we haven't even decided on a basic data collection strategy.

Sally: I want to work on the restructuring. There is lots of great software that can help to analyze work patterns that I have been wanting to pilot.

James: That is the goal I want to work on as well. Finding ways to increase employee satisfaction through scheduling sounds like my kind of project.

Pat: If this is how we are assigning work now, then sign me up for the communication one.Sounds like it will require management intervention, and that is an area for me. (whispers to Sally: this will be a disaster before it starts).

You: (ignoring the comment that Pat made, you smile) OK, so Sally and James on restructuring, Pat on communication. I will take the rewards. Sally, you can mentor Mary, James, you can mentor Ellen, and Pat, you have Sam.

Sally: I'm not committing to being a mentor.

James: Wait a minute. This isn't fair. Why would two Senior Consultants work on one aspect, with two Inquiry Agents? That doesn't leave Pat with any resources.

Sam: Thanks a lot.I didn't realize I wasn't a resource.

James: That's not what I meant.

Pat: James is right, we all need an Inquiry Agent. Plus Kelly, why would you work on one area alone? The Team Leader doesn't usually work on a specific part of a project, they oversee the work. I guess since you are new you aren't aware of how a big project progresses. (Pat looks at Sally and James, and smiles).

You: I'm sure I can handle taking part of the project on.

Pat: I'm sure you are fantastic Kelly, but that isn't your job.

You: I don't need you telling me what my job is, Pat.

Pat: I'm just saying that big projects are different. You haven't worked on a large-scale project team before. We have, right guys? (Pat looks at Sally and James).

Sally: I think this is a mess. This isn't how we have decided on work assignments in the past. Plus, we need someone to coordinate the work, and that would be you, Kelly.

You: I will coordinate the work. Thanks Sally, I am aware of what my role is.

Ellen: This does seem confusing. What exactly will the process be for data collection?

Sam: I agree. But I can't wait to start working on a survey. I have got a lot of ideas on how we can redesign the schedule and give new rewards to the employees. I can start drafting a survey tonight. Does this mean I am going to be an Inquiry Agent?

Pat: No, you can't be an Inquiry Agent as an intern.

You: That's my decision Pat. I don't think there is any harm in Sam learning. He could collect some data.

Sam: Thanks Kelly.I'm glad one person here thinks I have something to offer. (Sam looks at Pat and Sally).

Pat: Kelly, I think you better check with Ashley (Senior Manager), because in the past management has said that interns can't do the jobs of staff members.

You: I will look into that.

James: What does a mentor do? I'm still not clear what is going to happen next. (James looks at Sally).

Sally: Me neither.This sounds like mess. What if we all need some of the same data? In most projects like this, we have seen overlap in data collection.

Pat: Good point Sally. We should be working together. I don't think this division of work is going to be efficient. It is almost like we don't know what we are doing. (Pat laughs).

James: I agree.Working together is the way to go.It seems like we are off on the wrong foot. (Sally, James and Pat all look directly at you).

Sam: I agree with James. I don't understand what I am supposed to do, but I want to work with everyone.

Sally: Yes, it is a mess. How did this meeting get so off track?

Everyone turns and looks at you. You stop for a minute. It does seem to be a bit of a mess.

You: Let's take a break. It seems that there are lots of concerns. I'll meet everyone back here tomorrow morning at 9am.

No one says anything else, and everyone leaves the room.

Question 1:

You are Kelly. You are thinking of how James' personality is influencing the team. Using the Big 5 model, assess James' personality and provide examples of how James is having both a positive and negative impact on the team process.

Question 2:

You are Kelly. You realize that you have a big mess to try to fix and need to use emotional intelligence. Instead of looking externally, you decide to look at yourself.What is the one most vital thing YOU need to do? How do you think this will improve things on your team, and where do you think it could go wrong?