Skills Practice Team Meetings-My Learning Journal
21867 Managing people
University of Technology School of Management
Skills Practice Team Meetings-My Learning Journal
Group Name Pioneers
Meeting 10 Times
Student WEI LI
Student ID 10233599
Student e-mail
[email protected]
Phone 0405166886
Class day and time Monday 1pm-4pm
Dated submitted 25/10/2004
Lecturer
Content
. 16/08/04 3:00pm-5:00pm 3
2. 17/08/04 5:00pm-7:00pm 6
3. 23/08/04 12:00am-1:00pm 8
4. 23/08/04 3.30pm-4:30pm 10
5. 30/08/04 12:00am-1:00pm 12
6. 30/08/04 3.30pm-5:00pm 14
7. 01/09/04 12:00am-1:00pm 16
8. 06/09/04 3.30pm-5:00pm 18
9. 15/10/04 3:00pm---4:00pm 20
0. 17/10/04 12:00am---3:00pm 22
1. Summary 24
Meeting number 1
Time 16/08/04 3pm-5pm
Place 05B level 51
What was discussed and decided at this meeting-My summary2
Mission icebreaker & team charter
There are five people in my group, one from South Korea3, two from India, my friend and I come from China. This is our first meeting. We followed the process of Meeting One written in the guidebook strictly, talking about team charter. However, we did ineffectively, and we did not finish the task.
2 My reflections on aspects of group process during this meeting (Comment on factors such as stages of development conflicts, leadership issues, cohesiveness, patterns of communication, norms, trust/openness). Use the material the team is collecting as your framework for these reflections.
I think it is important to break the ice and develop a comfortable environment for the coming communication, so I introduced myself first, then Yue, my friend who also did in natural way. This is Chinese culture, if you want to cooperate with someone, it is necessary to perform friendly and it is better to become friends. However, others just wrote personal information on paper and then Akash asked us to go straight to part three. I could not remember their names and felt boring. Maybe, Asian students are too shy to positively introduce themselves.
When we discussed the team charter, I had no ideas about team charter. It is difficult to make a decision about the charter before we collect some information. HongQiang said that we need some time to collect some information, and we all agreed that. So it is better to make a decision on another day. I was afraid that we repeated this meeting next time, so I suggested that everyone should write a draft about the charter for discussion next time. Finally, we made an agreement of the time for the next meeting tomorrow. Although there was less time to collect enough information, we had less conflict about meeting time.
3 My own behavior and feelings during the meeting in relation to the operation of the group. How did I act? What role did I play? Am I satisfied with my role in the group? Am I able to use group facilitation skills at all observing, diagnosing and intervening in the group process? What am I doing to help the group to develop into a high performing team?
I think good beginning is the foundation stone for a group work. For example, job division in part three need us to get general idea about each other. Maybe the process of ice break need more time than I thought and, maybe, different groups have various beginnings.
Moreover, I think these two Indians are task-oriented, and they looked at the book, not me, they read that book, not read me, but a team means more rather than a machine, especially, student teams. I want to gain more than an achievement of an assignment. My thinking appears simplicity. It seems one kind of conflict, but I could not persuade him change the meeting style immediately, so I think it is better and easier for me to continue in his way firstly. I said nothing but followed him. Actually, in the past, I acted passively most of time, but I want to change, that is why I come here. I have to think something out to activate my group. In addition, different cultures and the second language make the meeting less effective, so I want to learn how to work with people from different backgrounds, and it is necessary to think in other people's way firstly.
Meeting No: 2
Time: 17/08/04 5pm-7pm
Mission: icebreaker & team charter
Although it is not a good time to work, we made a decision about team charter effectively. I think it is easy to make an agreement on mission and objectives, and difficult and important on roles and responsibility. Furthermore, Akash had led us at the first meeting, and others prefer to follow him, so we agreed that he lead our group.
2
Through the discussion of the charter, I think everyone should have at least one opportunity to have an experience of being manager, because it might motivate everyone to participate the group work, and we can compare different leaderships. One of my questions is how many managers are needed for one meeting or program, one or two? Yue gave me a perfect suggestion that one manager for one meeting, then two managers for one meeting. We can compare these two methods. I like making things simply, so I suggested that the project manager prepare for one meeting, and be responsible for timekeeping and recording.
Maybe because of Yue's and my hard working, others took the next work in hand positively. The South Korean asked to typed the charter for us, Akash said he would design some tables for our group. No one shifted off responsibilities. I feel more confident about my group. Finally, I suggested our goal should be HD, there is no difficultness if we think about it. Maybe it might become dream, however, we become satisfied in our group work.
3
I suggested writing a draft about the charter in the last meeting, however, there were only two ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Maybe because of Yue's and my hard working, others took the next work in hand positively. The South Korean asked to typed the charter for us, Akash said he would design some tables for our group. No one shifted off responsibilities. I feel more confident about my group. Finally, I suggested our goal should be HD, there is no difficultness if we think about it. Maybe it might become dream, however, we become satisfied in our group work.
3
I suggested writing a draft about the charter in the last meeting, however, there were only two members done it, Yue and me. I knew it would happen, so I wrote a detailed draft for them to discuss. I knew it but did not know how to avoid it. So I recognized learning how to motivate people is very important. Maybe, I did not interpreted my opinion clearly last time, or I should email to them before this meeting to make sure that everyone know what should be done. But in china, too positive performance seems not a good thing. It is difficult to decide what should I do, and what I could not do. It is necessary to make sure each person's responsibility in this group. I hope what Yue and I have done could motivate them to give high performance next time.
Though I think I am conscientious and hardworking, sometimes have good ideas, and prefer to become a manager to practice these ideas, I find I might be a good follower and advisor after having not good leading experiences, because I am not a good decisions-maker, and maybe I am female. It is true that people prefer man to become the leader. I hope I could understand myself. That is the most important and difficult thing I have to do before read others.
Meeting 3
Time 8/23/2004 12am-1:00pm
Mission: Charter
We made a final decision about the team charter.
2
First, because the charter should be handed in, so our leader thought it was necessary to have a look at the charter together and think if there is something missed. I thought it did not work. Because it has been printed out, no one wanted to change it. Here we can see people do not like change. I look though the charter, some parts are total different with the draft we have decided last time. I prefer to design norms with punishment of poor performance, however, the leader did not think it is necessary, maybe he thought I was too serious. Actually, I have no idea about this question, so our group ignored punishment about absenteeism or other situations. Maybe there is alternative. Unfortunately, I am not good at arguing. Other people have no suggestion about punishment, so I have to give up.
Second, the leader decides to have a meeting at this time each time, because it is difficult to have a meeting at other time. I like to have a sleep at noon, however I cannot do it in the following Mondays. I also do not like the meeting place, I prefer a quiet place, and a single room is better. Anyway, current place and time look like more convenient for everyone. So I agreed this decision. The group interest is more important for me.
3
We have some language problems for communication; sometimes we cannot understand each other. Indians speak too fast. At the beginning I asked them to repeat it again, however, I either did not understand. Just when they said simply, I could get the means. Maybe it is better to write it down.
Another problem is that Palak missed this meeting. In order to save face, no one had discussed this issue. How could we make sure that others join meeting next time, if we do nothing about Palak's absence? The process of teamwork is about people, so it is useful to improve performance rather than punishment. We should know what happened to her. The new issue is who is responsible for this issue. We all are green hands at teamwork, so it appears more difficult for us to self-mange effectively. On the other hand, we could learn more.
Meeting 4
Time: 8/23/2004 3pm-5:00pm
Mission: A discuss the article by Hunter et al, The Art of Facilitation
B discuss the group's assignment
2
I am the first project manager. I preferred to do it. I think this meeting is important. Because next managers might follow the process of my meeting, if I give a good start, the next meetings would be controlled, and I also have planed how to do our assignment. The earlier we accomplish it, the better. I have printed documents about facilitation from UTS online to develop our discussion about this article, other people were interested in these information. However I am not good speaker, it is Akash to help me to control this meeting. I tried to ask more questions to let participators think and discuss. Everyone participated this discussion positively. I hope I have a feedback to improve my leadership.
The problem of misunderstanding each other is still influence the development of my group. The result of discussion was often just one word " OK". That's it.
3
When we discuss about our assignment, I firstly let others to have a look at the guide to academic writing about the report, then to make sure that everyone have general idea about how to write our assignment. Actually, in this part, the leader leaded, I do not care; oppositely, I was happy that he could control what to do next. I find that everyone has an idea about how to write this assignment, and everyone wants the group to do in his/her ways. However, we should do it in the same way. So we should trust each other. If I cannot persuade other members to follow my mind, I should follow theirs positively, that is my responsibility as a member of our group. Actually, it is difficult to trust others, especially, people from different background.
Meeting 5
Time: 30/08/2004 12am-1pm
Today, the leader asked us to write a table of the essay based on some books I have borrowed, and compared them. However, we have not made an agreement on it.
2
Actually, our meeting should hold at 11am. In spite of the meeting time was decided at the last meeting, no one kept the time. As a result, the leader and Palak arrived at 12am. Cathy and I did not say any angry words. I think they did not want to be late and the other reason is saving face. It is important to bring a friendly environment. What I could do is providing models by myself. Actually, the role of model did not work in some situations. I hope next time they will be on time.
The leader asked us to collect information about leadership and communication, however, just I borrowed several books, and there is no feedback. After 20mins, we have worked out total different tables. No one could persuade others to change their mind. Actually, Cathy and I agreed their some ideas, and tried to explain why we did not agree others. However they did not argue ours. So we did not know how we have done.
3
Feedback is one part of motivation. Maybe our team is SMWT, so the leader feels little powerful; it is not easy to give feedback, especially to classmates from other countries. Indians seldom encourage and applaud other people. It is one of cultural differences that give different types of feedback.
We could not make sure that all members would come to the meetings. It is one negative of trust, especially in teamwork. Sometimes trust is followed by disappointment. However, trust is determinant of achievement, because members in a small group work independently and flexibility is the primary trait of teamwork. So the issue that to what extent to centralize and control becomes problematic. In my other group, there was one person who was responsible for sending emails to remind members the group process. It can be seen that the role of timekeeper is very important, who would ensure the group to go on wheels.
Meeting6
30/08/2004
Mission: assessing our team climate and discuss the table
2
It seemed that the idea of project mangers did not work. We have only 4 members now, and Palak did not join meetings so often. Our group is SMWT obviously. In the small group everyone is manger. In this meeting, the leader had taken responsibility, he had planned the timetable, and however, we did not know how will things going on. There was no chance for us to discuss the timetable. I had suggested in my holding meeting that it was necessary for everyone to have general concept how to write a report, however, we had different thinking styles. They did not think it is important, so they have no idea about report writing.
3
I think groupthink should become team think, not just leader's think. If we do not know how it is going on, how can we make sure that how much work should we do? There should be someone to facilitate others to give their opinions. However, he makes a decision by himself. For example, he asked us to write a summary about leadership in our own words. I did not know why we should do it. I asked this question. His answer told me that he just followed the order of an essay. Actually, the order of an essay is not the order of writing an essay. The leader have not idea about it, similarly, he has done this kind of things at our first meeting, following the order of the resource pack. It seems that strict rules and procedures inhibit the flexibility and innovations.
Furthermore, I find that when organizational culture has set up, it is difficult to change. It has been found that each meeting has followed a similar style
Meeting7
01/09/2004 12-1pm
In this meeting, we discussed the table of content and cultural diversity in our group.
2
The last meeting problem that they did not know how to write a report becomes severer, because it influenced the table we have not finished before. Cathy and I explain the report writing, and haoqiang help us, he has well done at the right time. Moreover, We said it is better to finish the table firstly. This is team-storming time. Their table represents their culture, one by one, and step-by-step, less logical relationships. Although some of contents they mentioned is necessary, it looks like a book, not report. We cannot see the core content in their table. We asked the relationships, after that I have a clear structure, though we think some of them are not needed, there is not a big gap. The leader did not ask us before making a decision of responsibility for writing. Fortunately, we prefer our part he pushes to us. Indians have more opinions about this topic. However, they did not explain them for us. The experiences of sharing information have been limited.
3
I think diplomacy can be used in our group work. Because diplomacy is valuable in handing performance problems, managing diversity, improving teamwork, overcoming resistance to change, and gaining cooperation from others. I think the leader should to be diplomat. However, diplomacy is what principled and managers do to apply a Japanese culture, Kyosei, which needs principled leadership. So people from India have no this kind of leadership. He goes into a situation with a preconceived idea about what should or needs to happen. Diplomatic managers play a role of facilitators.
Furthermore, working with a diverse group, and indeed attempting to take advantage of the diversity of values and perspectives, requires sensitivity to these cultural differences. And the leader should give everyone a chance to participate and influence others.
Working for an X theory boss is not easy. Set my own objectives to meet their organizational aims and agree these with the manager, be seen to be self-starting, self-motivating, self-disciplines and well organized- the more theory manager sees you are managing yourself and producing results, the less they will feel the need to do it for you. Many X theory managers are forced to be X theory by the short-term demands of the organizations.
Meeting8
06/09/04 3.30pm-5:00pm
Before this meeting, Yue and I saw the lecturer for the draft of our assignment. Indians had not come. We have problems to transform the lecturer's opinion. Nothing has changed. The leader insisted on his thinking. Maybe, his thinking is better, but I cannot understand it very well. Most of time, people want to do what decision they make by themselves. Trusts there become more important.
2
Yue and I think it is better to ask lecturer to give some suggestions, which would have more persuasion. That is finding higher authority to support our position. This is one of Chinese culture. In addition, saving face lead to less conflict and arguments, so it appears easier to get an agreement and make a decision. However, it could not motivate high performance.
3
I am worried about the cohesiveness of each section. We have a problem that the outline of this paper is not clear at beginning. If I have no idea about the meaning of my work, it is hard for me to continue to work it out. So before this meeting, I wrote a draft, which framed the assignment. In order to let others accept my ideas, I sent an email to my friend firstly, asked her to have a look and give some suggestions, you know there is some one prefer to discuss and argue. And I called her at night. She preferred to give negative feedback, I said I wrote a draft about 800 words, and hoped that the relations became clearer than before, and she said from introduction to conclusion, you only wrote 800 words, we have a lot of work to do, we should follow others' ideas. Why she did not help me to lobby others to agree with us. I have confidence about our opinions, and the draft was not opposite to our group's opinion before, it just made it logically. In the textbook, it is said that conflict is an antidote for groupthink; however, the problem is how to change functional conflict into available methods of improving group performance.
Meeting 9
5/10/04 3:00pm---4:00pm
We discussed what should we do before we submit the final assignment, including the coversheet, content, summary, and conclusion.
2
It seemed that we still did not make an agreement about the content. And the big problem was Indians did not use references. We would fail this assignment. They did not know the requirements, why they did not listen to Yue and Me. We emphasized how to write the report at the beginning of meetings, but why it did not work.
3
First, all of us now have a lot of work to do, so we have limited time to hold a meeting, so we often use phone and email. It seems that mobile communication is more effective than email. There is no feedback in email, and we cannot confirm time. And I think email could not instead of face-to-face communication, because face-to-face communication gives me friendly environment, and work appears to be effective, because we could change information immediately.
Second, there is a phenomenon that it is hard to change the climate of our group when it becomes mature. So I think the beginning of group work is the most important phase in the process. It seems too late to change it.
Third, Rewards system is important in work team, the author of our textbook prefers to reward group rather than individual, but I think it is problematic. Rewarding group might lead to groupthink, ignores personal enthusiasm. However, we got the same mark.
Four, I could not understand why norms could not work in our group. Although we have the same task, and our group belongs to formal group, there are many informal behaviors. Palak did not come to the meetings several times. I am thinking if I should report it. But what else could I do before the last choice. We still are a group. We need a talk. The leader did most of work for her part. It was not fair. The situation of subgroup was very obvious.
Meeting 10
7/10/04 12:00am---3:00pm
We modified the draft, from the coversheet to appendix. We made sure that there was no big problem of linking each part. There is no argument in this meeting, because, we have no time to discuss. Maybe, we could communicate better after exams. I might call them.
2
Through the last two meetings, I pushed my power to Indians, and Yue supported me, because, they still have no idea about academic writing. When I asked for references, Palak told Akash by phone that she read a lot of books, but did not recorded them. She still missed our meeting. All of our contact is by Akash. Fortunately, Akash did his best to modify his and Palak's parts. I know it is not good idea to push my power to other members. I performed a taking-risk behavior, because I was not sure if my decision was the best, and I took more responsibility for the final assignment. But I was sure there must be someone to do it. If we get low mark, it is my fault. When I asked Yue to give me suggestions, she said it was OK. I was still not sure if she understood my decisions. I was arbitrary, and I changed the draft a lot. If we resolved conflicts as soon as possible, our work would have become easier. Why we save face? In addition, we did not discuss cases in the last meetings. I know the discussion would bring new ideas form others to me. However, I thought Indians did not read cases before, and the discussion would become waste of time.
3
I had not considered others' feeling very much. I turn my attention to the assignment. This is the task I spent more time than others. Combining work was not easy. At the beginning, Akash said he would do it. I trust him. But when I saw what he wrote, which was not academic and something were still wrong that Yue and I mentioned before, I modified it a lot by myself, and asked Yue to read it again to see if it was better than before. I find some leadership, which I have learned at class, could not become nature for me to use. This is a big gap between theories and practices. Different situations need my different leadership.
Summary
Compared with my other groups, we shared most information and supported each other very well. It is the first meeting for me, and also for others. Although there is so much conflict that we could not get high work performance, it was our unique experience. I believe that bad thing may become good, in other word, conflicts might benefit group effectiveness, while, and good thing may become bad. For example, if the leader could not understand each member's excellence, the group could not become a team. To sum up, there are several main issues of my group and my behavior:
Some conflicts have existed before we met. Someone told me that it was not a good idea to work with Indians. I do not know why. This cooperation was a good chance for me to understand the common idea. It is because of cultural diversity, and it is not only one side's fault. These two countries' people prefer to save face, so they could not communicate very well. As a result, conflicts are becoming more and more. The worst thing is people are likely to complain each other rather than to provide constructive suggestions.
Second, the name of our team seems ineffective to our performance, maybe we should mention it sometimes, and then we would feel cohesive.
Third, written norms at the beginning of work is just the beginning of the development of group norms. I think, when the group became mature, norms have changed and formed. Rules could change with the process of group work.
Four, because of groupthink, we did not get high performance. Groupthink needs to be offset by e-communication. Akash and Yue did very well by e-communication. But every member should join it. It should become common in a group. if we could connect Palak earlier, she would have done better. It was not her fault only.
Five, language barriers and saving face were the biggest problems in our group. The cultural diversity might disappear with time. However, 10 meetings are not enough.
Six, subgroup is not a good thing in work group. Maybe that is why many people prefer to form a group with people from the same country. Members in meetings should use the same language, and communicate equally. I know it is hard to do, but why not to try. Yue and I have three or four informal meetings. We have similar personality and background, so we could communicate every well. So I think it is better to have odd members in one group. If HongQiang did not withdraw this subject, we could reduce the influence of subgroups.
Finally, through these meetings, I did not use transformational leadership very well. However, a group sometimes needs two different leaderships, one is task-oriented, one is people-oriented. It is better that one people could play these two roles. I prefer a development-oriented leader who would bring new ideas to us.
Although, there were a lot of conflicts in my group, they might be right persons for me to make friends. A good friend sometimes is not a good partner in work, while good partners would become friends.
We met 10 times at the same place.
2 These 10 meetings Journals use the same headings
3 The Korean student withdrew this subject, and he emailed to Yue after 1 or 2 weeks.
Managing People 10233599 Wei Li
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