Category: Post 3.1

This is a response to Pierre’s post: https://create.twu.ca/pierreflorendo/2018/10/16/strategic-leadership-teams-hc1/

I believe Pierre did the right thing of using Strategic Team Review and Action Tool (STRAT; Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014) to analyze the problems and learn from the former teamwork. It would be better to constantly use the STRAT tool for the new team as the STRAT is to “generate conversation among team members regarding what they do well and what they could do better” (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 228). Further, my understanding after reading the post is it is the team culture Pierre should focus on building. Besides the trust issue mentioned in the post, I also perceived the vulnerability among the inter-team relationship and teamwork. The team members with the past unpleasant experiences “felt ignored, suppressed, and disenfranchised” (Florendo, 2018, para 7). I think the team members are in the transition from the previous teamwork experiences to the new one. Hence, the transition is psychological, and it would be a danger for the team when conflicts are not well solved and team members feel like back to the old days (Bridges, 2009).

With the shared direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC; Hughes et al., 2014), empowerment and genuine communication are indeed the best two ways for Pierre’s team to regain trust and create a healthy team culture. But considering the vulnerability as the potential risk hiding in the team, I would figure out an effective way or well-thought-out workflow to resolve conflict and minimize the harm to the team culture in advance. Being a strategic leader, we need to exert the conflict management skill and “use different points of view to stimulate information exchange and learning” (Galbraith, 2014, p. 92). We should tell the team conflicts can help the team grow and thrive. The team could learn from the conflicts and we can always help as “making the commitment to other people’s growth” is one of the most important traits of transformational servant leadership (Northouse, 2016).

References

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Philadelphia, PA: De Capo Press.

Florendo, P. (October 16, 2018). Strategic leadership teams – HC1 (post 3.1) (health care). [web log comment]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/pierreflorendo/2018/10/16/strategic-leadership-teams-hc1/

Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE.

 

This is a response to Marcelo’s post “El Equipo Directivo” https://create.twu.ca/marcelowarkentin/2018/10/16/mssl-et1-el-equipo-directivo/

I appreciated your honesty of deeply analyzing the problems in your team, and it is definitely not easy for the leader to confess they failed to see long-time results and possibilities. From my perspective, the most tricky part is not to find the balance to focus between short-term and long-term gains but to convince the rest of the team to be patient and confident towards the long-term gains. In my training experiences, adult learners are easier to understand there will be long-term results than teenagers for being more logical and possessing more knowledge. Also, they are more impulsive to see short-term results than adolescents as well. To find the reason behind the impatience, I had communicated with some trainees, and they gave me the answers with two main points. First, adults are more anxious about the rewards after they have invested personal effort. Unlike teenagers who believe their future must have various possibilities, adults tend to be more realistic and fast grasp what they can perceive and gain. Second, adult learners with abundant personal experiences not only prefer to believe themselves but also hard to accept others’ beliefs (Xiao Yang, Hong Zhi, & Yi Xuan, personal communication, March 14, 2018).

However, I found out the most effective way was to build a collective mental model with them, such as team members, employees, and trainees, through constant communication. As leaders, we should acknowledge our team our own models “fall far short of representing the world fully” and “that’s why we make mistakes” (Meadows, 2008, p. 94). Therefore, creating a collective mental model is to help us become better people and gain a more comprehensive view of the world. Additionally, we still need to invest in gaining positive short-term results to maintain the team’s confidence and cohesion. We need to be clear “effective leaders plan for short-term wins, they do not just hope for them” (DuFour & Burnette, 2002, p. 28).

I hope you will find my response helpful.

References

DuFour, R., & Burnette, B. (2002). Pull Out Negativity by Its Roots. Journal of Staff Development, 23(3), 27-30.

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.