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A635.8.3.RB - Transformational Strategies

Following a drop in the housing market and major building damage due to a fire, owner of Gallery Furniture, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, had to make major organizational changes (McIngvale, 2012). With help from Influencer Training, McIngvale implemented changes that positively impacted his company. For example, when contacting potential customers, McIngvale coached his employees in follow-up and prospecting practices; rather than let a customer/potential customer leave, never to be heard from again, McIngvale’s employees reached out to them (McIngvale, 2012). In addition to encouraging his employees to reach out to customers, McIngyale offered incentive and data-sharing (McIngvale, 2012). In Data-sharing, employees publicly share their client numbers and prospects won over (McIngvale, 2012). When McIngvale talked about using data-sharing to push performance, I thought about my organization’s practices. In order to create healthy competition among Worldwide campuses, our leadership ...
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A635.7.3.RB - INSEAD Reflection

Self-managed teams provide employees opportunities to information-share and grow within their organization. In self-managed teams, responsibility is increased, and work teams are assigned a variety of tasks like scheduling, budgeting, job assignment, developing, selecting team members, and much more (Brown, 2011, p. 349). In allowing employees to assume responsibilities that typically belong to leaders, team members may feel a sense of ownership, purpose, and leadership within their organization. As I have mentioned in previous assignments, I was a part of a work team that built training curriculum for our newly hired employees. While our team launch was initiated by leadership, our work team took ownership of the project once leader directives were given and goals established. Paul Tesluk (2008) noted that work teams need effective leadership in order to arrive at the point of self-management. Once the team is established, the leader helps the team understand goals, but goals are com...
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A635.6.3.RB - EcoSeagate

When I was in college as an undergraduate student, I was a member of our Public Relations (PR) team. There were two PR teams on campus; each team consisted of 4 members (2 males, 2 female). Though we had events during the schoolyear, the main function of our job occurred during the summer. In the summer, we traveled to various middle and high school camps throughout the country, and served as camp counselors/servants/entertainers, you name it! However, before we began our rigorous traveling, both PR teams went on a retreat with our PR team director. During the pre-travel retreat, we participated in outdoor team-building activities. Of all the team-building activities, the outdoor events were most challenging. One activity was called the trust fall. In the trust fall exercise, one person stood on a ledge, blindfolded, with their back to the rest of the group; the person on the ledge was approximately 6ft in the air. While the person was on the ledge, the rest of the team members locked...
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A635.5.3.RB - Video Debrief of Team MA

In addition to his dream to create a company that would contribute to history, Steve Jobs and his team wanted to create a product built from the heart (Petrenko, 2012). In his conversations with his team, Steve noted that the most important part of their business was to build a company in which customers could feel and experience the organization’s care and passion (Petrenko, 2012). Steve Jobs and his team were major innovators who were willing to leave their jobs to launch their own company (Petrenko, 2012). The NeXT team was excited to discuss marketing strategies to sell their products to college students, and more than anything else, reiteration of the team’s vision was essential to their existence (Petrenko, 2012). NeXT team members were not afraid to openly disagree and challenge one another, yet, their challenges were not personal attacks; they challenged ideas for the good of the mission. Although NeXT team members were excited to start the company, many members were concern...
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A635.4.3.RB - Build a Tower, Build a Team

Upon analyzing the results of the marshmallow challenge, Tom Wujec (2010) shared that groups of kindergartners performed better than business students. Wujec (2010) noted that  kindergartners performed better because they did not spend time creating the best plan, and they were not quietly vying for power. Wujec (2010) also noted that business students are trained to find the single right plan; however, the kindergartners build multiple prototypes, while keeping the marshmallow on top of the structure ( Wujec , 2010).  Based on what I know of children and adults, I am not surprised by the results, nor do I disagree with Wujec’s kindergartner-performance theory. While adults tend to think inside of the box, especially business leaders, children think freely. Also, the kindergartners’ focus was on building the tower, not on who is in charge of delegation and execution. CEO’s with an executive assistant may perform better because the executive assistant may be ...
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A635.3.3.RB - 50 Reasons Not to Change/The Tribes We Lead

Recently, a colleague talked about issues and changes needed within her department; she then followed up with the statement, “it’s not my job”.   In previous conversations with this colleague, she discussed updates that could be made within her department, and she was eager to initiate change; therefore, I was shocked when she made an excuse regarding her work culture. I have spoken with this person about innovative ideas, worldview changes, moving beyond status quo, etc. Therefore, when I heard her say that she was not going to promote change because it was not her job, I was discouraged; I did not expect to hear that kind of comment from her. While I understand that she has frustrations with her department, I expected her to have an attitude of change and idea-implementation. I did not expect her to easily abandon ideas of change with such a limiting statement. For several years, I was a part of a volunteer organization that I really enjoyed; however, the organization was d...
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A635.2.3.RB - How Companies Can Make Better Decisions

Marcia Blenko (2010) noted that decision effectiveness positively connects with employee engagement and financial performance in an organization. I think that employee engagement is related to decision effectiveness because engaged employees feel connected to the changes happening within the organization. Also, when employees are engaged in the decision-making process, they may identify important information that leaders may not have considered. When leaders reach out to employees during the decision-making process, they give a voice to those working closely within the organization. When employees are heard, they may feel more connected to the change process and mission of the organization. Decision-making is challenging no matter the circumstance; however, decision-making is even more challenging when there are hindrances impacting the process. For example, with the growing complexity of companies, it is hard to decipher how decisions work and who makes the decisions (Blenk...
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