A631.1.5.RB – EcoSeagate
After
reviewing the Eco Seagate videos and reading about the OD application:
EcoSeagate and team development, it really brings fresh air. It is the first
time experiencing this kind of team encouragement and it really impressed me.
The Eco Seagate experiences come from the CEO, Bill Watkins who started
experiencing with these activities back in 2000. Every year, Mr. Watkins
recruits about 200 of his employees and travels to New Zealand. The purpose of
traveling this far is to have each individual feel foreign and intimidated by
the environment, which has desolated mountains and glaciers to say the least,
making every feel “off balance and no one has an advantage over anyone else”
(Brown, 2011, p. 274). In other words, employees’ titles do not mean anything
where they are located at that time.
Watkins
wanted to prove that there is value in teamwork, and mentioned, “I learned a
lesson a long time ago in the Army. Nobody really wants to die for their god.
No one wants to die for their country. Absolutely no one wants to die for
money. But people put their lives on the line for the respect of their platoon
mates” (Brown, 2011, p. 274). There is significant value to this type of team
development as it creates very fundamental lessons such as trust, commitment,
and taking risk when it is worth it. “Trust comes with mutual respect and not
with agreement” (Chao, 2008). Nevertheless, teams lack the acknowledgment of
the mentioned fundamentals and usually fail when they are assigned to teams.
Consequently,
in some instances the difference between failure and success land on the
presence and absence of specific team processes and how or where they occur.
Jehn and Mannix for example, examined the dynamics of how team performance
relate to the nature of group conflict. Their evaluation showed, “significant
variations between high and low performing teams in their timing of different
types of conflict engagement. As a consequence of these results, Jehn and
Mannix concluded that team conflict must be examined as a dynamic rather than
static process” (Miller, 2003, para. 5). Conversely, organizations are
routinely making changes in social and work processes and the need to
understand this changes is important but it is even more important to move with
this changes. Therefore, Brown (2011, p.
271) points out that the goals for team development include:
· Examine the team’s content or task performance.
· Analyze the group process, that is, how the group is functioning.
· Improve communications and relationships among group members.
· Improve the team’s ability to solve problems.
· Decrease unhealthy competition and increase cooperation among team members.
· Work more effectively with other teams in the organization.
· Increase team members’ respect for one another’s individual differences.
I believe
all teams could benefit from high-performing organization. For instance, in my
organization, the medical field, you can find that in order to make a day work,
each person needs to be in agreement as to what their roles pertain. High
performing teams depend a whole lot on their clear communication and vision
towards a common goal. And although, conflict is a “necessary evil,” in the
long run it will teach the team to “solve conflict” in more effective ways.
Thus, without a specific plan, my organization would be a chaotic team.
Nevertheless,
at this point, my organization could definitely use a similar activity as my
sometimes, the front office assistants and back office medical assistants do
not work collaboratively. On the contrary, we lack on trust when one of them
finds something to be in disagreement and instead of fixing the conflict with
that person, they rather accuse the person with a higher authority. In other
instances, our team does not take risks or we are not “peak teams’” as we do
not have each other’s back. And lastly, we do not carry though as a team, as
some team members want to gain personal recognition over anything.
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to
organization development (8th edition.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Chao, M. (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 1/3 [YouTube Video].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE&feature=youtu.be
Chao, M. (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 2/3 [YouTube Video.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etwuap-_Azk
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