A635.8.3.RB_TransormationalStrategies_LouBeldotti

A635.8.3.RB

Transformational Strategies

In this blog, I am asked, “How do I relate and make sense of the approaches taken by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale and Stanley McChrystal compared to the information presented in my textbook?” and use the figures below: “Figure 15.4 Relative Strength of Corporate Cultures” and “Figure 15.5 The Strategy-Culture Matrix in my response.”

(Brown, 2011)

             Gallery Furniture was opened in the Houston area in 1981.  According to Mattress Mack, sales were great because of the house building boom.  He goes onto say that over 60,000 houses were being built per year but in 2008 it slowed down to about 15,000 per year.  If that wasn’t bad enough, in 2009 they experienced a horrific fire that caused $30,000,000.00 in damages which affected their customer base.  To get beyond these problems, business practices had to change.  The culture of the business had not change since they had opened their doors in 1981.  However, cultural change had to occur if they wanted to remain solvent.  In figure 15.4 and 15.5 above and to the side, between 1981 and 2008 Gallery Furniture would have fallen in the “strong culture” quadrant of 15.4 (Strong/High) and the “reinforce the culture” quadrant of 15.5 (Low/High).  As the company transformed toward a new culture, it face resistance from some of the senior employees.  In this case, they were in the “weak culture” of 15.4 (Weak/Low) and the “change the strategy” of 15.5 (Low/Low).  However, as Mattress Mack moved forward by having influencers and coaches who dealt with the customers (prospecting) and employees, respectively.  The company introduced things such as incentive pay and a wellness program to not only get employee buy in to the culture changes taking place but also improve the bottom line. 

            I can truly relate to Mattress Mack’s approach to his cultural transformation.  I have witnessed this type of transformation while in the Army.  Even though there were the old Soldiers (like the old employees) that resisted, they eventually either made the transformation, got out or retired.

            With regards to General McChrystal’s TED Talk, I can completely relate.  I lived the exact same experiences that he did.  I watched the Army transform right before my eyes.  I watched the old regime resist change and grasped for understanding as a new generation of Soldiers came on board.  I use to call them the “Nintendo” generation.  Especially toward the end of my military career.  These new Soldiers were tech savvy, texting, video game playing arguers.  They always question why something is being done.  Being a different kind of “old school”, it really would get under my skin.  Now that I have been retired almost seven year and have seen the actions and behaviors of the high school Cadets that I teach, the military is going to need to transform again.

References

McChrystal, S. (2011, Mar). TEDTalk: Listen, learn…then learn. [Video File].  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal/transcript?language=en

McIngvale, J. (2012, September 17). Influencer | Gallery Furniture video case. [Video File].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4

Brown, D.R. (2011). Experiential approach to organization development. (8^th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A635.7.3.RB_INSEADReflection_LouBeldotti

A635.7.3.RB

INSEAD Reflection

In light of the video found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM and the readings from Brown’s text, “An Experimental Approach to Organization Development” I am asked to answer these three questions:

• What do you see as some of the major benefits and drawbacks of self-managed teams?
• Would you like to work within such a team?
• What competencies would you need to develop to be an effective external manager of a self-managed work team?

            According to Brown, “A self-managed work team is an autonomous group whose members decide how to handle their task. 26 The task of the team is an identifiable task, service, or product. The group may be a permanent work team or a temporary team brought together to solve a problem or develop a new product. Often teams are composed of people from different parts of the organization, with different skills and backgrounds. Authority has been vested in the teams by upper management to manage their group processes, including production and personnel matters, in or-der to accomplish their objectives. The diversified background of members and the necessary authority gives the teams the ability to move around the bureaucratic organization and get the job done.” (Brown, 2011)

            In my current position as a secondary education teacher, I am constantly assigning tasks and assignments to teams of Cadets.  Our classes are modeled after the US Army with each period being a Platoon, the first four and last four periods being Companies and collectively being a Battalion.  In this culture, they self-manage.  It’s amazing.  I constantly have other teachers come and ask me how it is done.  I will only become involved when a Cadets have questions that Senior Cadets cannot answer. 

               According to Professor Paul Tesluk of the University of Maryland, “Self-managing teams are not as rare phenomena as what they used to be.  You know by definition, a self-managing team is a team of that has formal responsibility and authority for making their own decisions about how they organize their work and how they decide.  Now, they're going to get their work done so instead of the formal supervisor having that responsibility it's really up to the team to decide how they structure themselves and how they go about organizing their workflow and process. And now in the knowledge-based economy, you see much more of that happening then what you use to with flatter organizational structures as well.  So leaders don't have the ability to focus on a certain select number of teams. With a flatter organizational structure there's more emphasis on teams being more self-managing but it is a contradiction in some ways. It's a bit of a paradox of how do you lead teams to lead themselves.  But at least in our research what we find is that it's a very important element for external leaders to be able to do successfully because the type of leadership style is very different from a self-managing team than from one that's more leader managed and led.” (INSEAD, 2008)

            I am of the opinion that there is both good and bad in self-managing teams.  If you give these teams too much autonomy, they can run amuck.  And since my brain is wired differently due to my 27-year Army career, I live by the fact that if you are a leader, you are responsible for everything that happens and fails to happen in your organization.  So, with that said, there must be over-watch without micromanagement.  Lines of communication between the leader and the team must be wide open.  However, self-managed teams striving for excellence has been my experience.  These teams want to please the boss.  They want autonomy.  They learn from their successes and failures more often because they were the ones who succeeded or failed without a manager or leader breathing down their necks.

            As a younger Soldier, once I proved to my leadership that I was capable of accomplishing tasks that had been giving me, the leader backed off.  From the previously mentioned Army model, Soldiers in my same position worked together and essentially self-managed.  So, with that said, I have worked within a self-managed team and enjoyed it!

            The only competency I would need to develop to be an effective external manager of a self-managed work team is to abate my extreme desire to be a micromanager.  As a retired Senior Noncommissioned Officer being extremely hands on is well embedded in me.

References

Brown, D.R. (2011). Experiential approach to organization development. (8^th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall

INSEAD. (2008, September 22). Self-managing teams: debunking the leadership paradox. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM