HENRY TAM AND THE MGI

TEAM

PROF LEENA CHATTERJEE

STRENGTHS OF MGI TEAM

• Diverse areas of expertise and skill

• High creativity and idea generation

• A good product

• Good connections

• Passion and initiative

EVALUATION OF THE TEAMS

PROCESS

• Ineffective decision making processes

Focused more on generating alternative solutions rather than identifying and defining the problem

Disagreement on who has the expertise about identifying relevant criteria

• Unhealthy conflict

Creative abrasion versus personal clashes

Difference in conflict between Sasha and Dana and Henry and Igor

Conflict avoidance by some members eg. Dav

CAUSE OF PROCESS PROBLEMS

• Team Composition: multiple differences among members combine to cause a fault line

Functional diversity: different styles of thinking, methods of time management, approaches to problem solving

Demographic diversity: differences in age, nationality and gender

Personality

Differences in prior relationships

CAUSE OF PROCESS PROBLEMS

• Unclear goals, roles and leadership

Winning the business plan competition

versus launching the business

successfully

Interns or business partners

Who was the leader

UNDERLYING ROOT CAUSE

• Impression formation processes

• Threats to identity

• Lack of interpersonal congruence

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Launching a team

Importance of kick-off meeting

Establishing shared goals, clear roles, agreed

on decision making procedures, ground rules,

leadership etc

• Managing diverse members

Have a shared understanding of each other’s

strengths and limitations

Instill norms for respecting and learning from

other’s differences

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Diagnosing team processes

Recognize and manage all stages of group decision making

Understand distinction between healthy task conflict and dysfunctional affective conflict

Manage “sub-groups” and dysfunctional “fault lines” that may develop

• Intervening to improve a dysfunctional team

Issues relating to changing and managing structure and norms

• Evaluating team effectiveness

Understand different criteria for evaluating team effectiveness