A631.1.5RB_SeabournBeau

Do you see value in the EcoSeagate team development process?

I see a ton of value in that program/process. What I find the most interesting is the willingness of the employees to actually apply and attend the event. When people are signing up to encounter that process, you can assume they are doing it to have a hands on learning opportunity that will give value to them and the company. I personally feel that if even one person is more motivated about their job when you finish, you've done something worth while. The downside to EcoSeagate is, they are so large that the actually have people apply from all over the world. I feel as though the program is effective accept for the fact that people that are participating may never actually work together again in a real time setting. After you have a development opportunity like that, you want to know that team members are going to have some sort of bond created, a bond that actually will be used in a daily setting. I feel like if they brought team members from the same areas, that work together often, they may see more results in the long run. People will learn about their coworkers and learn what their needs and motivations are.

Why would something like this be necessary in a high-preforming organization?

When you have a high-performance team, you want to keep them motivated with the opportunity to participate in something like this. Brown states "team development is an educational process of continually reviewing and evaluating team functioning in order to identify and establish new and more effective ways of operating" (Brown, 2011). High preforming teams need the motivation and incentives to want to preform at peak form constantly. This activity is actually something that can inspire people to reach outside their comfort zone and try things they've never tried before. If managers want to be successful, they have to offer new and innovating ways for employees to bond.

Could your organization benefit from a similar activity?

I personally feel like our organization could benefit from something like this. I recently found out that the corporate level employees actually have a retreat but the lower level, every day air traffic controllers do not. From my knowledge, there is not any type of program in place to engage everyone. Each year there is a managers conference and the opportunity to get managers together and share successes and new ideas. There is no acknowledgement of the controllers themselves. I think that my company could try and invite people to participate in something like this and make controllers feel like they're important to the success of the company. I feel like there is a slight break down in that perspective. If employees knew that they were just as important as managers, they might feel more inclined to stay with the company. As it is right now, we have a very high turn over rate. Either people are waiting to get a government job or they are retired from the government and just working for what ever motivations they have. There are a very limited amount of people who are actually choosing to make this company a career path like I am. I would like to see more care for the actual controllers.



Reference

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (Eighth ed.). Prentice Hall.

A630.9.4RB_SeabournBeau

Does Schmidt’s description of the Google culture make sense to you?

I think that the information he spoke on does make sense to me. I personally like how there is always a 20% personal venture time. He mentioned that it protects against blow ups. I think what it does is, it actually makes the employees feel as though their ideas are welcome and that we are not just hiring you to do one thing, we want you ideas to flow through the organization. I think that there are real merits to his comments. Google has discussions where they welcome feedback that might be against their objectives. He said he asks for someone to speak against what he wants. That way productive things get accomplished.

Is this a reasonable way to view the work that most people are doing in your workplace?

This is not comparable or the way things are done here. Whenever there is a decisions made, it normally comes from a corporate level and then the managers are left to implement the change to the controllers. The controllers are just expected to adhere to whatever changes are made. The issue with that is that there is not two way communication throughout the entire organization. At this particular time, anything we say or come up with, basically will fall on deaf ears unless you're very, very persistent

As a leader, does it take courage to have and to implement this point of view?

 I think it does. I can't think of a lot of leaders that I've worked for in the past that actually like to have open discussions where they want you to find errors in their ideas/work. I personally feel that there are huge advantages to letting people have their own time to brainstorm and even bigger advantages to having people tell you where your shortcomings might be. how else can YOU learn?

Could this approach backfire?

Yes. I think what could actually happen is that someone down the line is going to think that because their idea was better than yours, they should be making the bigger decisions. You're actually opening the door for people to empowerment.You want there to be a line drawn as to each person's role and then let them know that you're the boss but you're not always right. Just because the boss is not right all the time does not mean they shouldn't be the boss.

What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?

I'm not sure how i could personally implement something like this at a controller level. I think it would take some persuading from multiple mangers to better open the communication lines and accept that people at the controller level have some unique ideas that could really benefit the company. What I'll try to do is see what kind of communication lines are in place and what our actual recruiting guidelines are. That may lead me to my next step.

A630.8.4RB_SeabournBeau

Do you agree with Tom Wujec's analysis of why kindergarteners perform better on the Spaghetti Challenge than MBA students?

Interesting enough, I actually do agree with analysis. I find his comment about the kids not wanting to be the CEO to be very explanatory as to why there is little success among other participants. I have heard similar examples in the past that were more directed at how investors should actually allocate their money. I want to say that the school age kids out preformed trained investors most of the time.

 Can you think of any other reasons why kids might perform better?

I feel like the kids don't have any outside pressure to preform well on them. When he mentioned that in created a reward of $10,000 for participants, the success rate was zero. I feel as though if that were the children, they would still preform well because they just want to be successful in their work. The children don't have anyone to impress or answer to when the task is complete; whether they were successful or not. 

In your view, why do CEOs with an executive assistant perform better than a group of CEOs alone?

I think it goes back to what he said, there is someone there giving them direction. If there is a group of people who are use to being the number one in charge, I'd assume it would take awhile before you could determine who was going to lead and so on. With the assistant there, they can take control and lead the group of leaders and get them on track as soon as possible. There would be no trying to be number one.

If you were asked to facilitate a process intervention, how could you relate the video to the process intervention skills?

I think the video points out some flaws in people in a rather quick manner. You can get immediate results as to how people react to this challenge and I think you can apply that directly back to the workplace. One of the process intervention processes I like is clarifying and summarizing. Sometimes people leave a meeting and they have no idea what someone is talking about or what point they were actually trying to make. This video actually allows you to see what points are trying to be made and you can identify some things that apply to you and your business. Clarity in a matter can lead to better success then just having uncertain direction.

What can you take away from this for your immediate career?

What this video has taught me is that sometimes team building exercises can actually help you learn a lot about someone. In our job, you don't ever really have an opportunity to have a "do-over" and you always wonder what could have happened if you handled something differently. I think if we all took some time to make sure there is clarity on our part and took time to make sure we all understood what we should, that there would be better reaction times and outcomes more often. 

A630.7.4RB_SeabournBeau

I personally think that he has his work cut out for him. I say that because when you're talking about taking two successful companies and then try to get a culture that only focuses on the positives of those companies, you're being misleading and misunderstanding of the culture. What I mean is, I think that you have to be cautious moving forward. Although you always want to focus on the positives, you need to acknowledge the negatives in order to be more successful and to guide the cultural changes away from those wrongs. I think if he was to really push the punishment side of things, he could weed out the people who are not improving cultural influences and unhappiness.

In the video he talks about things being easier when people trust you and are happy with you. I think he's going to have a barrier there. There are going to be people who don't trust you, who don't know enough about you or people that don't just plain like you. Although he wants a culture that is positive, its very hard to get everyone on board and to be trusting of your vision. He goes onto talk about letting employees know that you appreciate them and that they're part of the success of the organization. I find a large hurtle he'll have to overcome is getting over past cultural impacts and any negatives that people perceive of him or the future of the company. It all goes back to trust, how can people trust you when they haven't worked under you long enough?

What I think applies the most from what he was saying to my career today is, he talked about making the best use out of the systems that he knew to be already successful. He was talking about getting next generation technologies moving along and to make things more efficient and acceptable to consumers and commuters. My particular field is focused on making sure everyone has access to next generation technology and protecting the flying public. Additionally, making a safe and friendly culture where trust and happiness is first, is another exceptional task that my company has to undertake to stay relevant and up to date.