Q Individual Team Reaction Paper #2 How does this second individual team reaction paper DIFFER from your first reflection/reaction paper? The second individual team reaction paper includes areas examined during the first reaction paper (so you can do comparison and contrast in your analysis) but it goes beyond the first paper by requiring more insight and the use of specific tools to assist you in better understanding the dynamics which you are facing in your small teams. When you prepared the first reaction paper, your focus was upon balancing the content decision of your team (10% focus in that paper) with the dynamics which happened within your team. The second reaction paper requires you to focus more upon your team’s process dynamics and how they impacted your team’s functioning in a positive or negative way. In this paper, you can also reflect back to the first scenario and how your team acted during that scenario. Again, when you discuss members in your team, be specific by mentioning the name of the person you are talking about. This makes it easier for any reader to understand what you are saying. In the first paper, eight questions were addressed. These questions helped you to focus your paper while keeping the overall tone of your paper in a somewhat conversational mode linking your observations together from one question to another. The second reaction paper requires you to ANALYZE your team in more depth and detail through implementing the following four techniques to demonstrate your understanding of what happened in your team. The tools which should be used are: 1. Task/Process Analysis. 2. The Pareto Principle – the 80/20 Rule, 3. SWOT Analysis, 4. The Sigmoid Curve – also known as the “S” curve Each of these tools is discussed below. You will find additional resources on each of these tools in the “Analytic Tools” area in our Blackboard Course Site. TASK PROCESS ANALYSIS To put the individual team reaction papers in perspective, think of a cone laying on its side with the wide open end to the right. The flat side (on the bottom) can be considered the baseline while the side which rises from the lower left to the upper right signifies increased importance and additional complexity regarding the task (the content dimension of your assignment). As you move from scenario one through scenario four, you move from the narrow part of the cone to the more open, wider end of the cone – this helps to display the increase in the level of complexity which each new scenario presents to your team. As the scenarios progress, they become more complex. This increase in complexity is also represented by the increase in the percentage weight assigned to each of your three individual student reaction papers (5%, 7%, and 8%). The content or task aspect of your assignments requires you to make decisions as a team that should help the town recover from its current crisis. Your team’s decisions will either help the town to improve or lead the town into greater peril. As your team moves from one scenario to another, the baseline of the cone also drops/widens to reflect the increased complexity which your team faces in working as a team and how your team addresses its own functioning and team development. Analyzing how your team functions is referred to as the “process dimension”. The process dimension deals with such issues as communication within your team, how the team handles conflict, who is involved in planning, decision making, leadership, participation, problem solving and other aspects. How your team addresses these issues makes it either more or less prepared to make effective decisions regarding the town. It also impacts how well you work within your team. The extent to which your team mainly focuses upon the task of helping the town (the team’s task orientation) can therefore be contrasted with how much time your team spends focusing upon itself to develop as an effective team. The extent to which your team’s internal functioning becomes more of the focus of your team’s meetings, the less time you have for helping the town. Some of your actions will also include both a task and process focus. Using this approach is called task/process analysis. This technique helps to identify the behaviors which your team focuses upon. It can help you to better understand what has consumed the most time within your team. For example, sample results of a typical task/process analysis could be: Task and Process Analysis for Scenario #2 Task Oriented Behaviors 5 of 38 = 13% Process Oriented Behaviors 29 of 38 = 76% Both Task and Process Oriented Behaviors 4 of 38= 11% The number 38 represents the number of behaviors observed in this team. The number “5” represents how many of those 38 behaviors were task specific behaviors, etc. Through the above data, it is clear this particular team spent more time dealing with the forming and storming dimensions of team development rather than in addressing the key problems faced by the town. In examining your team, where was the main focus of your team during scenario 1? What was the main focus of your team in scenario 2? How has the focus of your team changed over time? We expect you to use a table similar to the above as part of your answer to this question. PARETO ANALYSIS The second tool which you will use is the Pareto Principle also known as the 80/20 rule. This principle says that eighty percent of the benefit or loss from an action or decision comes from twenty percent of your effort. The key is to isolate the core twenty percent which leads to your team’s success or failure. By identifying this twenty percent, you can focus your efforts for remedial action (if the twenty percent leads to negative outcomes) or build upon your core strength (what led to success) to help you make even better decisions and interact in a more positive manner in the future. Looking at your team, what actions within your team represent this key “20 percent”? Here we are NOT asking anything about the task decisions which your team made, instead we are asking for which behavior observed in your team was the “20 percent” which led to 80% of your team’s results. How do these actions lead to success or failure? What could your team do to build upon this success factor or to contain this leading driver for team failure? You can also apply this principle to the issues faced by the town thereby isolating the key drivers for success or failure within the town in the future. SWOT ANALYSIS The third tool is SWOT analysis. As you know, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a given situation. If you draw a line between the weaknesses and opportunities in a situation, you separate the past (which is represented by Strengths and Weaknesses) from the future (which is represented by opportunities and threats). If you combine weaknesses, opportunities and threats, this is the basis for an action plan. The weaknesses in this case become the target for corrective action , the objective is to overcome the weaknesses. The opportunities are the benefits you can realize if your team can overcome its weaknesses. The threats represent challenges, blockades or factors which can hinder your team from overcoming its weaknesses. Based upon this, examine your team over the past two scenarios and identify: 1. What specific strengths do you see in your team and why are these strengths important to your team’s functioning? 2. What are the greatest weaknesses which your team has displayed over the past two scenarios? Are these weaknesses triggered by a particular individual team member or do they arise throughout the team as a whole? Are these weaknesses recurrent or only limited to a specific scenario? What do you think should be done to overcome these weaknesses in your team? 3. What opportunities could your team achieve if it could overcome its weaknesses? 4. What do you see as the greatest threats that could stop your team from overcoming its weaknesses? Why do you think this? What actions do you think your team should take to overcome these threats to make your team more effective in the medium to long term? SIGMOID CURVE The fourth tool is the Sigmoid Curve, also known as the “S” curve. This curve takes the shape of a bell curve or normal distribution in statistics. The curve starts on the lower left, rises to form the top of a bell and then declines on the right side to a point equal to the starting point on the left. An “S” curve has three primary points and two intermediate points. The first primary point is referred to a “A” – this is the lowest point on the lower left of the cure. “A” represents the starting point of a decision or action. The second primary point is located at the top of the curve and is referred to as point “B”. This point can be referred to as “Fat and Happy” since point “B” means you have achieved ultimate success and are at the maximum point of benefit in terms of market share, recognition and profitability. At point “B”, you are seen as the best! As a result, you dominate the marketplace. The danger is that your team lets this news go to its head and the team then becomes complacent. This could occur if your team receives very positive feedback from a scenario decision. The third primary point on the curve is point “C” which is on the extreme lower right of the curve. “C” represents extreme crisis. In point “C” you are no longer in a position of dominance. You need to devote most, if not all, of your efforts to recovery and survival or you will ultimately perish. The two intermediate points on the curve are Point A/B which represents the investment stage or development aspect of a decision. Many companies also refer to this stage as “research and development”. The second intermediate point on the curve is Point B/C which represents decline. At this point, your town, team or organization is no longer the role model for others, rather you are in a point of decline – your market is eroding, your product quality is under threat from other companies or your knowledge and skill as an individual or team are beginning to drop and be less effective. Whenever you make a new decision, there is a development phase in which your position declines due to the investment required to support your new decision. It will take a period of time before you recover to your initial starting point and before you start to rise higher on a new “S” curve to achieve improvement. This represents the “lag” effect in decisions. When we first make a decision, as your team did in scenario 1, the expectation is that the situation of the town should show some immediate improvement. However, due to history, time or other factors, it might take two or more scenarios before you begin to see any positive change based upon your decision. Your scenario decisions therefore might help the town in scenario three or four but might have little impact in scenario two. If the problem facing the town took years to create, one good decision from your team cannot immediately change the situation in a short period of time. The sigmoid curve is important because it helps you to place either your team or the town on an S Curve graph. It also illustrates the amount of work which is required for improvement. Jim Collins’ book “How the Mighty Fall” discusses the Sigmoid Curve and illustrates each step in the curve and how a team, town or a company can either move out of a difficult position or fall further down the wrong side of the curve. Answer the following questions regarding the Sigmoid Curve: 1. Where would you place the town on the sigmoid curve in scenario 1? Where would the town be on the sigmoid curve in Scenario 2? 2. Where would you put your team on the sigmoid curve in scenario 1? Where would you put your team on the sigmoid curve in scenario 2? If your team is on the B/C side or is in the “C” position, this will negatively impact your team’s ability to help the town overcome its current crisis. Through applying the above tools to your analysis of your team’s development during scenario two, you will recognize some patterns which might not otherwise have been as clear. Use these tools, analyze what happened in your team and demonstrate the insights you have gained from working with your team during the first and second scenario. I look forward to reading your second individual team reaction paper. Thank you for your efforts on this project. Your paper is due : Saturday, June 9th, 2018 at 8:00 PM. Submit your paper to Dr. Groves via his personal email address: drjerrygroves@comcast.net This paper will count as 9% of your final grade.