Homework- Norms and Roles Identify several critical and peripheral norms in your organization.

Critical Norm 1: When the CEO calls you respond immediately Critical Norm 2: Rework and second guessing by upper management is expected Peripheral Norm: CEO ego is important to power dynamics of the organizations and always in play What roles are evident in your group? We have lots of roles that exist in our group because of the many different facets of our department. Based on feedback I received from a senior team member the following roles are exhibited by the following people: Roles Initiating Elaborating Coordinating Summarizing Recording Evaluating Giving/Seeking info Opinion Giving Clarifying Consensus Tracking Proposing Procedures Encouraging Supporting Harmonizing Gatekeeping Process Observing Setting Standards Tension Relieving Kristen X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Beth X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Anthony X X Courtney X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Is the level of cohesion in your group healthy? Why or why not? I believe that the level of cohesion is healthy in our group. The group is opinionated and has varying opinions. However, they are mutually respectful of each other. This creates an environment where they can work together and provide a better outcome or product. As we grow diversity will be key to maintaining this dynamic.

Is your group guilty of groupthink? What happened? How are they avoiding it? Since I have taken over the group group think does not exist. The group has some diversity, which allows for differing perspectives. Due to the personalities in the group, everyone is afforded the opportunity to share their opinion. Differing opinions are not dismissed or ignored. Part of our group norm is to provide everyone an opportunity to speak and share their ideas in every group meeting. This practice helps prevent group think from developing. Homework Questions- Diversity What types of diversity are evident in your group? (Ex. age, race, geography, religion, etc.) 40 year old Caucasian male divorced/remarried, one child (child lives with mother), owns 2 dogs, Jehovahs Witnesses, born in England, conservative 31 year old Caucasian female married, no children, owns 3 dogs, Protestant, raised in NC, fiscally conservative, socially liberal 28 year old Caucasian female married, no children, owns 1 dog, Protestant, raised in NJ, liberal 38 year old Caucasian female married, 4 children, owns 1 dog, Mormon, raised in West and Midwest, conservative What specific challenges does the diversity bring to your group? Our group has an interesting mix of diversity. We are similar in some respects, allowing us the ability to be cohesive. However, we are different enough that our perspectives are uniquely our own. This provides varying opinions and allows for us to prevent group think. Typically the diversity that our group has does not create issues within the group. The one area where challenges can occur is when topics of religion or politics arise. The group has very diverse political and religious backgrounds making these conversations interesting, but we have to be careful to prevent it from becoming hostile. As the group grows it will be important to continue to hire diverse personalities, background and expand the ages and races that within our group. Describe a specific instance in which your group utilized diverse perspectives to accomplish a task. Recently, our group created a new marketing campaign. Instead of one person creating the entire campaign and then the other group members helping them complete the work we took a different approach. We had a brainstorming session where everyone brought several ideas to the table. We used those ideas as a starting point and then developed several other slogans further. At the end of the session each team member ranked their choices and defended their top three picks. In the end the group felt that the best slogan had been chosen. The differing life experiences and backgrounds that our group has provided us with a solid base to rationalize our choices, think creatively and finalize a solution to our slogan problem.

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, Listening What types of verbal communication occur most frequently in your group (task, process, narratives, metaphors, etc.)? What purpose do they serve? Write down some examples. Our teams verbal communication primarily consists of task processes and narratives. We often validate with each other when different tasks have been completed, will be completed, or the status of the task. Additionally, the group shares stories about their personal lives every morning before the day begins increasing the cohesion. It helps set the tone for the day and lets us know if someone is having a bad day or dealing with difficult issues. What type(s) of group talk (task-oriented, role-defining, motivational/consciousnessraising, social-emotional, encounter, humor) do you hear in your group? What type(s) are lacking? What should your group add to enhance their cohesiveness and productivity? The majority of the group talk consists of task orientation or social-emotional discussions about things occurring both inside and outside the office. Humor also occurs. The one area that I would like to see increase is the motivational consciousness raising talk. As the leader, I am the only person in the group that provides this type of group talk. As the team grows I think it will be important for others in the group to begin to utilize this type of communication. Provide examples of different types of nonverbal communication used in your group. When the team is working hard on specific projects they all typically wear headphones. This helps them concentrate and signals to other members of the group that they are not currently available for discussions. There are times when our CEO requests a large amount of material in a very short amount of time. These types of requests create a huge sense of urgency. The team has learned that when this occurs they just jump in and help out wherever possible. Not a lot of talking occurs during these times. Primarily pointing, and sorting happen and team members jump in where they are needed without having to be asked. Our team is in the suite of a house. Although our suite is very open, due to the noise in the building our suite door typically remains closed. If someone forgets to close the suite door you can see the frustration of the other team members that our norm has been violated. The medical industry, and our company, has a lot of political and power dynamics. A lot of time is spent strategizing regarding the best way to handle these political power situations in order to ensure that we successful maintain our good reputation. Quite often, staff members will pick up their phone to ensure that the speaker is not on or no one is listening in to these conversations. When the group socializes, typically in the mornings, I always stand at the edge of the fireplace with my hand on the mantel. This is a nonverbal way to indicate that our environment is more relaxed. When we have meetings or status updates, we are all usually sitting down or in my office which is separated from our larger suite by a partial wall. These nonverbal nuisances were not done on purpose, but they do help clarify for the team the level of

importance or seriousness. How is the nonverbal communication in your group used along with the verbal communication (ex. repeat, complement, accentuate, substitute etc.) This one is difficult. Being a part of the group it is hard to participate and watch how the use of verbal and nonverbal are coordinated. After giving this question some time, I would have to say that the group uses nonverbal primarily as a substitute to verbal communication or to accentuate nonverbal communication. An example when we are rushed to complete a project, we all pitch in form assembly lines and use nonverbal communication to direct the production flow. Very little speech actually occurs. Additionally, nonverbal do accentuate speech. Although my team members would never tell me that they wont complete a task. I can tell when they do not want to complete a task because of the nonverbal signals that they provide. In turn I receive valuable feedback as the leader of the group. What barriers to active listening are displayed in your group? What is the leader doing overcome these barriers? The largest barrier to active listening occurs outside of our group. The former CEO, current medical director, of our organization is not good at active listening. Instead, he continues to repeat himself until you say what he wants to hear. This makes providing him recommendations and feedback difficult. Where this makes things hard for our team is that sometimes I can not listen to their recommendations. I have to say things like I agree with you, but unfortunately we dont have a choice. Our executive wants it this way. Homework- Conflict and Teams Which of the five approaches to conflict resolution are most prevalent in your group? Which are least? Do these approaches compliment or compete with each other? What other approach might be useful in your group? a. The two approaches we use the most often are collaborative and accommodating. Typically, these are used outside the group. We try to create solutions for the company that achieve the best result. If we all win, then the company wins. However, sometimes the conflicts that arise are not important issues. Therefore, we accommodate in order to increase the ability for us to have collaboration on other more important topics. Within the group we primarily use collaboration or avoid. One of our team members has a temper. When that occurs the other members avoid him to prevent conflict from escalating. On several occasions I have had to discuss this problem with him. However, a lot of times it is because he is in an emotional state when the rest of the group is in an analytical state. The team as a whole rarely uses compromising or competing as conflict management strategies. Describe an instance where you or someone in your group had to go below the line to resolve a conflict. How did the situation work out? Did the individual know to do this or did he or she have to be prompted by another group member?

When I was working with our graphic designer I had to go below the line. However, I was prompted by our HR manager to do this, though not in those words. We were working on a crisis communication issue and needed a website design completed quickly. Anthony was angry that the work had to be done in such an unreasonable time frame. Additionally, his hostility about the project begin affecting the office environment. When he started yelling and stomping his feet in my office I had had enough. I asked him outright if he wanted to be a part of our team. Thinking back, however, we had been acquired less than 1 month before the incident. Anthony was not in an analytical, lets work together and get things done. He was still in a very emotional state about the acquisition. Which bases of power are utilized most frequently in your group? Least? Compassion, Respect, Responsibility Interpersonal Linkage and Expert power are all types of power that our department employs on a regular basis. We are very adept at switching between different types of power in order to create the best outcome. The types of power we use the least are charismatic, reward punishment and referent. Is power most often used to create or solve conflict in your group? Power is more often used to solve conflict. The type of power we use the most often with in our group is expert, compassion and responsibility. By using these types of power we are able to create a mutually respectful environment. Do you see more examples of power to or power over in your group? Prior to 2009 there was more power over. Now that we are a self managed work team there is much more power to our group. This comes from all levels of our management teams. Assuming it has happened, describe the process of your group becoming a team. If you do not believe your group is a team, what barriers exist that are preventing a team from forming? I could write a dissertation on this question. In order for our group to become a team a lot of changes had to be made. Task dynamics had to be put in place, proximity issues had to be fixed, social loafing norms had to be abolished. It was a lengthy process. In what ways does your team still need to evolve (ex. leadership, goals, trust, etc.)? Our team is moving into a very exciting time period. Our work is trusted so much by the executive management of our acquired company that we are being put in charge of a lot of different aspects of marketing for the broader organization. This is great for our team, however, in order to keep up leadership skills and self direction need to be established so that our team can grow and evolve while maintaining the intent and purpose that has kept us successful.

Decision Making and Creativity- Homework

Which of the decision-making methods does your team use most often? Least often? Is there a method that you think would be more effective for your team? If so, why do you think the team does not utilize that method? We typically use elimination as a decision making method. However, we recently tried ranking and it really helped us discuss different aspects of the ideas. I think it is important to not be complacent, be flexible and try new things in order to ensure that all aspects of a decision are being explored. Has your team ever fallen prey to groupthink? If so, describe the experience? If not, how is the team preventing this from happening? There is one campaign where groupthink prevailed. We were working on a tight deadline, the marketing specialist had an idea, the designer created the graphics, we rolled it out and then I went. What have we done! It wasnt awful, but it was pretty bad. Too much copy, the graphics werent a great fit for the headline. We all hate the campaign now and it is a great reminder of what group think accomplishes. Would you consider your team to be creative? How is creativity encouraged in your team? What ideas do you have that could encourage creativity in your group? Yes they have to be. If we are not we are in trouble. I encourage creativity by taking the team outside of their comfort zone. We do different activities that help stretch our minds and make us think outside the box. One example I recently used was no one was allowed to take handwritten notes in our last team meeting. Instead, everyone had to draw photo representations of the team discussion instead. This was difficult for a few members of the group, but it allowed us to think differently, expanding our minds and ultimately we developed a solution to a communication problem that we would not have come up with otherwise. Homework- Influence Which of the six rules of influence have you seen put into practice in your small group? Give examples. I definitely use the laws of commitment and consistency that is why I put the task dynamics into place with the project tracking system and the project initiation form process. Additionally, we consistently use Law of Social Proof. When creative ideas are questioned we like to use case studies from other companies and marketing results from other organizations in order to back up our reasoning. The other law of influence we use consistently is the law of because. By using double loop learning I am able to create commitment and by in from my team as well as members of the organization. Have you been the influencer or the one influenced according to these rules? In either case, how aware were you of the rules of influence at the time? Did you find that your awareness of the rules changed their effectiveness? Usually, I am the influencer. I felt that I did some of these things innately. Understanding and having vocabulary to describe the rules helps me to ensure that I am using the correct type of influence at the appropriate time. Additionally, it provides me an

ethical self check to prevent manipulation. If you have not seen any of the rules of influence at work in your small group, do you think they would make difference for your leader? Why or why not? I think that they would help our leader become more personable. He is very business oriented and it is difficult for him to step outside of his head and see/interact with the people around him. Currently, when he does try to interact it is awkward and makes people nervous.