Jadimauro’s Weblog

I feel like in “High Preformance Project Team” the four rules sound really great and I’m sure in a perfect world they would work but this is the real world and things don’t necessarily work like that, I think that we can strive to achieve those things as best we can and then we just have to hope for the best.

The whole time I was reading the parts discussing the role of the leader I kept thinking about my white water rafting trip this weekend and how we needed a leader to do well because in the beginning we really didn’t have a leader and we had some problems with our raft but then when we delegated a leader, we began to work much better as a team. After that the trip was much smoother, well as smooth as a white water rafting trip can be.

When I was working at post production house for the Food Network I really got a taste of what a good leader can bring to a group and how a bad leader can ruin a dynamic. When I first started we had one leader and things ran very smoothly and the entire office got along really well, we all respected one another and things were done on time and properly. Then my boss went on maternity leave and we got a new boss. And this boss had a different demeanor and talked down to you. She also had no real experience in post production and she was pretty much clueless and she was always watching over you to the point of nagging. Suddenly the office wasn’t so fun anymore and we all started to resent working there and our boss. And actually I left there because of that boss and a few other people followed.

I think that this article gives some good guidelines and tips but I feel like there are so many more things that can affect a group than can be written. I think group situations are tricky and I think that even if people don’t have the best experience working in a group setting but things are accomplished properly then I don’t think that it really matters. In the case with my new boss things weren’t being done properly and weren’t being done the way they should have which only combined with a horrible working situation to make me leave. I think that if things were being done properly it would have been easier for me to stay because I did really enjoy my co-workers.

I think that in “Working Smart” the layouts that they give also work well in a non-virtual setting, I mean not so in detail but assigning things and telling people when they should be finished so that the group can continue is good in both the virtual world and the actual world.

I don’t know I’ve never really been on a virtual team, I mean I have communicated with people over emails and IM’s to get projects accomplished but for the most part I feel like in those situations we all were going to meet back up at some point and figure things out. I think that for me face to face interaction in the group scenario works much better. I feel like it is easier for me to communicate things face to face. I also feel like it is easier for me to get a feel for people if I meet them face to face. I think that it is harder for me to feel out what time of team member they will be just through emails and etc. But I do understand that in some situations it is just easier. I think that the readings from last week will really be dependent on strong virtual teams that can communiate properly and effectively to achieve tasks.

All in all I think that if you combine both of the readings and take a little from both you can probably be an effective leader and hopefully create successful groups. Although there are so many factors that go into groups that are very intangible but all in all I think that if you follow some of these guidelines you just might be a bit more effective. I’m not going to say that you’re going to be the greatest but maybe just a little bit better.