Managing Your Team as a Strategic Asset
Q-200 word
Managing Your Team as a Strategic Asset — Please respond to the following:
Analyze an organization you are familiar with. What are its strategic capabilities? And what are its strategic positions, and why?
Response-70 word
Our firm is new and growing as I write, but I will attempt to analyze the current identified strategic capabilities and positions. We are a very small business in personnel and we desire to keep it that way. We do most of our work through subcontractors and in the end, our business capabilities are how we manage our subcontractors. As defined in The Differentiated Workforce; Transforming Talent Into Strategic Impact, strategic capabilities are the business processes and execute the firms strategy and are a source of competitive advantage. They define the processes as either different than our competitors or similar to our competitors but performed in a different way (Becker, 2009).
We have identified two types of competitors that we currently compete with. The extremely large corporations like King Brown and Root (KBR) or Dyncorp International, or the small competitors like Griffin in Yemen. To answer the question directly, we follow similar processes but we do it differently from each of our competitors, and we do it differently from our competitors in different ways. Our large competitors buy ships and planes and trucks and try to own all the assets they use to move property and products around the world. We conduct business differently than they do because we utilize our rolodex of contacts and subcontractors to accomplish the work at hand. By doing so we are much more agile and we do not have huge amounts of overhead and time lag moving assets into position to start work. In comparing us to the small companies that share our work channel, we have the advantage that we screen and manage our subcontractors to actually perform. We provide incentives for them to make deadlines and we have consequences if they do not. It is the quality of our personnel that requires the attention to detail and the sense of continued urgency that gives our client the satisfaction they require.
To be considered real strategic capabilities they must first align with human capital requirements and secondly be differentiated accordingly (Becker, 2009). Since we have such a small workforce (currently 4), we have identified that our operations officer and our country project manager must provide us with the most performance to achieve success. These two positions are therefore our strategic positions for success in business. Differentiated Workforce would call them “A” positions and we have identified both of the positions as just that. The other two positions are “B” positions and are currently filled with a “B” type person and the other is an “A+” person. We actively are looking to repurpose this individuals duties to make sure we gain the most out of his capabilities. Both the operations position and the country manager position deal directly with the client and have a daily impact on the execution of our contract. These two positions also have a significant impact on one or more of our firm’s strategic capabilities by actually requiring performance of our subcontractors. Most companies award a contract and then hide in a hole until the work is completed on time or deadlines are missed and work is incomplete. We have in country management with daily huddles at the beginning of the day, mid-day calls with the client to monitor satisfaction and timelines and end of day calls with our subcontractors to review the daily work completed, the future plans for work, and to positively charge them with our values (Welch, 2005).
The “why” is our X-factor? It is our people and our culture that provide us with a 10 times competitive advantage over our competitors. If you are familiar with the 7 Strata described in Scaling Up, Verne Harnish asks you to answer the question; what one phrase strategy is your key to making money? Ours is “We get shit done! (Execution)” and yes that is exactly what it says. We live in a perpetual state of urgency where we apply our “Differentiating Activities” (Harnish, 2014).
- We’re agile and adaptable
- We’re focused
- We execute
- We never quit
In closing our company is small in numbers of personnel and we do things where most companies don’t go and most people aren’t willing to work. We provide operational excellence, efficiency, and innovative solutions in expeditionary logistics. This exercise has helped me refocus on differentiating the workforce.
References
Becker, H. B. (2009). The Differentiated Workforce; Transforming Talent Into Strategic Impact. Harvard Business Reiew.
Harnish, V. (2014). Scaling Up How a Few Cmpanies Make It…and why the Rest Don’t. Ashburn, VA: Gazelle’s Inc .
Welch, J. (2005). Winning. Hammersmith, London: Harper – Collins.
Response-70 word
I am going to attempt to answer this question. Williams-Sonoma is company on the move. According to the 2013 Annual Report, “our brands (Wiiliams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, PB Kids, PB Teens, West Elm, Rejuvenation, Mark &Graham) offer innovatve, exclusive products that help our customers decorate, entertain, and create homes of their dreams”.
As an employee the hardest thing to manage strategically are not only its full-time permanent employees but the temp employees as well. It would seem that the same rules that are enforced on those employees are very different from the rulesenforced on permanent employees. As a result, the performance is varied in the work that is produced. However according to the annual report, in 2013 the say that they executed their strategic plan investing in their brands and supporting infrastructure. Well I can agree to some of that as we protested a change in our schedule and they agreed to look at that plan again. But there is still some differences in the enforcing of the rules with the temp agency workers.
I believe that the strategic position for the company is going to be to hire qualified individuals and weed the temps down to a handful as this is the current rumor. For the company as a whole, they will continue to build upon the brands the have and expand globally.
Bottom of Form
Q-200 word
Everyone knows the importance of making great people decisions. Yet, we see innumerable examples of poor people decisions all around us. Discuss the main reasons for this discrepancy.
Response-70 word
Everyone knows the importance of making great people decisions. Yet, we see innumerable examples of poor people decisions all around us. Discuss the main reasons for this discrepancy.
Poor decisions are made because of common traps people fall into. Four of the common one are:
- The odds are against you.
2. Assessing people for complex positions is inherently difficult.
3. Powerful psychological biases impair the quality of the decision making process.
4. Misplaced incentives and conflicts of interest can easily sabotage these decisions.
First, the odds or finding that stud are against you. There are just not that many of them. For that reason alone most will hire an average Joe. Second, judging the ability of someone to fill a complex role is not an easy thing to do. This “is true for several reasons, including the significant impact of assessment errors, the unique and changing characteristics of many jobs, the difficulty of assessing intangible traits, and the limited accessibility of many candidates” (Fernández-Aráoz, 2007).
Third point, are the biases that are not actively thought of. They include:
- Procrastination
- Overrating capability
- Snap judgments
- Branding
- Evaluating people in absolute terms
- Seeking confirmatory information
- Saving face
- Sticking with the familiar
- Emotional anchoring
- Herding
The final points making poor decisions relevant are political pressures and the particular circumstances of candidates.
Reference:
Fernández-Aráoz, C. (2007). Great people decisions: Why they matter so much, why they are so hard, and how you can master them. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons. (Ch3)
Response-70 word
All the time. I blew it the last time. I was looking for an IT Manager and thought I had selected someone who was prepared and disciplined. A perfect fit I thought. Of the 42 days he was employed he was in the office probably only 24. Even his dismissal had to be handled by letter through lack of his communication. The position was not misrepresented, if anything I bent over backwards to explain things. That was an experience unlike any other. In hindsight I rushed to judgement because I had been searching for sometime and did not put enough work like I normally do into the details. I have to say though, even when I put work into the process I have ended up being duped. I remember this happening earlier in my career when I sought an applications analyst. Though he was under-qualified I thought I saw and understood someone who was eager to get the opportunity and run with it. tT ended up not being the case.
Q-200 word week 1
Summarize the most important concepts and approaches you have learned this week. Provide at least one concrete example of how you will apply a key principle or idea in your workplace or professional life.
Topic like
Why People Decisions Are So Difficult
What makes a company successful? Is it brilliant strategy? Flawless operations? Unforgettable marketing? Plain dumb luck?
Q-200 word
Summarize the most important concepts and approaches you have learned this week. Provide at least one concrete example of how you will apply a key principle or idea in your workplace or professional life.
Topic like
Lecture: Managing Your Team as a Strategic Asset
Q-200 word
Risk management is a critical aspect of project management. The supply chain decisions that are made have risk involved like any other project decision. Comment on two examples of risks that can occur in the supply chain that can affect a project. What can you do as a project manager to reduce or eliminate the risks that you defined? Provide professional examples, if at all possible, from a project you have managed or of which you have been a team member.
Q-200 word
The structure of an organization can influence the overall success of a project from initiation to closure. Identify if your organization is centralized or decentralized and evaluate benefits and weaknesses of the structure. Would you change from centralized or decentralized to meet the needs of your projects? Why or why not?
Q- 180 word
Post a well-considered example of a time that you were on a team. It can be a work team, a school team, a church team, a neighborhood team, a team of volunteers, or something similar. Using Larson and LaFasto’s eight characteristics of effective teams, address where your team stood on each characteristic and address how you think these things added to or detracted from the team’s success. Finally, address at least two things that you learned about yourself from the experience and how they have changed or will change your strategies when working as a team member in the future.
Response-80 word
Using Larson and LaFasto’s eight characteristics of effective teams:
- A clear, elevating goal
- A result driven structure
- Competent team members
- Unified commitment
- Collaborative climate
- Standards of excellence
- External support and recognition
- Principled leadership
The last team that I was on did not meet the effective team characteristics. Only two of the characteristics were present. After given the assignment I reached out to the team that I was assigned to. The team members did not respond within a timely manner, so I reached out for external support. My Professor gave me the advice that I needed. So I did the project all by myself. I can say that I was the one competent team member in the group and I did reach out for help. I think that the failure of the team was due to the fact that individuals take online classes for the lack of time to attend traditional classes nevertheless, meet to up to do a project.
I learned that I am not a procrastinator and that I can work well under pressure.
Response-80 word
The last time I had to work in a team was just last week in my HRA 360 class. Trying to work as a team in an online class can be very challenging. There was a clear goal set for what was expected from the group, but there was huge lack of communication between the team members. I tried to contact my team member via email at the beginning of the week, and neither responded. Four days later, the day before the assignment was due, everyone wanted to respond at the same time. By this time I had already complete the assignment by myself. Both individuals seemed as if they had no clue that there was a team assignment due. Maybe my team members should have reviewed Larson and LaFasto’s eight characteristics of effective teams before our assignment, because they missed the mark on all the characteristics. I personally feel, when it came to the team assignment, my team members were not competent and we were definitely not unified. There was no collaborative climate, standards of excellence, external support or recognition. One of my team mates did email me and thank me for getting the work done, the other one just tried to make excuses for their lack of participation. I guess I can say I was the group leader. I initiated the contact and made sure that the assignment was turned in for all of us. Two thing that I have learned about myself is that I am very driven and not afraid to take charge. I am usually not one to take charge, I always try to let other people have the leadership role. Even though I ended up doing all the work, it actually felt good know I was the one that made things happen. From now on when I work in a team I will probably want to take the leadership role.
Reference
http://www.odportal.com/teams/effective/chapter12.htm
