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Copyright Bonnie Burrell & Alethia Bess 

Introduction

The Strategic Management Model of Team Leadership Development (SMMTLD) explicates the important elements that are key for developing strategic leadership management in a knowledge team.  Cultural orientation is defined as an organization that is defined by an environment (is a theoretical construct formed by beliefs about their existence; environments have material consequences) and a culture (exhibited collective behavior resulting from the attitudes and beliefs).

The environment is  divided into general sectors including social, cultural, legal, political, economic, technological, and physical.

 The culture is the collective phenomena that embody people's responses to the uncertainties and chaos that are inevitable in human experience.  This includes history, tradition, expectations of behavior, and values.

These responses fall into two major categories.  The first is the substance of a culture, shared emotionally charged beliefs that we call ideologies.  The second is cultural forms, which are observable entities, including actions, through which members of a culture express, affirm, and communicate the substance of their culture to one another (Trice & Beyer, 1993). The culture is one sector of the general environment.  In today's cultural sector of the general environment the trend is toward having a decreasing value for hierarchical authority.  These cultural values changes have changed the other sectors of the general environment as far as how we view our values, use our technology, describe and implement leadership, and use power and influence.  Understanding how to develop proficiency in these skills as we now value them can make a team more efficient and high performing.  In developing an action plan for a specific goal this model breaks down the general environment into different sectors so that specific influences impacting on performance of the team can be delineated.

Your team has developed a mission statement.  The mission statement is the first step in defining the strategies your team will use to become high performing.  The mission statement defines your team's core values or vision you have for the team.  It is the first step to creating your team's culture.  There are ten key variables that define a culture: structure, time, thinking, specific environment, power, individualism, competitiveness, action, communication, and space (Brake & Walker, 1995).  Teams are transitory cultures therefore other factors need to be identified rapidly.  Other factors considered in the Strategic Management Model of Team Leadership Development are assessing leadership skills, identifying availability of technology and resources, the use of power, and strategically managing a changing environment.  Understanding how these elements work in concert to impact upon a team’s performance is the main objective of the model.  The model includes assessments of some of these areas of influence you and your team will encounter.  Setting the goals of the team takes skillful discussion and clarification.  The formation section of the manual provides the structure for the team culture, the chapter on time management teaches you how to manage time in a team, the assessment chapter identifies how to manage conflict, thinking styles and other behavioral aspects of individual team members.  These exercises address leadership, technology and resources, strategic management, power, and action plans.  Many of these factors explicated in this section are explained more fully later in the manual.  These exercises are designed to define the terms and to teach you how to define the advantages and disadvantages of each of the influences impacting upon your team when designing and implementing an action plan.

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Overall Project Objective

To understand how the general and specific environment works in concert to impact upon a team’s performance to create effective action plans.  Some examples of tasks that need action plans are written team assignment, developing and rehearsing the oral presentations, or any other professional activity the team may want to execute collaboratively.

The Model of Team Leadership Development combines time management (Parato, 19), systems thinking (Senge et al, 1994), cultural orientation theory (Brake & Walter, 1995), leadership theory (Nahavandi, A.,1997;Dubrin,1995) within the context of team development, and organization theory (Hatch, M. J., 1997).

Definitions

AUTHORITY:  represents the right to secure compliance by others; power backed by legitimacy.

CULTURE: is the common set of behaviors, values, beliefs, patterns of thinking and assumptions shared by members of an organization.  Culture shapes our view of the world.  Culture determines how we think and behave towards ourselves, others, and the world.

ENVIRONMENT:  The outside forces that have the potential to affect the organization.  An environment is a theoretical construct formed by beliefs about their existence;  environments have material consequences.  The model uses two environmental constructs.  General environment, which is the overall organizational environment .  A general environment is symbolic and is derived from interpretation.  Specific environment which is part of the model of cultural orientation and is defined as

LEADERSHIP:  The methods and behaviors by which the strategies are implemented.

POWER:  is the capacity of one person or group to secure compliance from another person or group.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: The balance and fit among strategy, culture, environment, leadership, structure and technology in achieving short-term and long-term goals.  In teams it is developing strategies that help team members to harmonize their personal and organizational commitments so at any moment, their reasoning, decision making, and actions have integrity for the team as well as for themselves (Culbert, 1996)

STRATEGY:  The creation of a strategy is how vision, mission, goals, and decisions are realized.

STRUCTURE:  The basic design dimensions including centralizations, formulization, integration, and span of control that organize the human resources of an organization.

SYSTEMS THINKING: a way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems.  This discipline helps us to see how to change systems more effectively, and to act more in tune with the larger processes of the natural and economic world (Senge et al., 1994).

TECHNOLOGY:  The process by which inputs are transformed into outputs.

VISION STATEMENTS: for teams are a tool used to establish and guide the team's direction.  They are descriptions of what team members would like their work, their performance and results, their relationship to each other, and their work area to look like.

Strategic Management Model of Team Leadership Development

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Strategic Management

In order to answer this question many influences have to be clarified until an understanding of their synergy is apparent to the team.

To manage a team strategically the team must develop

·Vision  for the task and vision for the opportunity to collaborate which will include developing new attitudes and beliefs

What would you personally like to see your team become?

What kind of culture would you like to create within the team?

How will you work together?

How will team members handle the good and the bad times?

What values would the team embody?

What contribution to science will your team make?

 What mission would your team have?

·Mission is a statement used as a tool to help the team set the direction.  The mission statement clarifies and summarizes what the team wants to do.  The mission statement states in concrete terms what the team does and helps others to relate to the team's activities.

·Goals are what the team members commit to do.  Goals are specific, time based, and challenging.  Goal setting requires a structured process.  In the following assessment you will learn how to set goals in a structured process which will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your team.

·Action Plans are accomplished by developing action steps.  An action plan can take a project's goal, which is perceived as overwhelming and make it feasible.  Teams create action plans.

·Roles and Responsibilities once the action steps are created; team members can discuss who has the expertise and motivation to do individual steps.

In the early stages of this process it will seems overwhelming and pointless to some team members.  Aligning team members to be motivated and high performing is difficult to manage.

Strategic Leadership Dimensions

For each of the following items, please rate yourself using the following scale.  (You can also use the items to rate a leader in your organization.)

0	1	2	3
Never	Sometimes	Often	Always

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  1.  I enjoy working on routine tasks.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  2.  I am looking for new ways of doing things.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  3.  I have trouble delegating tasks to my subordinates.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  4.  I like my subordinates to share the same values and beliefs.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  5.  Change makes me uncomfortable.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  6.  I encourage my subordinates to participate in decision-making.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  7.  It is hard for me to get things done when there are many contrasting opinions.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  8.  I enjoy working on new tasks.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  9.  I feel comfortable giving power away to my subordinates.

0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always  10.  I consider myself to be a risk taker.

SCORING:  REVERSE SCORES FOR ITEMS 1, 5, 6, 7, AND 9 (0=3, 1=2, 2=1, 3=0)

	Challenge-seeking score:  Add items 1, 2, 5, 8, and 10.  Your score will be between 0 and 15.  Transfer the score to the grid on the next page.
	Need for control score:  Add items 3, 4, 6,7, and 9.  Your score will be between 0 and 15.  Transfer the score to the grid on the next page.

Strategic Leadership Dimensions

SCORING GRID:

SCORING GRID:

High Challenge-Seeking	HIGH CONTROL INNOVATOR (HCI)	PARTICIPATIVE INNOVATOR (PI)
CHALLENGE-SEEKING	Challenge-seeking leader who maintains tight control of his/her organization.	Challenge-seeking leader who delegates control of his/her organization.
	STATUS-QUO GUARDIAN (SQG)	PROCESS MANAGER (PM)
Low Challenge-Seeking	Challenge-averse leader who maintains tight control of his/her organization.	Challenge-averse leader who delegates control of his/her organization.
	High Control	Low Control
	DESIRE FOR CONTROL

The Impact of Leadership Types on Strategic Forces

Using Course 10 as the organization.  Rate your “organization” on the following items, using the following scale:

1	2	3	4	5
Strongly disagree	Somewhat disagree	Neither agree nor disagree	Somewhat agree	Strongly agree

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  1.  Decision-making is centralized.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  2.  There is a very strong, cohesive culture.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  3.  We are always coming up with new ways of doing things.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  4.  A few people make most of the decisions.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  5.  There are many subgroups and cliques.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  6.  Our primary concern is efficiency.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  7.  We are known for our ability to innovate.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  8.  We are open to differing points of view.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  9.  Team members are empowered to make many decisions without checking with faculty.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  10.  We are not allowed to generate ideas without supervision.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  11.  We take many risks.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  12.  There are many rules and procedures for our tasks.

1 Strongly disagree 2 Somewhat disagree 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Somewhat agree 5 Strongly agree  13.  People are encouraged to do their own thing.

SCORING:  Reverse score items 5, 6, 8, 9 and 13

	ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: Add items 1, 4, 9, and 12.  Maximum score is 20.  A higher score indicates more centralized, control oriented structure.
	ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: Add items 2, 5, 8, and 13.  Maximum score is 20.  A higher score indicates unicultural organization where diversity is not encouraged.
	STRATEGY:  Add items 3, 6, 7, 10, and 11.  Maximum score is 25.  A higher score indicates risk taking and innovation.

Personal Assessment

What is your strategic leadership type?

SCORING GRID:

Overall Objective of the Project

State in a clear and concise manner.

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Goals

Goal Statement

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Environment (Steers & Black, 1994)

What makes an analysis of the environment so important?  All the resources your team will be using ultimate come from the general environment.  It can also be the place where there is the most uncertainty.  An added uncertainty for knowledge teams is whether they can or can not prove their null hypothesis.  Keeping these factors in mind defining the environment properly can enhance the team's ability to become creative.  You have been given a problem to solve, which will take technological knowledge but will also take your knowledge of yourself and others to complete the task efficiently.  Learning how to assess environmental changes and have your team respond appropriately is a skill to be mastered.  Planning ahead for environmental influences helps the team respond more efficiently.

Steps for analyzing the general environment:

1.  Define MIT’s organization.

2.  Identify the links with others that the organization interacts with, or that can influence these relationships through competition, regulation, or social pressure   (i.e. companies (national and international) that hire students).  The network consists of faculty advisors, suppliers, librarians, parents, other course instructors, and roommates, etc.

3.    Consider different sectors in the general environment

4.  Assess how the relationship between organization and its network are likely to be affected by specific conditions and trends.  Consider likely sources of influence from the environment.  An example the ability to access knowledge, competent staff, and laboratory equipment.  Trace these resources back to their source.

5. Assess MIT's patterns of success and failure in relationship to other technological institutes  (short and concise)

6.  Assess the social legitimacy of MIT.  Do the outside influences reward MIT for producing technically qualified scientists?  Do the outside influences acknowledge MIT for producing scientists who conform to the values, norms, rules, and beliefs of the society?

Environmental uncertainty is a result of three conditions (Duncan, page 365)

1.A lack of information concerning the environmental factors associated with a particular organizational decision making situation.

2.An inability to assign probabilities accurately with regard to how environmental factors will affect the success or failure of a decision unit in performing its functions.

3.A lack of information regarding the costs (monetary, time, allocation of scarce resources, etc.) associated with an incorrect decision or action.

To limit the amount of environmental uncertainty team members need to become aware of what the environmental factors are and accurately perceive how they impact on the task.  Accurate perceptions allow the team to formulate effective action plans that will enhance the team's performance.

What kind of organizational environment is MIT?

            There are two types of organizational structure used to stabilize uncertainty in general environments, organic and mechanistic.  Organic systems exhibit a higher degree of task interdependence, greater decentralization of control and authority, and more horizontal communication.  Mechanistic systems are centrally controlled and hierarchical with a task specialization and communicate vertically.  Each system can be effective under specific circumstances.

Questions to ask to determine what system is being used:

·What is the amount of task definition and knowledge required to perform in the organization?

·How clearly are your responsibilities defined for you?

·What is the extent of task flexibility?

·What is the primary pattern of communication?

·How are decisions made?

Does the organization exist in a stable, predictable environment or an unstable turbulent one?

Environment Assessment

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Culture (Steers & Black, 1994)

Culture is the common set of behaviors, values, beliefs, patterns of thinking and assumptions shared by members of an organization.  Culture shapes our view of the world.  Culture determines how we think and behave towards ourselves, others, and the world. From cross-cultural research we know that cultures are built on core value orientations.  Value orientations are preferences for certain states of affairs or outcomes over others.  As previously mentioned, identifying how a culture is defined relates to ten key variables, environment, time, action, communication, space, power, individualism, competitiveness, structure, and thinking (Brake & Walker, 1995). In this chapter we have expanded the meaning of culture to the different cultures in the MIT environment which includes each individual team in the course.  Each team is comprised of three individuals each coming from a particular culture, once the team is formed the team develops its own culture.  Then the team's culture is within the culture of the class, which is within the culture of the department, which is within the culture of MIT.  In some models culture is defined as the organization's culture and all other cultures are considered subcultures.

Culture Assessment

Determine the common set of assumptions and beliefs shared by members of the organization(s) that affect your goal.

ORGANIZATION	TYPE OF CULTURE	ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGE
TEAM
FACULTY
LABORATORY STAFF
Additional comments:

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Power Assessment

TYPES OF POWER

POSITION POWER	Power granted by the organization, including legitimate, reward, coercive and information power.
PERSONAL POWER	Power derived from the person, rather than the organization, including prestige power and leadership power.
POWER STEMMING FROM OWNERSHIP
POWER FROM PROVIDING RESOURCES
POWER FROM CAPITALIZING ON OPPORTUNITY
POWER STEMMING FROM MANAGING CRITICAL PROBLEMS
POWER STEMMING FROM BEING CLOSE TO POWER

Common Power Tactics

·Controlling Access to Information

·Controlling Access to Persons

·Selective Use of Objective Criteria

·Controlling the Agenda

·Using Outside Experts

·Bureaucratic Gamesmanship

·Coalitions and Alliances

Guidelines for the Use of Power

Referent Power

·Treat team members and others fairly

·Defend team members interests

·Sensitive to others' needs and feelings

·Engage in role modeling

Expert Power

·Promote image of expertise

·Maintain credibility

·Act confident and decisive

·Keep informed

·Recognize other team members' concerns

·  Avoid threatening others' self-esteem

Legitimate Power

·Be cordial and polite

·Be confident

·Be clear and follow up to verify understanding

·Make sure request is appropriate

·Explain reason for request

·Follow proper channels

·Exercise power regularly

·Enforce compliance

·Sensitive to others' concerns

Reward Power

·Verify compliance

·Make feasible, reasonable requests

·Make only ethical, proper requests

·Offer desired rewards

·Offer credible rewards

Coercive Power

·Inform others of rules and penalties

·Warn before punishing

·Administer punishment consistently and uniformly

·Understand the situation before acting

·Maintain credibility

·Maintain confidentiality

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Power Assessment

DIAGNOSING INFLUENTIAL INDIVIDUALS AND PERSPECTIVES

2. Diagnose perspectives. How are those influential people likely to feel about your goal?  What are their points of view concerning your goal?

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Identify Power Bases

2. Rank influential individuals by who is the most and least influential in achieving your goal.

Most Influential	Individual	Types of Power Base(s)
Least Influential

Personal Power Assessment

1. What are your existing sources of power?

2. What bases of influence can you develop to gain more control over the situation?

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List of Leadership Competencies

Technical Expertise: specific knowledge, skills, qualifications, or experience required to perform in a particular team

What is the specific knowledge needed for the task?

Ability to Influence: ability to move others to act in a desired way.

Competency Level:

1.  Actively attempts to sway others through direct commands to act in a desired way

2.  Open to other ideas and listens actively to others before directing them to act in a desired way

3.  Coaches others in desired ways to act

4.  Influences others by acting in desired way themselves and delegates work in an organized manner which allows others to act in a desired way

Accountability:  ability to establish in other team members a commitment to achieving results by making them accountable to the equal sharing of work, the regulating of their behavior and leading by managing in a situational specific manner.

Competency Level:

1.  Is able to establish commitment through directly telling people what to do.

2.  Listens to others ideas and then directs members to be accountable

3.  Use well organized action plans and delegates tasks through collaboration and situational management to make people accountable

Achievement Orientation: desire to do well and work to a high standard.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Sets own standard and works toward it.

                                    2.  Asks directly what is expected of him/her.

                                    3.  Collaborates with others and then sets standard to work towards

Analytical Thinking: ability to make formal and logical deductions,

Using models and formulas, and scientific solutions.  Prefers theory and method to data.  Can make systematic comparisons of different features and sets priorities on a rational basis, identifying time sequences and causal relationships.

Competency Level:

                                    1. Consistently uses formal and logical deductions successfully

                                    2.  Sporadically has ability to make formal and logical deduction

                                    3.  Uses formal and logical deductions but needs developing further

Applying Expertise: ability to gain, use, and disseminate knowledge to oneself, team members, and others.

Competency Level:

                                   1.   Acknowledged as expert in the field

                                    2.  Learning to apply expertise

                                    3.  Can sporadically apply expertise

Bias for Action:  tendency to think over problem before taking action

Competency Level:

1.  Can appropriately and consistently decide when to act and when to delay

2.  Sometimes uses bias for action

3.  Acts and thinks afterwards

Collaborating with Others: willingness and ability to work with others to achieve shared success.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Can collaborate when needed

                                    2.  Sometimes has ability to collaborate in specific contexts

                                    3.  Works alone and prides themselves on their individuality

Communication:  ability to utilize multiple communication modes and channels.  Utilizing all technology available to keep the team high performing.

Competency Level:

1.  Ability to increase resources by being trained in latest communication technology

2.  Understands and utilizes present technology and maximizes technology as resource for the team

3.  Utilizes some of available technologies but not completely trained in some of the technologies available

Conceptual Thinking: ability to think of new ways to look at problems and detect patterns in systematic reactions

Competency Level:

1.  Innovative, creative and applies knowledge adeptly.  Communicates concepts clearly and accurately

2.  Shows some innovation and application of knowledge.  Can communicate clearly and accurately

3.  Shows some innovation and application of knowledge but not able to communicate concepts clearly and accurately

Dedication: ability to meet objectives under increasingly challenging circumstances.

Competency Level:

                                   1.  Thrives in challenging circumstances and can meet objectives

2.  Has some stress in challenging circumstances ad meets objectives

3.  High stress level in challenging circumstances and doesn't meet objectives

Directiveness: the ability to set firm standards for behavior and through coaching and team building and maintenance hold other team members accountable.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Excellent team leader

                                    2.  Learning to coach a team properly

                                    3.  Has an innate skill to become team leader but needs training

Flexibility:  ability to adapt and work effectively within a variety of situations with other team members, and other individuals.  Ability to understand and manage different perspectives on an issue, while using situation specific management skills to manage the team.

Competency Level:

1.  Understands and expertly use situational specific model of management

2.  Has been introduced to situational specific model of management and is practicing methods and uses tools

3.  Has not been trained in situation specific model of management

Interpersonal Understanding: committing to understanding other team members by assessing their behavioral competencies.

Competency Level:

1.  Is adept at using assessment tools to assess behavioral competencies

2.  Is rained in using assessment tools but needs practice

3.  No training in assessment procedures

Networking Ability: ability to build relationships and use them to accomplish the goals and objectives

Competency Level:

1.  Expert at communicating information and building relationships with others

2.  Uses networking to accomplish goals and objective but could do more

3.  Does not network

Organizational Awareness: understanding the organizational culture and managing the influences to achieve the objectives.  Ability to utilize informal communication channels and utilize decision-making models to achieve high performance.

Competency Level:

                                   1.  No strategic management training

2.  Understands strategic management but has not been in position to apply knowledge

3.  Understands culture of organization and how to identify and adapt to each cultures influences

4.  Trained in strategic management, understands how to identify and adapt to changes in organizational culture

Self-Regulation: ability to regulate your own behavior and use emotional intelligence when faced with negative responses or actions when provoked, in times of conflict or while under stress.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Does not deal with conflict well

                                    2.  Denies being in conflict with others

                                    3.  Knows conflict management techniques

4.  Aware of different conflict styles and knows how to appropriately apply them to different situations

Strategic Orientation: ability to link long-range visions and concepts to daily work.  Use of time management to keep the team high performing.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Always worked alone

                                    2.  Managed other people while creating action plans for others

                                    3.  Worked as liaison between upper management and team members

4.  Skilled in strategic management concepts and been a project manager in past

Team Leadership: ability to use different leadership styles that are situation specific to achieve high performance for the team.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Directed groups of people

                                    2.  Been in collaborative settings where collaborated successfully

                                    3.  Been a team member on a high performing team

                                    4.  Trained in situational and shared leadership skills

Teamwork: ability to lead teams and be a team member who can share work and leadership.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Never been on a team

                                    2.  Been in a directive working group

                                    3.  Been on a team as a team member but never shared leadership

4.  Been a team leader where leadership was shared and there was equal distribution of work

Technical Skill Development: ability to assess technical skills in other team members and use them effectively to accomplish the task.

Competency Level:

                                    1.  Never assess technical skills before

2.  Worked with others in work group and assessed skills using a directive approach

3.  Worked on a team where cross-functional technical skills were needed

4.  Been a team leader on technical team

Personal Leadership Competency Assessment

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Structural Assessment

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Resource and Technology Assessment

            1.  Physical objects or artifacts including products and the tools and equipment used in their production.

            2.  Activities or processes that compromise the methods of production.

3.  The knowledge needed to develop and apply equipment, tools, and methods to produce a particular outcome.

The next assessment is an assessment of the resources your team possesses and are utilizing to get the job done.  Focus on the variety of tasks your team will be performing to accomplish the goal.  Focus on a description of the technologies and resources used to do the tasks, production of the reports, making photocopies, maintaining the equipment, the taking and analyzing of the data, planning the experiment and what resources you will use and how well they operate to give feedback to others.

Example:  The technology I use for writing a paper is

1.  Physical objects include, a computer and printer, paper and a photocopier or Copytech (where it is located, access to it, and reliability etc.)

2.  Activities I have to perform to do the task are:  formulate outline, type in formulation, composing and formatting the paper, proofreading, printing and photocopying, and timely delivery.

3.  Creating a method of assessing whether the process was successful or not.

(Hatch, 1997)

In a team technology is more complex and the structure needs to be more specific and concise.  Time management is a large factor in the successful completion of the task.  As a team your goal is to produce systems that allow the team to collaborate successfully.  In order to accomplish the goal a clear understanding of the reliability of the resources and technologies available including viewing your team members as part of the team's resources is integral to the success of the team.

            The technology of MIT is producing knowledge and educating students.  How is this core technology being used in your team?  Take the goal you are attempting to attain, analyze the team as a subset of MIT technology and describe at the task level of analysis.  List the advantages and disadvantages of the technology.  What activities is your team participating in that support the technology?  What activities are diminishing the technology?  Be sure to answer how each team member's technical abilities are impacting upon the completion of the goal.

Resource and Technology Assessment

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Strategies-Brainstorming

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Strategies-Guidelines for Decision-Making

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Action Plans

     An action plan is used to improve work or task process. Coordinated and collaborative action plans are important.  Otherwise individuals could improve their own working process while creating conflict and dissatisfaction with other team members.  Action plans are used to make decisions about task assignments and work methods.  An action plan has the shared objectives of all the team members.

PROCEDURE

1. State the task

2. Identify the criterion to be applied to the task

3. Identify how you plan on evaluating how the task will be done

4. Describe how you will decide who will do what part of the task

5. Use a flow chart to determine how the task will be broken down and who will do each component of the task

6. Define how long each part of the task should take each team member

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Flow Chart

TASK Using the information compiled in the Strategic Management Model of Team Leadership Development, make action plans with flow charts for each of the actions you need to take, i.e., writing the team paper, doing the oral presentation, and designing the project.

_____________________________________________________________

A team uses a flow chart to identify the actual flow and sequence of events in a process. In a flow chart the following items are delineated:

1. Shows unexpected complexities, problem, redundancies, unnecessary loops

2. Point out where standardization and simplification is possible

3. Compares and contrasts the actual versus the ideal flow of process, identifying areas of improvement

4. Pictures the work process so team members can come to consensus about the action plan

5. Identifies where additional data is needed

6. Pictures the whole task process

To do a work flow chart:

1.Use your criteria from your action plan to flow chart the steps you need to take to successfully complete the task

2.Decide on format

·Boxes used to show task breakdown with multiple arrows coming into a box with only one arrow leaving the box, circles, etc.

·Ovals are used to show information needed or action used to start the process and used to show results at the end

·Diamonds show where a decision by the team is necessary

·Arrows show the direction or flow of the process

In the flow chart demonstrated on the next page we use all boxes to delineate tasks, decisions and action information and use arrows to show the flow.

3.Determine the boundaries of the task

4.Brainstorm a list of all major activities, input, outputs and decisions from the beginning to the end of the task

5.Sequence the steps

6.Decide on the time it will take to do the process

7.Stay away from minute details

A flow chart may look like this:

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References

Aurelio, J. (1997).  Lecture Notes.

Boulding, Kenneth (1989), Nature of Power.  Sage Publications Inc.

Dubrin, A. J. (1995).  Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills.  Boston, MA:  Houghton Mifflin Company.

Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1988).  Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, 5^th ed.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:  Prentice Hall.

Nadler, David A. and Tushman, Michael L., (1997) “Implementing New Designs: Managing Organizational Change,”  Managing Strategic Innovation and Change, New York: Oxford University Press.

Nahavandi, A. (1997).  The Art and Science of Leadership.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, (1997) “Understanding Power in Organizations,”  Managing Strategic Innovation and Change, New York: Oxford University Press.

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