In the Midst of Adversity Lies an Opportunity - Essay Example

"Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together" "In the midst of adversity lies an opportunity". I found this opportunity when I was given the chance to be a part of a team launching a new channel called Games TV. 'Games TV' is a fast-growing film and TV concern that intends to sell its popular products into UK TV channels. We were awarded the privilege in forging out plans to make this happen. We knew that that it would be a tedious task but we were resolute and filled with grit to launch it in the most aesthetic way. The project contained all the ingredients to make it a successful one. The theories of Belbins, Tuckman, and time management only solidified our project. A team binds itself in a chain only to be stronger. The success of a team is directly proportional to the overall work of the team. There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK". Teamwork is working together - even when apart. The Teamwork can be simply stated that it is less me and more we. In short, the Team can be best explained with this formula. TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More The best was to discuss about the teams roles and contributions are through Belbin's theory. Dr Meredith Belbin defined a Team Role as: "A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way."( Dr Meredith Belbin, Henley Management College,1988) Where do I fit in When you complete the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory you will receive - among other reports - a 'fingerprint' of your Team Role preferences. Very few people display characteristics of just one Team Role. Most people have 3 or 4 preferred roles, which can be adopted or eschewed as the situation requires. First of all we divided the entire work process into sub processes. They were categorized as follows: Planning Premises Utitility cost Studio, equipment Premise design Experts Recruitment Marketing campaign Launch event Presentation Every division was made in accordance with the demands of the client. We collectively decided that all of us wanted to be a part of planning the project. While managing utility cost, studio equipment, and premise decision were assigned to one team member. None of us wanted to be left out of marketing campaign and presentation. Experts, Recruitment and Launch event were allotted to 2 members each. Thus subscribing to this theory we managed to fit in a number of roles. The fact that nobody in the team was indispensable made the project a lot easier. Each of us were a substitute for some body. In the absence of one of the team members during the marketing campaign we were prepared look after his work too. In fact when we were assigning roles to reach we followed the Belbins theory of team roles. Team Roles Description (http://www.belbin.com/rte.aspid=3) Team Role Contribution Allowable weakness Plant Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. Ignores incidentals. Too Preoccupied to communicate effectively. Resource investigator Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative,. Explores. Develops contacts. Over optimistic. Loses interest once enthusiasm has passes. Co coordinator Mature, confident, a good chair person. Can be seen as manipulative. Offloads personal work. shaper Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Prone to provocation. Offends people feelings. Monitor evaluator Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options and judges accurately. Lacks drive and ability to inspire others. Team worker Cooperative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Indecisive in crunch situation. implementer Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions. Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities. Completer finisher Painstaking, conscientious, anxious, searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time. Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate. specialist Single minded, self starting and dedicated. Contributed only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities. Every member in the team had a potential. But he accommodated some role in the team. She/he had his own share of contributions and weaknesses. The team roles only enhance the group dynamics. There are various other factors that can actually make or break a team's. Most importantly I believe that work should be divided commensurately. The members of the team should understand who is best in his own field. I follow a strategy called PIP. This strategy stands for: Planning is paramount, punctuality is priority and presentation is the punch. I was given the opportunity to make use of this strategy in the establishment of a new channel called Games TV. We were a team of 5 members. For a team to work efficiently it is very important to know each member very well. Because often misunderstanding and lack of co ordination among members can lead to disorientation towards the project. I was lucky enough to know all the members of the team. We had ample of bonding among ourselves to take up any new project and carry it to another level. The two major problems that we couldn't ignore were budgeting under 650,000 and meeting the deadlines. When we started with the project all of us though that this is huge money. But when we sat down to Plan, our preliminary survey did not condone us to be magnanimous. Finding a premise to our client whims in London was just like finding a pool of water in a desert. The property chewed up a lot of our capital. Although it would be large asset to the Games TV but it only compelled us to chop of some our other plans. This not only led to cost cutting in sections of marketing campaign and finding the right experts. The Time management theory played a pivotal role in taking care of our deadlines. Time Management theories have come and gone. The latest theory of Time Management I heard has actually caused me to stop and think about how I we carry out this project. The Pickle Jar theory is all about balance. You make time for everything, and everything simply fits well where it is supposed to fit. ( Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory by Jeremy Wright, June 22, 2002) There were lifecycle problems which further compounded in the project making. There are many opportunities for project problems throughout the lifecycle. Many of these will cascade as the project progresses, leading to major trouble. Failure to clearly and completely define the requirements, resulting in building the wrong features leaving gaps in the features needed. New or state of the art technology may cause unanticipated problems. The new alarm/security system posed some serious problems. The access was often barred even when the person had the identification card. It could only be resolved when it was learnt that even a slight scratch on the card would be taken as tampering of card and deny access. This also led to creating new cards. Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing This model was first developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 Tuckman's theory focuses on the way in which a team tackles a task from the initial formation of the team through to the completion of the project. His theory is particularly relevant to team building challenges as the phases are relevant to the completion of any task undertaken by a team. One of the very useful aspects of team building challenges contained within a short period of time is that teams have an opportunity to observe their behavior within a measurable time frame. The Tuckman theory had a significant impact in uniting our team. It was the real test of the team members. The test only proved that who can with stand the work pressure of late night calls, high profile meeting with the executive of Games TV, or getting the property in a high profile location in London and most of all managing such a humongous wealth. There were copious challenges posed to us from all directions and none of them had the easy way out. It was a learning curve as we tacked every challenge irrespective of its size and supported each other through the hard times. Forming The team is assembled and the task is allocated. Team members tend to behave independently and although goodwill may exist they do not know each other well enough to unconditionally trust one another. Time is spent planning, collecting information and bonding. We did our share of planning independently and shared it when we assembled. All of us gathered information in each field that they had opted for and put forth in front of us. The information was crucial because we would be able to create a blueprint out of it. Storming The team starts to address the task suggesting ideas. Different ideas may compete for ascendancy and if badly managed this phase can be very destructive for the team. Relationships between team members will be made or broken in this phase and some may never recover. If a team is too focused on consensus they may decide on a plan which is less effective in completing the task for the sake of the team. Although all of us signed this informal concord of being a professional, we had our share of problems. Unfortunately, there was one such time when two members in our team were not in consonant over the issue of marketing campaign. One of them wanted larger share of investment in the launch while other wanted to advertise it through print media. It was after constant persuasion when one of them compromised. Norming As the team moves out of the Storming phase they will enter the Norming phase. This tends to be a move towards harmonious working practices with teams agreeing on the rules and values by which they operate. In the ideal situation teams begin to trust themselves during this phase as they accept the vital contribution of each member to the team. The risk during the Norming stage is that the team becomes complacent and loses either their creative edge or the drive that brought them to this phase. This is where the PIP strategy came into practice. Everybody understood their job related to Games TV and paid respect to each decision taken by the member. When it came to recruitment, every member of the team knew which person is right or which job and no body belied anybodies decision. I believe that communication is one of the important factors in the success of any team. Even slightest of communication lapse can crop up a misunderstanding among the team members. Thus frequent meeting need to be conducted to discuss any topics which can mushroom controversies in future. Performing Performing teams are identified by high levels if independence, motivation, knowledge and competence. Decision making is collaborative and dissent is expected and encouraged as there will be a high level of respect in the communication between team members. The performance of our team was exhibited on the launch of the channel. We'd all done our home work and time had come to showcase it. I always thought that "No Risk No gain" is clich. But when I was assigned to derive the risk assessment for each field my opinion changed. It was just like you were driving a car without brakes. I did my permutation and combinations but only to be scared. I guess we had covered everything be it insurance, security etc but I guess weather was one thing on which I had no control. I'd rely on my luck that it doesn't rain on the day of launch. But I guess expect the unexpected is something that properly fits there. A slight drizzle just before on the day before the launch left me even more perturbed. But that beget the contingency plan. A Contingency Plan describes the consequences to the project if the risk plan fails and the risk actually occurs. In other words, identify what would happen to the project if the future risk turns into a current issue. This helps you ensure that the effort associated with the risk plan is proportional to the potential consequences. For instance, if the consequence of a potential risk occurring is that the project will need to be stopped; this should be a strong indication that the risk plan must be aggressive and comprehensive to ensure that the risk is managed successfully. Criticism is another factor which hold special place in my road to success. Criticism is a byproduct of success. So if somebody dilutes a person's success then criticism would surely be one of it's by product. If taken positive one can only be better. But to handle criticism one needs a lot of motivation. At times when we were not able to locate property in London or zero in on the right candidates for the job all of us were ravenously hungry for motivation. This motivation was imbued to us through the theory of motivation by Maslow theory of motivation. It can be best portrayed as a pyramid. (Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation) All these theories were very useful when brought into practice. The "Pickle and Jar" theory of time management proved to be much better. It only enhanced our efficiency and punctuality. But it was the Tuckman theory which signified our actions in the most unique way. It delineated every minute step that we took towards the launch of Games TV. Last but not the least the theory of Maslow motivated all of us and build mutual respect and admiration for each other. But everything wasn't picture perfect. We had a whole lot of problems to deal. I still feel that we could have solved the premises issue in a more systematic way if we had taken the right guidance. But never the less it was a lovely experience to meet the challenging and resolving them. Word count: 2155words Bibliography: 1. Tom Mochal. June 28, 2005. Availaible: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/successful-pm/avoiding-project-failures-14896 [March 22, 2009] 2. http://www.heartquotes.net/teamwork-quotes.html [march 22, 2009] 3. The Belbin Guide to Succeeding at Work. Book. Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory 4. Jeremy Wright. http://www.alistapart.com/stories/pickle/[march 23, 2009] 5. DeCarvalho, R. J. (1991). The growth hypothesis in psychology: Thehuman psychology of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. San Francisco: EMText. 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs [march 23,2009] 7. http://www.teambuilding.co.uk/Forming_Storming_Norming_Performing.html[march 24, 2009] 8. Tuckman, Bruce. "Developmental sequence in small groups". Psychological Bulletin 63 (6): 384-99. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3954/is_200104/ai_n8943663. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. "Reprinted with permission in Group Facilitation, Spring 2001". 9. ^ A.H. Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50 (1943):370-96. Read More