Team Work on the example of the film Oceans Eleven - Essay Example

Abdul Al-Khalaf Hessa Alnuaimi Essa Al-Maadeed Wesley Shanahan Christian van de Werken Management MGMT 3000-004 Group Project Paper Section I– The Project Ocean’s Eleven - Summary The movie is a remake of the 60’s heist film, The Rat Pack (Flixter Inc., 1). Ocean’s Eleven is about a plan by an ex-convict just released from prison, Danny Ocean, and his ten accomplices to that attempt to carry out one of the biggest heists ever planned in Las Vegas. The group plans to rob the underground vault of the city’s three largest casinos, the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand – which are all owned by Terry Benedict. Coincidentally, Benedict is in the middle of a relationship with Danny’s ex-wife Tess. The movie starts when Danny ventures to meet his old friend Rusty Ryan and tells him about his plan to rob $150 million from the vault. Rusty’s role is that of the assistant project manager who assists Danny in the strategizing of their plan. Together, they recruit nine other men each with their own specialization in the field of crime. To complete the plan, they include a financier (Reuben) who also has a grudge against Terry for closing down his casino. Ocean’s Eleven - Analysis Ocean’s Eleven is an excellent example of the concept of project management. The movie shows the process of planning – from the creation of goals through the satisfaction of accomplishment. The goal was to rob the underground vault of the three largest casinos in Las Vegas. Danny however has an ulterior motive in fabricating the heist – which he never mentioned to his accomplices – he plans to use Benedict’s future actions to win back his ex-wife Tess. This presents a clear ethical and procedural issue in management – no individual’s actions are entirely planned out as to entirely help a group benefit as a whole. Eventually however, the movie shows that even some plans will face complications but these can be overcome. Danny is the project manager who leads the group in the performance of the theft. Danny exemplifies a charismatic leader who is very effective at motivating his ten-man team. His vision was simple, clearly verbalized and understood making it easy for his followers to focus on the job. As a project manager, Danny is observed to be intelligent and confident; thus, he is able to execute his plan well and able to inspire his team. The Path-Goal Theory of Robert House can be applied in the leadership style of Danny. As defined in the theory, “a leader can affect the performance, satisfaction and motivation of a group by offering rewards for achieving performance goals, clarifying paths towards these goals and removing obstacles to performance” (Value Based Management 1). However, the theory also states that the effectiveness of the leader is based on situational factors. The situational factors that affect Danny’s leadership style are the varied personalities of his team and the high-risk environment where they will be working on. The management style of both Danny and Rusty is one of consultation and delegation. They had to delegate the different tasks to their members realizing that it was to the best interest of the project especially with the limited time to prepare for such a large-scale project. Another major management concept presented in the film is the aspect of human resource management specifically in the areas of recruitment and motivation. Rusty was instrumental in the recruitment of the members because of his social network. One observes how the recruitment process was implemented by both Danny and Rusty. They had to pick each member according to their skills, abilities and specializations. Notably, they used emotional appeal to recruit the members. They targeted recruits who were not contented with their lives such as the Malloy Brothers and Basher Tarr. Each group member has his own motivations for joining the team. For example, Rusty’s motivation is the excitement that he will get from the job and his desire for change since he was bored at his ‘day job’ of teaching poker to celebrities. There is a great significance of communication skills in the success of the planned heist. Noteworthy is the communication skills of both Danny and Rusty in convincing each individual in accepting the offer to be part of the team. They were able to manipulate the individual members through the appeal to their emotions and their persuasion skills. An example of this is the manipulation they did towards Reuben who at first did not want to join the plan. Through their skillful approach in communication, they eventually convinced him to be part of the robbery. Another illustration of how effective communication skills can influence people is the way Rusty handled one of the newer members of the team – Linus. He used criticism and sarcasm in communicating with Linus. This eventually succeeded at motivating Linus and building his self-confidence. Aside from human resource and communication management, other areas of management were shown in the film. These areas are scope management, cost management, risk management, procurement management, quality management, time management and integration management (Ajuarelt). Several lessons can be drawn from this analysis. Foremost among these is the importance of communication skills in achieving goals. Working with a diverse group of individuals requires proficient communication skills that are flexible in order to be effective at managing the group. Another lesson that one can gain from the movie is the significance of the role of a leader in the accomplishment of goals. The leader must have the necessary qualities that can motivate and direct its members towards the achievement of their mission. He must be able to hold the group together especially during crucial situations. Learning to delegate tasks among his members is a necessity to ensure the success of the project. He must be able to adjust his leadership style depending on what is called for in a situation. Overall one can say that Ocean’s Eleven is a film that boasts of several lessons in the management of an organization. Section II – The Process Stages We have found that when multiple people have the same goal that they can achieve that goal much easier as a group. We have also found that when someone or multiple people have a different goal that it is much harder to reach that goal as a group. Luckily, throughout the semester it has become apparent that our group members are the first category mentioned, we all have aspirations of earning a good grade on the project at hand. This will become evident as the next few paragraphs explain our group process. We will now discuss the stages of group development that we went through using the team development stages of: Stage One- Forming Stage Two- Storming Stage Three- Norming Stage Four- Performing Stage Five- Adjourning During the forming stage of our group development we introduced ourselves and discussed our objective. First, we exchanged e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. and decided that e-mail would be the preferred form of communication between group members as well as talking before and after scheduled class periods. We then decided on the film Ocean’s Eleven to complete our project on. After we chose the film we divvied up the sections that were required for completion and decided, on a volunteer basis, who would do which parts. During this process different group members roles began to appear such as; the team leaders appeared to be Christian, primarily, and Wes as a secondary. This is not to say that Hessa, Abdul, and Essa were not as active in decision-making, they appeared to have different roles in this particular process. After the sections were split we discussed when we would have our individual sections to each other so that we could continue to progress towards our goal. In our opinion, the stage of storming for our group was rather mild. Given that the tasks were split up as a group and divvied up on a volunteer basis there was no conflict in workload. We also set clear dates, as a group, that our individual work was due to the other members, which avoided conflict in those terms. And lastly, we all seem to be mild tempered and willing to do the work that we decided on, which avoided any conflict in those terms. The third stage of Norming was one of the strongest stages in our development. Our group members understand that the sections and dates that we have agreed to are what’s expected of us and that not coming through is unacceptable. We also understand that as a group we can achieve a better grade if we work together and take constructive criticisms well. These understandings have allowed us to norm well and achieve our goal with little to no conflict. The most apparent example of this stage occurs during the group portions of exams where we are tasked with debating and eventually coming to a consensus on which answer to select that is best reflective of the group. While we are in the performing stage things are going well, we are all working at the goal and haven’t had any problems. The first section of our project that was supposed to be completed by now has been and we have all read over it and are on the right track. Things are going as planned and I believe that we are performing quite well. The final stage is adjourning and although we have not yet reached it, if the other stages have shown anything it’s that it will be a success. As the deadline for this project nears I feel that our adjournment will be a positive one and none of our group members will have negative thoughts of the others. Group Processes Our goals were simple: we wanted to work together to achieve a quality project with very little conflict and low stress. We made this happen by coming to agreements on section length and due dates and we followed this schedule. It worked out well for us because they were, in fact, SMART goals. While doing our project we didn’t really ever have to influence each other to do anything we didn’t want to. We think this is because we used a logical, collaborative approach to accomplish our task. Both of these were effective; we were logical in the sense that if we were to force other group members into roles that they didn’t want to be in, they probably wouldn’t excel in those areas which would negatively affect the outcome of our project and we were collaborative in that we worked together to make sure we accomplished the set goals of the group. An example of this is that a couple of our group members are not comfortable in presenting the material to the class, but the other group members are fine with presenting the material, so, we collaborated to solve this issue in the most appropriate way. A passive or assertive approach would most likely not work to influence our group members to accomplish our goals. Group Decision Making There are two notable decisions that our group made in the process of completing this project: 1. How we divided up the sections of the project 2. When certain sections of the project would be due These decisions were made as a group in the most fair and stress free manner that we could think of. We wanted to give each other enough time to put our individual parts together and have enough time to make it all fit together nicely, as well as, have time to prepare for the presentation. So, first off we divided up the sections in the most equal way we could think of. Some are divided to keep certain information together and some vary in length in relation to our perceived difficulty. This was all done as a group in discussion to make sure everyone agreed that it was fair. We then volunteered to do parts, which was pretty easy because we have them split equally in perceived difficulty. Then, we decided which parts would be due to the other members of the group. We all agreed that Section I would be due on the first of November because it was a reference for the following sections of the project. This was fine with Hessa, who volunteered for that section. We then decided that the entirety of Section II would be due on the eighteenth of November because although it was split between Wes and Abdul, it is a key reference for Section III and the ‘other stuff’ pertaining to the project. Finally, for Section III and the remaining ‘other stuff’ we decided that November 22 was a good date for those sections to be done and it would still give us adequate time to prepare for the presentation. We feel that groupthink wasn’t an issue in our group, although, if someone was just going along with what was said in our meetings it might not have been immediately noticeable. So, each of us know that groupthink did not affect the overall perceptions and actions of the group because we fully agree with how our project was handled and to my understanding. As for decision-making, We feel that the way that we came to agree on our decisions was done in the fairest possible way. We asked for the opinion of every member and then decided on the ideas that were given. Leadership Influence Since the very first day, the group have decided that we elect a group leader and chosen Christian for this position. We started to work in a steadily pace in order to think and complete the task. There certain characteristics that have influenced the group decision of who should be the leader. First, since most of group members are not native speakers it was important to chose a person who is a native speaker. Second, the leader that we have chosen was the person that had the best proposals to end up the process. Third, at the forming process some of us were afraid of the task. Thus, the person who had shaped the first meeting was chosen as a leader by the group. Last but not least, some of the group members waited for someone to speak up about the project and therefore elected him for the leadership position. The leader of our group have used the effective leaders characteristics in the best way. To begin with, he had inspired a share vision with all of the group members. He started by explaining the overall goal which is finishing this project, and learn how to work in a group. Then, sketching a plan of what to do and when to do it to meet our chosen goal. Thus, all members in the group had a shared vision of what is needed to reach the goal. Moreover, he had enabled the other to act in different ways. First, choosing deadlines and what is suitable for all of us. Second, flexibility in the working process by providing help when it is needed in an individual based part of the overall process. Furthermore, our leader had modeled the way for the group. He was working as a part of the group not as a boss who looks after mistakes. He had listen to our suggestions. Also, he shared the power of decision making process with all of us. Last but not least, he had encouraged our heart. A good example of that is when all group members had forgotten that we need to deliver a paper in the class, and only Wes have done the whole paper on behalf of the group. Wes had save day for our group and the leader of the group had complimented that act. This example had encouraged every one of us to focus more on the mission and finish it in a perfect way. Therefore, group members had finished their parts before due dates because they felt comfortable working together. Encouraging the hurt of group members is hard, but it shows the benefits on the group work and it is important for leaders to have such power to do it. I think that having a leader in a self-managed team is very important for many reasons. One, leaders can assign tasks to group members and chose whom to do a certain task. Two, leaders can make plans of when to do things and how to do them. Which is one of the most important things in group work. Three, listening to group members and discuss their idea is important. Four, complimenting on personal acts is energizing other members within a team to act in what is the best for the group. Group Communication Since the very first day, we had agreed on using electronic means we needed outside the class room. E-mail and phone calls were the two best way for us to communicate outside our regular meeting time. When any person had a question, they simply uses the e-mail to contact group members regarding that issue or question. We also had meetings in the class to discuss the process of the project, question about certain things, and decision making of what to do and when. Thus, our group had used all of the available resources to complete this task before the deadline. Section III – Conclusions With the help of the movie we come to a conclusion that team work when done effectively can lead to a lot of success. The process of decision making is extremely important and every member must be in unison when it comes to decision making, usually good decisions are made when the team members are all in unison but at times it is just not plausible but even if it is not plausible the team leader must convince each member of the group and a unanimous decision must be made. Communication is another very important factor, each member in a group must communicate and communication must always be a two way process. The team leader must pass on instructions but he must also be made aware of the difficulties the other team members might be facing so it is always very important to have two way communication to be really successful working in a team. To conclude it is very fair to say that a lot can be learned from Oceans Eleven and every budding manager must watch the movie and try and learn all the positives from it and it does not stop there, after learning the knowledge must be put into practice to see the outcome. Decision making and communication remain the most important areas when working as a team and every successful team leader effectively takes care of the two of them. Sources Consulted Ajuarelt. Project Management: Oceans Style. 7 March 2011. 27 October 2011. . Flixter, Inc. "Oceans Eleven (2001)." n.d. Rotten Tomatoes Web site. 27 October 2011 . House, Robert J. "A Path Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness." Administrative Science Quarterly 16.3 (1971): 321-39. EBSCOhost. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. Value Based Management. "Path-goal Theory - Robert House." 2011. Value-based management.net. 27 October 2011 . Read More