Organizational Team Development Analysis

Running Head: TEAM DEVELOPMENT SESSION TWO 1

TEAM DEVELOPMENT SESSION TWO 2

Team Development Session Two

Team learning vs. systems thinking

The two disciplines by Senge are important. Team learning involves a team coming together to become productive than they are individual. The aim of this discipline is to align the thoughts and energies of individuals, develop a common goal or direction that resonates with the whole team and achieve more together (Senge, 1990). Having an open line of communication is important in a team. Team learning aims at maintaining a balance between discussion and dialogue. In a discussion, members share their ideas and view to develop a common view while a dialogue involves spending more time listening and adopting someone’s opinion as your own.

System thinking is the fifth discipline that connects all disciplines together. It brings all of Senge’s disciplines together to pursuit a combined body of theory and a mode of practice for the learning organization (Senge, 1990). Systemic thinking shows that every action an individual makes has another action that will follow. Systems thinking look at the whole system rather than breaking it into individual parts. It looks at the interrelationships and patterns.

The schedule and the role of team members

The second team development session involved team managers only. We scheduled the meeting on October 15, 2010 at 11:00 am. The number of expected members in the meeting was five. I will use the initials for anonymity. P is taking over team building. M hires, B is taking over the procurement department, J is taking over public relations, and N is the team leader. M, B, and J will share the role of training new team members.

The purpose of the team development session

We focused on the problem of how our different roles interact with each other and how we can use our personal time, experiences and skills in hiring, recruiting and training new staff to the team.

The chosen discipline

As a team we chose the systems thinking. To optimize our processes, we had to divide our interpersonal connections. We came together as managers and discussed our likes, dislike and the areas we felt needed more attention. This discipline allowed our team to look at the problems that might make the team ineffective. In doing so, it allows us to move from blame to focusing on the desired results. We finally decided that for the work to be fair to all managers there was need to assign roles.

A narrative of the team development experience

After all managers had arrived, we order food and drinks before we began our discussion. This gave us a 45-minutes window to socialize and share our different ideas in an informal set-up. I took notes of what each manager was saying and the areas that seemed to spark a discussion from all managers.  I then ran through the agendas of the meeting which only took 15 minutes because we had been in constant communication, and the food arrived. I took the time to interact with each manager personally as we ate and tried to understand the challenges they were facing in their different roles. After eating, we discussed the agendas and raised other concerns, and came up with solutions. The meeting lasted for three hours and we scheduled our next meeting.

The successful and unsuccessful aspects of the exercise

The successful aspect of this exercise is we discussed all the agendas and came up with solutions to the issue raised. However, the exercise took longer than we had expected because some managers came in 30 minutes late and also we might have spent more time on some agendas.

Lessons learned about facilitation, and planned and unplanned journeys

I learned that as a facilitator it is important to plan and provide the team with the details of the meeting before. This really helped my team as we could work together and come up with great ideas. However, this might not work with another team. Using open-ended questions allows every member of the team to share their opinions and views. This helps create a shared vision. Listening is crucial in facilitating. Facilitating requires listening and sharing ideas, not just standing in front of the group and talking the entire time.

Lessons learned from the chosen discipline

The lesson learned from systems thinking is that we operate in a system where an individual action relates to other actions that follow. Also, when we address a problem within the system, we move away from blame and start focusing on the desired results. 

References

Senge, P., (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday