Assignment:
Question 1 Stephanie Chen is three months into her new position as Chief of Quality Assurance in an Army agency responsible for software systems development. She is getting to know her team and everyone's individual personalities. While it appears many of her team members seem willing to share information with each other, Stephanie has found that in meetings there has been very little sharing of ideas.
In a follow up with several of her team members, Stephanie discovered that the team meetings were often like this, and that they had been for a long time. It seems that this was the culture established by her predecessor, a culture that discouraged free and creative exploration of any type of team issue.
In her most recent team meeting, the discussion was so one-sided with Stephanie doing all of the talking that she felt nothing was accomplished.
What would be an effective way for Stephanie to begin to change her team's reluctance to share their ideas?
a. Begin the meeting with an open-ended question about the project and ask for candid responses.
b. Ask her most senior team member to casually suggest to the other team members that they should share their ideas at the next team meeting.
c. Send out the agenda a day early that includes a time set aside for questions and answers.
d. Have a code of conduct about team meetings on the wall that requires participants to share information.
Question 2 Tomas just left the weekly staff meeting with his boss, Joanne. In the meeting, he received some bad news: his request for additional resources to meet the project timeline was not approved. Joanne made it clear that while she was sympathetic to his situation, she expected Tomas and his team to deliver his products on time and on schedule. She also conveyed her confidence in his ability to keep the team on track.
Tomas now needs to deliver this message to his team at their next meeting. All the reasons that Joanne laid out for the decision made sense, but that won't make it any easier to share with his team.
During the team meeting, how can Tomas best determine if his team has a shared understanding of the situation?
a. By asking for a show of hands.
b. By the number of ideas discussed.
c. By their body language.
d. By the questions they ask about changes to tasks
Question 3 In his last team meeting, Tomas shared the organization's overall priorities and key tasks, as well as his vision for the role of the logistics team for the new maintenance tracking system. His task leads were all willing to take on the challenge of keeping the project on schedule, even without additional resources.
During the past week, it became clear that everyone in the department was working hard to ensure that milestones would be met. However, Tomas was dismayed by some of the comments he heard from some members of the various teams. For example, when he praised one team member for completing a particularly difficult task, the individual said, "Well, we all know our jobs are at stake!"
The most effective way for Tomas to ensure that his entire team understands the "what, why, and how" of the maintenance tracking system project is to
a. Send out an email to the entire team detailing the project objectives.
b. Meet individually with every member of her team to ensure each person understands their role.
c. Have Joanne make a presentation at the next all hands staff meeting to reinforce Tomas's "intent".
d. Ensure that his task leads understand his intent.