Case Study: Raygen Company
Raygen Company is a global professional services firm that provides consulting services to its clients. One key to Raygen’s success is its innovative marketing strategies. Three years ago, the SVP of marketing formed a crossfunctional virtual team made up of ten geographically dispersed employees from marketing, sales, consulting, and finance. Throughout this three-year period, the team was extremely successful in generating and implementing new marketing strategies. However, it appears as though the team has hit a plateau in terms of its performance. Both the quality and the timeliness of the team’s deliverables seem to have declined over the past several months. While performance isn’t currently below standard, it is mediocre— something that this team never seemed to tolerate in the past. Ted Jones, the current team leader, has announced that he will be leaving the organization next month and has asked that you step in, at least on an interim basis, to fill his role. In addition to describing the team’s current performance issues, Ted explains that its members are busy with other job responsibilities and do not seem to be fully engaged with the team. In order to prepare for your new leadership role, you’ll be meeting with Ted to review your initial ideas for enhancing the team’s performance. What ideas do you have?
Evaluating Your Response Check each of the factors listed below that you considered as possible solutions:
Conduct a face-to-face (ideally) or telephone interview with each team member to solicit their opinions on what factors are currently supporting or inhibiting teamwork.
Distribute a brief, anonymous survey to all team members to collect data on what factors support or inhibit team work— summarize data and distribute it to team members to facilitate a discussion around key strengths and areas for improvement.
Solicit input from team members about how to measure and monitor progress against goals (ideally during a face-to-face meeting). Review and prioritize shared goals with the team.
Clarify performance expectations for each team member.
Ensure individual goals and priorities are aligned with team goals and supported by all team members.
Acknowledge the team’s track record for success and express confidence that performance will improve in the future.
Review how team and individual performance are being recognized and rewarded to ensure alignment with desired behaviors.
Proactively manage the change associated with a new team leader— create forums for team members to express their concerns, ask questions, and share information.
Reference
Lepsinger, Richard, and Darleen DeRosa. Virtual Team Success : A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance, Center for Creative Leadership, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=589145.