Group Dynamics
When you are involved in a group, it is pretty common that you face some conflicts or situations that you have to deal with. Group dynamics may sound simple theoretically, but in reality, it is hard to cooperate each other without having any trouble. People feel and think differently and I think people's way of thinking and acting make conflicts in a group. To give out one example, I wrote about my experience of facing a conflict in a group.
This semester, I am working as an intern/consultant of the company based in Chicago. Our job is to provide business consulting to real client and we have divided our teams into two groups. Each team has 3 consultants and 1 project manager and there is Program manager who are in charge of taking care of the overall intern program and project. Each team are given different business consulting jobs and our team was given a business consulting of video editing company. I will name consultants in my team Tom and Allie. Allie, Tom, and I would harmonize well since the group interview (Us three were in same group during interview) and our working styles were similar, which is help each other, not compete each other. After group interview, our project manager thought that we will be a good team together, so we were assigned to the same group. Our first consulting project was video editing company's consulting on strategies to enter the U.S. market. We divided up our parts and started our research process. I and Allie had to research about video market, video editing market, horizontal analysis, and some operations to suggest. Tom was given parts about comparison analysis and channel marketing operation. We did research and gathered all the informations into google docs, but Tom was always late to post his research results. It is very important to get to know each other's parts and go on to the next step in business consulting but I and Allie had a hard time to start other research because we didn't get Tom's research. He kind of made an excuse that he was busy because of homework and studying for an exam. But you know what? I am taking a same class with him and I have a same test as he have! I had less time to sleep and spent my time on research and studying for an exam. But our project manager said let's keep it down this matter and see how it's going.
We all somehow managed to finish research process and started to make powerpoint for presentation. Of course we made powerpoint slides for each parts we are assigned. Each of us had 3~4 slides to make, but Tom seemed to have a hard time making powerpoint slides. It is the first time to make consulting powerpoint slides for Tom and me, and I understand it is very hard and strict to make them. But he just made a rough draft and handed over to the manager. Allie wanted to help out Tom because she had an experience of making business consulting slides before. But Tom just wanted Allie to make his powerpoint slides instead of willing to get help. He also was getting too much stress during making powerpoint slides and later on, he didn't want to put efforts and time into intern program. Our project manager and program manager recognized this serious problem, they tried to talk to Tom and gave some advices. They told Tom that "It is a hard and tough thing for you, but we are here to help you and you will learn and develop yourself after this project." After Tom talked with them, he seemed to regret that he put off works and looked like he decided to work hard till the end of the project. Gladly, he put some efforts and time into the project and we were able to present the slides successfully.
It would be great if that was the end of conflict, but we faced, no we are facing some other problems now. The final project we are working on right now is consulting for Korean logistics company's to enter the U.S. market. We divided our parts again and we are now in process of research again. Tom has been given parts about block chain and its applicability to the company. It is a very hard project that we have to deal with SCM and new technology. I have no experience or background with these stuffs and so as Tom and Allie. Because we don't have much knowledge to start business consulting, we decided to research about the company, logistics, SCM, block chain and other technologies in logistics. After vast amount of research, we gathered to discuss what each of us have found, and Tom brought some information that he was not assigned to. Also, sometimes when we have a meeting, he suddenly disappears to pick up phone calls. Our project manager was mad at him but he could not scold at him in his face. Project manager talked to program manager and they discussed about the problem that Tom is making. They decided to talk to Tom again and give him warning that if he behaves like this, he would not have a chance to be promoted as a program manager next semester. We didn't have a meeting after they talked to Tom, but we'll see how it's going. I think this problems should not be repeatable and it could be somewhat inevitable if he had a will to successfully finish the project and to learn how to do a good consulting.
This semester, I am working as an intern/consultant of the company based in Chicago. Our job is to provide business consulting to real client and we have divided our teams into two groups. Each team has 3 consultants and 1 project manager and there is Program manager who are in charge of taking care of the overall intern program and project. Each team are given different business consulting jobs and our team was given a business consulting of video editing company. I will name consultants in my team Tom and Allie. Allie, Tom, and I would harmonize well since the group interview (Us three were in same group during interview) and our working styles were similar, which is help each other, not compete each other. After group interview, our project manager thought that we will be a good team together, so we were assigned to the same group. Our first consulting project was video editing company's consulting on strategies to enter the U.S. market. We divided up our parts and started our research process. I and Allie had to research about video market, video editing market, horizontal analysis, and some operations to suggest. Tom was given parts about comparison analysis and channel marketing operation. We did research and gathered all the informations into google docs, but Tom was always late to post his research results. It is very important to get to know each other's parts and go on to the next step in business consulting but I and Allie had a hard time to start other research because we didn't get Tom's research. He kind of made an excuse that he was busy because of homework and studying for an exam. But you know what? I am taking a same class with him and I have a same test as he have! I had less time to sleep and spent my time on research and studying for an exam. But our project manager said let's keep it down this matter and see how it's going.
We all somehow managed to finish research process and started to make powerpoint for presentation. Of course we made powerpoint slides for each parts we are assigned. Each of us had 3~4 slides to make, but Tom seemed to have a hard time making powerpoint slides. It is the first time to make consulting powerpoint slides for Tom and me, and I understand it is very hard and strict to make them. But he just made a rough draft and handed over to the manager. Allie wanted to help out Tom because she had an experience of making business consulting slides before. But Tom just wanted Allie to make his powerpoint slides instead of willing to get help. He also was getting too much stress during making powerpoint slides and later on, he didn't want to put efforts and time into intern program. Our project manager and program manager recognized this serious problem, they tried to talk to Tom and gave some advices. They told Tom that "It is a hard and tough thing for you, but we are here to help you and you will learn and develop yourself after this project." After Tom talked with them, he seemed to regret that he put off works and looked like he decided to work hard till the end of the project. Gladly, he put some efforts and time into the project and we were able to present the slides successfully.
It would be great if that was the end of conflict, but we faced, no we are facing some other problems now. The final project we are working on right now is consulting for Korean logistics company's to enter the U.S. market. We divided our parts again and we are now in process of research again. Tom has been given parts about block chain and its applicability to the company. It is a very hard project that we have to deal with SCM and new technology. I have no experience or background with these stuffs and so as Tom and Allie. Because we don't have much knowledge to start business consulting, we decided to research about the company, logistics, SCM, block chain and other technologies in logistics. After vast amount of research, we gathered to discuss what each of us have found, and Tom brought some information that he was not assigned to. Also, sometimes when we have a meeting, he suddenly disappears to pick up phone calls. Our project manager was mad at him but he could not scold at him in his face. Project manager talked to program manager and they discussed about the problem that Tom is making. They decided to talk to Tom again and give him warning that if he behaves like this, he would not have a chance to be promoted as a program manager next semester. We didn't have a meeting after they talked to Tom, but we'll see how it's going. I think this problems should not be repeatable and it could be somewhat inevitable if he had a will to successfully finish the project and to learn how to do a good consulting.
The way you told this story it sounded like Tom has something else going on - either business or personal - and that was interfering with his completing the work for your group. If that's right, in the case that is was some other business obligation he should have been presented with an ultimatum, give up this other work or quit the consulting that you were part of, since he was apparently over obligated and hence under performing. If there was some personal issue, that might be a different story, and handled with some delicacy, depending on what the situation actually was.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder whether you got any training to do the work you were assigned. It sounded like you had to figure out how to do things on your own. So maybe some of the answer is to have given you some training up front (before the consulting started) so you could better complete the work. Making PowerPoint slides for business presentations, for example, is something that can be taught.
After our director talked to him, he is just struggling with the materials we are dealing with in consulting. He does not have any background information and he just doesn't know what to do. He might have other personal issue but he doesn't talk about it so I would never know what is going on with him.
DeleteWe got 4 weeks of training before we began the project. But since 4 weeks are not enough time to completely understand and apply what we have learned, we have to study and learn by ourselves while doing the project. Our manager is helping with making business powerpoint slides but he can't make all of them for us. So it is a battle against myself.