Henry Tam & The MGI Team

Lack of communication (mutual interaction) and dearth of reciprocal influence becomes evident as we go through the case. Also, Team members shared limited information which

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

The root cause of MGI’s process problems are a lack of direction and clear personal responsibilities. When looking at the team meetings it is very clear that there was little organization to their efforts. It also seemed as though there was not sufficient purpose to the team’s efforts. Many members were more interested in validating their ideas on what to do to others rather than exchanging ideas or creating an open environment. Quiet often there would be time spent on one topic, then another, then more and more without resolving the first topic. The arguments between Sasha and Dana, the HBS students and the musicians, and

Teams have become very common and effective since they have proven to be effective in areas as cost reduction, developing new and innovative products, and improving quality (Effective Human relation, 2008). Team development is supported, in fact, required by almost all managements today, but still it may take quite a long time for the members to learn the task and activities and to fit themselves in the particular environment. Team work may vary as the organization or company varies. Team work involves a lot of important aspects such as relationships, cooperation, learning, leadership etc. since a team works together in

We have to evaluate the performance of a distinctly diverse team aiming to create a business plan for MGI’s “Music Puzzle” Game to enter the HBS contest. The team comprised of MGI founders, Sasha, Igor and Roman, two HBS students Henry and Dana and subject matter experts Alex and Dav. In addition, we have to recommend actions for Henry Tam, which would foster better team dynamics to accomplish the task at hand.

Clear responsibilities and roles, the structure of the team, job descriptions, competencies, accountabilities, resources, tools and equipment should all be provided. Problem solving, communicating, managing conflicts, tasks, planning meetings, performance evaluation, managing change and decision making should follow clear procedures ensuring effective team working. Positive relationships, mutual respect and trust, continuing support and inclusion, valuing diversity and listening to feedback can overcome challenges to effective team performance. A strong credible leader with clear expectations can also overcome challenges to an effective team.

However, diversity of the group is not managed properly and conflicts are not handled effectively because of poor communication. There is a serious degree of trust problem in the team. For example, Merz has not much confidence in team members’ competence and she is not believing in their ability to deliver the product. Therefore, we can’t talk about a team efficacy for this team. Everyone asserts his/her expertise and experience but no one regards and trust each other’s. Lastly evaluation system of performance of the employees is a serious problem. While they were working both in the project and in their functional areas, they were evaluated only on the basis of performance on their functional area. This situation definitely destroys motivation of the team.

This type of dysfunctional operation of an organization has many ways and opportunities for failure. The basic fundamentals of this process are the beginnings of failure as groups seek conformity and unity they sacrifice everything in order to maintain peace within the group. Many times this will take the individuals creative thoughts and ability to voice the creative edge thinking away. In many organizations this is a process that is continually used. It is perceived that management wants the organizations operation or process to run without any type of question or waves. Below are listed eight of the main symptoms of group think as detailed by Janis, I. L & Manns book “Decision making”

Increasing communication – team have to meet as often as possible to discuss issues of concern. Team has to clearly define methods and channels of communication to ensure that the right information is available at the right time, in the right form through the right channel for effective use and feed backs give timely.

Lack of commitment – Team members never buy it to the decisions due to their opinions never truly being heard.

MGI’s team has diverse talents: Igor and Roman are accomplished musicians. Sasha has a keen business and finance acumen, Alex has substantial experience in music and business, Dav is software developer and an MBA student at MIT, Dana is a finance and banking major and currently a HBS MBA grad while Henry is an investment banker, has experience in business development and is currently also an HBS MBA graduate student. MGI’s product is a critical success but a commercial failure. The founders wish to market it as a game while the student team believes it should be used as an

Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.

Generally, the team dynamics are good and the team works well together since the members know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Looking at the team from the context of Tuckman’s model of team development, I believe that the team is past the forming, storming, and norming stages, and we are now at the performing phase. The performing stage is usually characterized with optimal task attainment and a high level of cohesion, collaboration, and communication as well as genuine pride in the successes of the team (Management training Australia, 2015). Everyone within the team is strategically aware and understands what the team is doing and what is expected of them. The leader delegates activities with minimum supervision and members within the team look after one another. Although disagreements may arise every now and then, the team is now mature enough to attend to such disagreements and solve them in a positive way. The following are the team members;

Do you have what it takes to enter the annual Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest? Vison, ideas and concepts are great in theory but are ineffective unless you execute them. This case study shows the struggles of the reality three young entrepreneurs faced when they were trying to build a product. It shows the difficulties in forming a team and most importantly turning an idea into reality. The lack of leadership, communication, clash of cultures and individuals

Levin (2005) suggests that the idea of a team is to share the same objectives. This may not always be the case if team members have never met before and are not fully clear of the task set. This can lead to confusion between members and may mean that some team members are unwilling to be told by their peers what to do. This is an example on ineffective team work.