Case 4: Overhead Reduction Task Force
At one point or another, everyone has been placed in a group of people and assigned a task that needed to be accomplished. Many of these groups are simply that, a group. The task that many fail to see as the number one objective of the group is to foster a teamwork by actually transforming the group to a cohesive team. The idea sounds fairly simple and transparent, "If everyone works together, we have a team!" This could not be farther from the truth. Teamwork is not merely the ability to work together to get from point A to B. The Overhead Reduction Task Force is a case that exhibits this strong need to build a team in order to be the most effective in achieving goals. The group that has been assembled for Larry Williams to lead has many internal issues but also many opportunities for growth. To properly analyze this case, the initial meetings with both Georgia Dixon and the task force members needs to determined followed by predictions on how the first week of the task force went.
The meeting with Dixon is crucial for Larry to establish clear and concise goals for himself and his future team. Through this meeting, Larry must also determine Dixon's position on the manner and assess to what extent she will be involved with the team. From the information provided in the case, it is clear that Dixon is essentially "dumping" this task on Larry and that she will not even be present for the first two weeks of the task force. From this, Larry has limited options on how to approach Dixon. Larry needs to identify from Dixon what the possible rewards are for success and consequences for failure are. From the additional information provided, Larry correctly approached Dixon in a manner that lead to the ability for Larry to use the upward appeal approach in influence tactics [Ch. 8]. By convincing Dixon to talk with the group initially,