Addressing Challenges of Groups and Teams Toni McCauley Annette Davis Chantel Martin University of Phoenix LDR/531

Addressing Challenges of Groups and Teams Leading groups and teams can be a challenge with itself. It takes a fair degree of influence, planning, and motivation to keep the group working together on a common goal. When the group is given a task it is important to have clear objectives and a solid plan of how those objectives will be obtained. In this paper Team B will set up a plan to implement the operational changes set forth by Desert Communications. Presenting and training for the change Due to the Desert’s declining communications market they have decided to add additional services to boost their profits. Some of the new services will include phone insurance, additional minutes, and road side service. There will be a meeting to present the proposed changes to the team. Management wants to make sure the team understands the objectives and is fully committed to the project. Group performance will be higher when its members are highly motivated to attain shared objectives (Yukl, 2010, p. 338). Because there are employees that perform various jobs the leader must make sure the task given to each employee fits their job description. Doing this will ensure the employee has the skills needed to perform the task as planned. There are various positions within the Desert Communication organization. Some of those positions include customer support, service inquiries, as well as the billing department. The success of the new changes is dependent on making sure that each department is properly trained on their aspect of the project. There will be incentives given to employees who obtain a certain number of sells for each new service offered. This usually keeps the team motivated when there is a reward for their hard work. The customer support team should be trained to offer services to the customer that will enhance the services he or she currently has. They can almost guarantee a sell when they are thorough on how the added service would be a benefit and would save the customer money in the long run. There will be training for the collective group as well individual training for each specific position. (Chantel we need a heading for your part) Collaboration among the employees and management that will affect the success of the operational change would be the six ISA objectives. The ISA objectives break down the process of good communication internal as well as external for the company’s best interest. The objectives include: Learning, leaning, leveraging, linking, leaping, and locking out (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, & Ghoshal, 2003). Each objective gives details on to learn the different aspects to change and what is needed to be successful in that change (see attachment A). Desert Communication has the cliental as well as the resources to grow therefore, more networking and integrating has to be implemented. This is why Desert Communication will start with the ISA objectives. Although there will be negative aspects as well as the positive, but the company should be willing take that risk. The company has contracts from different large organizations such as, AT&T, Cricket Communications, and Bechtel, which are world-wide organizations known for the success of the organization and products. Following 24/7 emergency support that most companies in their industry may not have such as, microwave outages, cell site on wheels (COW) with generator (High Desert Communications, 2013). Therefore, the employees and management will have to work together in work teams as well as work groups to form structure on how to get the information to consumers. Make sure every call or memo that is generated can and will boost the reasons why consumers should continue or start business with Desert Communications. Management will use the work groups to research information and resources according to their responsibility and individual contributions. The information and resources will be added to information that will be displayed by the work teams. The work teams will collectively perform networking to acquire a positive outlook for the operational change.

References
Mintzberg, H., Lampel, J., Quinn, J.B., & Ghoshal, S. (2003). The strategy process:
Concepts, contexts, cases (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Retrieved from www.highdesertcommunications.net
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Teams and Groups. In Leadership in Organizations (Seventh ed., pp. 332 - 367). Prentice Hall.