The Team That Wasn't

With the development in the glassmaking industry, FireArt, Inc.’s business territory was being invaded. If they did not find a new strategic plan, FireArt would lose its advantage of business. Time was running short and within six months Eric Holt had to make a team out of best employees in the company and change the business situation around for FireArt. Eric quickly formed a team of highly diverse members but good at their own field: Randy Lowerback (director of sales and marketing), Ray LaPierre of manufacturing, Maureen Turner of the design division and Carl Simmons of distribution. They all were the most capable person of what they did but working as a team, there were too many problems arose.
Firstly, there was the lack of a clear goal. Eric had been clearly assigned as the leader of a team. That meant there must be a clearly defined goal for everyone to work toward, positive synergy and accountability between members. They must define what needed to be done in order to achieve their one and only goal, with a clear schedule. Moreover, all team members should share mutual interest in accomplishing the goal.
However, what we saw in this team so far was more of a work group then a work team. Eric had decided only one general goal of restructuring FireArt for the whole team without any more specific plan, schedule or tasks. Within the team, even information was not shared equally as Randy sometimes withdrew vital information for the group debate. All members were gathered from different divisions. Their skills were varied but instead of using those skills in a cohesive and coordinating way toward the overall goal, they concerned more about success in their own field. That was shown in Maureen’s defense for her work and design division over years, the sole focus on Ray’s line of work or Randy in marketing.
We could see that each member worked their own ways without concerning others’ ideas. This revealed the second issue: lack of understanding and acceptance