Small Team or Group Experience Paper

A team is a coordinated group of people organized to work together to achieve a specific, common goal (Beebe, Beebe & Ivy (2013). I am in a small re-promote team that goes to different stores in Murphy USA (my employer) in the Houston area to re-promote the stores that need to boost their sales. We also go to help with the opening of new stores. We have raffles for customers to win different prizes, games for children to play, and we serve hot dogs, nachos, and drinks to the customers for free. We also will lower our gas price lower than our competitor’s for as long as the re-promote lasts (4 hours) to bring in current and potential customers. There are about 10 members on the team. We all have assigned duties and positions that we perform when we go to the different stores. Teams have a strong sense of purpose and a well-structured, clear, and coordinated plan to achieve the goals of the team, without a clear goal, teams will falter (Beebe, Beebe & Ivy (2013).
When we first started the team the district managers for the area chose the managers that would be the most efficient on the team. The first couple of re-promotes were a little challenging because the team didn’t understand that this was still considered a work day and not a socializing day among their peers. The employees wanted to stand around and have conversations with each other instead of helping the customers. When they we told to hold the conversations until later they were not very happy and showed their displeasure. When it was time for the next re-promote we had a meeting with the team and explained to them we were there for the customers to let them know we appreciate them for being loyal customers. We assigned all team members a certain job and it was their responsibility to make sure they were there to service any customers that came to their tent. Once we set the rules and expectations everyone’s attitude changed and we all became one. We wanted all the re-promotes from that day forward to be