Team_Communication_and_Decision_MakingAfter_reviewing_the_team_as_a

Team Communication and Decision Making

After reviewing the team as a whole, it’s fairly evident that they are a team with a high emotional intelligence and cohesion amongst one another. Having to all share one big room and work in such close proximity to each other has created a very relaxed, comfortable, friendly and trusting atmosphere between the team. They’re in an environment with a lot of face to face communication, from yelling across the room at one another to ask questions, to peeking over their cubicles to have a conversation. This creates an adverse positive effect, since everyone can hear what’s being said across the room, they’re able to add input that normally would have been left unheard. This effect promotes a lot of collaboration among the team, and allows each member to use their specific strengths and resources to help one another.

This casual, comfortable, and open atmosphere that has become the culture and norm of the team, also translates into their meetings and the company as a whole. Meetings are only called when there’s a specific issue at hand, like implementing a new computer system, and the issues are more grey than they are black and white. The team or those involved are notified beforehand to allow time to prepare to discuss the proposed issue. The meetings themselves are very much an open forum, if someone has something to say they can say it. This holds true even when higher ups are in attendance, like the president or CEO. Being that the company isn’t necessarily run as a hierarchy adds to the collaborative atmosphere among the team. To avoid groupthink while discussing the issues at hand, they often play devil’s advocate with one another to foster new and creative ideas.

The ability to come up with new and creative solutions is imperative to the team, and the company as a whole. The decisions that the team makes affects entire timeline of the product, including the development and distribution of the garment. Depending on their decisions, time can either be added or taken away from the timeline. One of their goals as a team is to get their product commercialized and on the market as quickly and efficiently as possible as to meet customer demands. If the designs aren’t approved on time, deliveries to the customers are late, which inevitably lowers customers expectation of the company. It’s crucial for the team to make timely decisions and keep the ball rolling. As a team, they depend on each other to give feedback and be a pair of fresh eyes on a product to help ensure that deadlines are met.

If deadlines aren’t met, or a product is believed to be less than satisfactory, then the team doesn’t feel as if it has succeeded. Their goal and idea of success is to create a great technical package that they can send off to their factories and communicate clearly to them what it’s supposed to be. If they don’t accomplish this, they evaluate where they went wrong through problem solving and figuring out how to better communicate with the various factories.

With that being said, they do have performance appraisals as a team. They begin by doing their own personal self evaluations, to which they turn into their manager. Their manager proceeds to do their own appraisals of the team, which they then pass off to their manager. From there they are all evaluated and the feedback trickles back down to the team. Although their performance is appraised amongst themselves and the managers, the team does not currently provide performance appraisal feedback on one another. The team is lucky to receive as much feedback as they do on their performance, as many departments and teams in the company still don’t have any performance appraisals at all.

Overall, this particular team within 5.11 has a great sense of team cohesion and emotional intelligence. Their close proximity and culture brings about an atmosphere of trust, comfort, openness, and collaboration among one another that allows them to be enthusiastic and excited about their work.

Internal Company Environmental Analysis

The M11 Messier Project Helmet was launched in 2009 by cascade sports in collaboration with hockey icon Mark Messier. The goal was to launch an awareness campaign to assess the seriousness of head injuries and concussion through innovative product development. The idea for the helmet was created by Messier and engineered by Cascade Sports who are touted as being the leaders in head protection. The M11 helmet has been proven to absorb more energy from high impact linear forces than other premium helmets. These linear impacts are directly related to concussions in sports such as hockey and with Cascade Sports’ revolutionary Seven Technology, it provides maximum protection. Most helmets have Expanded Polypropylene foam(EPP) which takes a while to recover to absorb impact again, while the Seven Technology retracts in seconds after impact. Cascade Sports’ Seven Technology is a revolutionary liner system using an impact attenuation system to more effectively control energy transfer from direct impact.

The helmet’s reputation is growing fast spanning across all hockey leagues in North-America. Nine National Hockey League (NHL) players currently sport the M11, along with teams in American Hockey League (AHL), East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The Messier Project also extends is brand to Canadian College Hockey, NCAA division schools, twenty-four Preparation Hockey School teams, high school and youth hockey programs and official sponsorship in Junior Hockey programs.

The product website offers the customization of the M11 helmet in various colors for the outer shell and the air vents, allowing your helmet to match the colors of your team’s apparel. The M11 features ProFit technology, which is a contour system that creates a 360° degree fit. Positioned just below the occipital lobe, the ProFit draws the helmet in and around the head to eliminate pressure points and ensure a snug fit to help keep the helmet on. A 15-point micro-adjustment system that requires no tools, the ProFit allows players to easily adjust the fit until it is secure.

In a online review, the M11 received top marks for fit and feel. It was noted that the ProFit strap does take away from the look and in the future should be hidden to improve the look. It was also stated the helmet was of average weight and was a bit bigger than average, so if you took a size medium in other helmets you would take probably a small in the M11(HockeyUs.com). The helmet has the suggested retail price in The United States of $119.99 and $139.99 for the combo (helmet + cage). In Canada the suggested retail price $139.99 and $159.99 for the combo (helmet + cage).

Macro-environmental Analysis

When it comes to macroenvironment, demographic, economic, and technological forces affect the demand in the product category of hockey helmets.

Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statistics (Principles of marketing 2011). This field has major implications in the hockey helmet industry. A child can begin playing hockey as early as age 3 and continue playing in various leagues and associations until their body physically cannot play anymore. At the age of 12, children are allowed to participate in body-checking; the act in which one player uses their body to separate the opposing player from the puck. This is an important age for all the brands in the hockey helmet product category to be aware of, as it is at this age and older when the issue of concussion and head related injuries becomes prevalent. With the increased awareness of the devastating effects of these injuries starting at this age, the demand of a strong, protective and durable hockey helmet also increases. Companies in this category should also not ignore the change in relative family size. Families are having fewer kids and in turn these kids are getting what they want more often. The demand that comes with this is most certainly positive; consumers in this age category are more likely to buy a safer and more protective helmet.

Economic forces are also a huge contributor to the demand for all the brands in the hockey helmet industry. The economic environment deals with consumer buying power and spending patterns (Principles of Marketing 2011). These forces are important when it comes to identifying the percentage of consumers in the target market who have the purchasing power to buy a hockey helmet. While children and teenagers represent a large chunk of hockey players in Canada, most of these individuals do not have the disposable income to purchase a hockey helmet. Therefore, companies must direct advertising on the parents of these children as well as middle-aged and adult hockey players to effectively reach their target market. The influence on demand that is created by economic forces can be either positive or negative. If a particular brand in the hockey helmet industry chooses to direct marketing towards the consumers that have the purchasing power to spend on their product, demand could increase. If a brand chooses to ignore economic forces, demand could be affected negatively.

Technological changes are one of the driving forces in the hockey helmet industry. Every brand in this industry wants to introduce the newest, safest, and most effective helmet. Even the market leader could lose a great chunk of its market share if consumers realize that a better helmet had been introduced to the market. A brand would be foolish to ignore innovations to its products as well. Demand for new technology is the higher now than it has ever been. Companies that continue to make their product better have a significantly better chance of increasing the demand for their particular brand. Once again, firms must be weary when dealing with the technological environment. Incorporating technological change is a definite strength for a particular brand, while not implementing new technologies is a sure weakness.

Organizational Context

The 5.11 Tactical Series Technical Design Team is a team of individuals that work exclusively on the technical specifications of the products that 5.11 produces. The team’s members then divide the product lines into two sets of divisions, hard lines and apparel, and then divide those into subsections between each other so that a certain individual in the team works specifically on a certain product group. The team’s position in the larger picture of the organization is that they take a product design that has come down through the proper channels and creates a “blueprint,” or technical specifications, for the product and sends that to the manufacturer. After a manufacturer creates a prototype which is then returned to the technical design team to “tear it apart,” this means that they actually try to tear apart the product and look for faults in its design and try to rectify any that they may find. While in this process the team looks to verify the durability, the seams are stitched a proper way, and other quality control issues that may arise. This process ensures that their company is able to provide the best quality of products to the end consumers.

The technical design team has been a working progress for the last few years acquiring their latest member back in August of 2011. Their dependence upon each other though has been strong throughout. Speaking with them they shared with us about how their tasks makes and allows them to depend on each other for information and support even when it is out of their normal scope. For example they have certain individuals that work mainly on the women’s line of clothing that needs to depend on others that work on the men’s line as well as the outerwear and boots. Their dependence upon each other has strongly aided to their cohesion based upon the free flow of information from member to member and the strength and amount of communication that is needed in their daily tasks.

Each member on the team processes their own strengths that vary from the other members and that adds to the total strength of the team. As stated prior they depend heavily on each other’s strengths so that the overall goal of the team will be achieved and measured as a success for them and the company. Getting products from idea into development and finally to manufacturing is their ultimate goal of the team and the quicker this happens the better the measure of success for them. The team does depend highly on the collaboration of the unit and the company. Having collaboration and enthusiasm for the products and the goals of the company heavily aides into the teams overall success as well. The team also feels that they have benefited heavily from the pool of information and the bouncing of ideas off of each other. The collaboration levels for this team are viewed by all members at high levels and appreciated by them all as well.

Lives depend on the quality and the durability of their products. With that idea in mind the organization and the team align their goals mainly on the quality of the products that are distributed. As the team told us without the high quality of the products those products would not have a sustainable market, and without that the company’s profitability would then suffer. As far as the overall picture the team feels that they fit into the middle ground between the organization and the manufacturer. They are able to take the idea of the product that is approved of and designed as they play the go between roles to the manufacturer. They do this by developing the technical specifications that are needed by the manufacturers and also rechecking the quality of the finished product that is essential to the success of the organization.

The organization itself though allows this team to work very independently and fluidly. They feel that the autonomy and “all hands on deck” atmosphere there allow them to accomplish more. Yet their specialty also creates a buffer so that anyone who does share their skill sets would normally already be on their team because of the specificity, which then no one else in the organization could really be brought in and all new members would most likely be external or referral from prior experiences. The team also enjoys the family oriented and more coworker involved activities. Being all transplants into the Modesto area helped them create a bond between each other and which in turn helped strengthen their team dynamic.

Team Design/Structure

5.11 is a fairly new company that is constantly evolving. The tactical design team has a simple yet very cohesive design structure. They have a great team dynamic but they weren’t chosen as a team initially. It started as a three person team and then two years ago upper management decided the hierarchy was too flat and brought in department managers. During this time an additional member was brought in from another location. In most teams the manager comes first but for 5.11 the manger was the last addition. Coming in last, Wendy (team manager) wanted to be a part of the team and not just a manager. She didn’t want to create conflict or change the way they were already doing things. As a team they talked about what was necessary for their success and made changes accordingly. Wendy’s management style has created a sense of loyalty, facilitates open communication, influenced higher moral and commitment amongst the team members.

Diversity amongst teams is important and necessary, but too much can cause problems. 5.11 is a growing company with client worldwide. They are fortunate to have both diversity in training and skills as well as personalities and demographics. These types of diversity can lead to functional and dysfunctional conflicts which can both be healthy to an extent. Each team member has a different specific skill set and have come from different places around the world. Having a diverse team when creating products they are able to have a wider range of ideas and views which helps them to prevent groupthink.

They are categorized as a self-managing or self-regulating team. They are primarily separate from the other departments. They are very autonomous and are responsible for managing how they will achieve their goals and meet deadlines. Although each individual has different expertise and strengths their work is very interdependent. When creating a garment they each work separately and once the item is complete they come together to critique and make sure it’s ready for the client. Their work is very tactical in nature but problem-solving and creativity both play important roles as well. For example, when they are asked by a client to create a hidden pocket or special buckle on a garment, creativity comes into play because the solutions aren’t always obvious. Alternately, they have to send the garments out to be put together and when the garments are returned, the team collectively and critically goes through it to assure it meets all specifications and functions as needed. If the garment doesn’t meet the standards they must put on their problem-solving hats to figure out how or what needs to be fixed and or adjusted.

5.11 is a very family oriented company and functions well internally. They spend lots of time together including holiday events. The team members come from different locations so they have become each other’s social network. They are a small and productive team but admit that have more hands would be beneficial to productivity. When it comes to recruitment, the design team takes it very seriously and makes it a collective effort. The work they do requires specific skills and recruiting is a major factor. Networking is a tool that the team uses faithfully because it allows them to find someone that would be a good fit for the team. They find that referencing someone they have previously worked with guarantees their skills, knowledge and abilities. In the recruitment process, Wendy prefers to make it group effort since all work so closely together.

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