Questions and answers framework

¶ … Lopez's description, the teams at ICU Medical Inc. were both autonomous and responsible for making a variety of decisions. As Lopez asked the teams to come up with ideas, the teams were unified and motivated, all working together toward a common goal. Furthermore, Lopez's requirements gave the group a clear sense of direction, allowing them proper organization. Finally, the groups expressed characteristics of both universal participation and leadership as they were asked to elect leaders through a democratic process. As Lopez noted, this model -- giving groups the power to make many decisions on their own -- has both advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages have to do primarily with organizational skills. As Lopez recalled, the teams had trouble providing ideas when they did not have clear leaders. Teams needed the organization and self-motivation to choose leadership and structure before they can become productive. Further disadvantages include the ability of some to hide behind other's productivity, as Wilder notes. Though these disadvantages can curtail the effectiveness of groups, they can be easily dealt with, as Lopez demonstrates by his organizing the groups using a book of twenty-five rules. The advantages of using groups in business innovation far outweigh the disadvantages. For instance, allowing groups to make autonomous decisions provides many unique thinkers to come up with different solutions. The model also takes pressure away from a single person or a small group, allowing the company greater reach.

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In the groups as Lopez described them, leadership and structure, adequate resources, and performance evaluation and reward systems are clearly present and are clearly supporting the team's activities. Although Lopez did not provide the teams with leadership and structure at first, once those factors became apparent in the teams, they performed much better than they had without leaders and organization. In an environment where teams or group work were not often used, the team members probably did not know what to do or were embarrassed to express their ideas. With leadership and structure, however, team members could feel more comfortable sharing their ideas in an environment in which this was expected and required of everyone. Similarly, the teams were provided with adequate resources -- like the leadership structure and later the book regarding organization -- that allowed them to work in a productive fashion. Without the needed resources, the groups' ideas would not have been able to be tested or implemented, but Lopez made it clear that testing the groups' ideas was key for him. Finally, Wilder mentioned performance evaluation, noting that she refused to share a reward with those who had not contributed. This supported the structure by offering an incentive for those teams that did well.

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If I were tasked with putting together a team tasked with soling complex problems, I would pick members who were most likely to contribute to the group. These would be members who had outgoing personalities, or at least a commitment to working hard. I would compose my group of those who had two very distinct and different types of abilities: those who were creatively inclined and those who were organizationally inclined. With these two groups of people contributing, we would be sure to not only come up with some innovative ideas, but also we would maintain a solid group structure that would foster working together to produce the best and most applicable solutions. Furthermore, the participants that I chose would have the ability to work together as a team, and an open mind and positive attitude about doing so. Just as Lopez's highly ranked executive quit when the new team model was introduced, I would not be willing to work with someone who had a negative attitude toward team or group work. This would only slow the initiative of the rest of the team members. Similarly, I would attempt to choose teammates whose overall personalities were more positive than negative, and who were able to work well in an informal environment, which seems to be one of the necessary components of teamwork.

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