...Q. How would you compare the Army Crew team to other types of organizational teams? What are the key similarities and differences? What lessons can we learn from the Army Crew team? A. The Army Crew team and other types of organizational teams in companies resemble each other to some extent. Both have a shared goal among team members and have a leader of them. They are based upon trust and cooperation. Motivation or team morale is also significant to achieve their goals. The better the teamwork is, the more they achieve. However, they are quite different from other perspectives. The Army Crew team has a coach, the absolute power existing outside the team, besides a leader inside the team. In the instruction a coach has made, players decide what to do. They have less autonomy to do what they want independently and usually their positions are decided, which is hard to change once it fixed. The Army Crew team has a goal and it is clearly divided into actual race and practice race. They are operated by Coach more strategic than typical organizational teams. On the contrary, other types of organizational teams just a leader inside the team. They do not really have a practice and actual projects and team members have much freedom. They can express their own opinions to be reflected for their strategies. Teamwork in organizational teams is an important factor to achieve goal, but not overwhelming as much as in the Army Crew Team. Also, their roles are not obviously divided because...
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...Team 2 Case Analysis: The Army Crew Team Team Members Course • Key Strategic Issue: The main issue is that the coach lacks of timeliness in response to the Varsity team’s internal issues. The coach noticed there were issues between the team members based on past indications, but he chose not to act on it in a timely manner. His choice of intervention should’ve been sooner in order to prevent further disruptions within the Varsity team. Alternative Courses of Action: Intervene to improve the Varsity boat’s performance: The coach can interject his opinions on why the performance is lacking such as by showing the errors. Moreover, since the members are low on morale the coach could implement group-based activities to encourage bonding and unity within the team. Switch individual boat members: The coach can replace members that show lack of performance to race in the competition. Furthermore, he can create a new team (from both Varsity and Varsity Junior members) based on personality test so he can be sure that every member on the team is compatible with each other. Switch the Varsity and Junior Varsity boats: Since the Junior Varsity team is more confident in their ability to perform for the upcoming competition; the coach should use them as the main team. This allows the Varsity to recover and regain their confidence as competitors for the next year competition. Recommended Course of Action: Our recommended...
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...Introduction By looking into the different outcomes for two teams, I answered question from four aspects and made recommendations on each aspect for what we can do when leading a team. Analysis and Recommendations 1. Group Design When Coach P. formed two groups, each member accepted individual analysis from skills to strength. Eight best were put in Varsity team and eight worst in JV. Coach P. didn’t set specified goal for both teams. Different from JV who could easily find target like skill improvement, team performance, Varsity, which already had eight best athletes, automatically standing on high start-line, having more difficult on setting specific target by themselves. Their target was vague – since their victory was merited, waiting for coach to set a goal might be what they were thinking. Therefore, when JV team beat V team, it was unexpected for V team and blaming each other is a normal reaction for such situation. When failure came again, the trust in V team crashed. A clear task can help a group quickly into work state, find the most effective way for communication and build up trust. Although for some group, it’s better for members to find their task by themselves, it’s not guaranteed. My recommendation is providing helpful information for a group setting a goal, monitoring the process and offering help when necessary, especially for a new group. 2. Group Culture As time passed, a culture “nothing to loss” formed within JV. This culture brought a positive attitude...
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...the Varsity Team lose to the JV team? Because a crucial element in the sport of rowing is the performance of the team as a whole, there must be a high level of trust and confidence among the team members in order to enhanced personal and group confidence. A tremendous amount of harmonized collaboration of individual efforts is required to reach synchronization in rowing. Therefore, winning teams are those that are the most synchronized, exhibiting exemplary collaboration among their rowers. The Varsity boat consistently loses to JV because its members don’t work together as a team. Coach P did not sufficiently facilitate the kind of team building necessary for success: discussing team goals, establishing a sense of trust or leadership, and recognizing the potential for disruptive behaviour and conflict. According to the Five-Stage Team Development Model, groups develop into effective teams through a sequence of stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Applying this model to the progress of the Army crew boats makes clear that while the Varsity team is still storming and has yet to create structure or norms, the JV team demonstrates the clear communication and mature problem solving associated with a team in the performing stage. Contrary to expectations, JV members would rather remain with their teammates than be promoted to the Varsity boat, evidence of a truly cohesive team. The Varsity...
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...The Army Crew Team – Case Analysis Scott Sung-Won Kim This is a good example to show how teamwork is important. If the teamwork is not built and the members don’t trust each other, then any good performance couldn’t be achieved. The Varsity team keeps losing its race against the Junior Varsity team even though they were selected by the several objective tests like the seat racing and they proved they have better physical condition than JV team members. The National championship, a culmination of the season is just four days away and a Coach Preczewski has to decide how to solve this critical issue Here are some points on why they failed to build good teamwork * Coach P. mainly focused on physical ability rather than balancing with psychological variables * Coach P. didn’t try to consolidate the Varsity team to one team and couldn’t lead them to communicate each other with respectful attitude * There is no leader in the Varsity team * They blamed each other on the low performance as “touchy-feely” * There is no session to encourage the Varsity team even after losing races Coach P. should have focused more on the psychological points in the earlier stage as the US Olympic Committee’s research showed. During the seat race in the Atlanta, he should have considered the attitude and personality of each members as well. To build strong teamwork, I’d like to propose ‘Advocate Feedback’ communication which is to force the team members only to advocate the others...
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...THE ARMY CREW Case Study 1. Why does the Varsity team lose to the Junior Varsity team? The Varsity Team looses to the junior varsity team because the team lacks leadership, and some of the members view themselves more valuable personally, then they value the team as a whole. Some of them believe that “it is they that carry the team”. Because of this the team does not work as a cohesive unit. Those who do not believe that they are team leaders, have also started to loose moral, and in turn performance, as they believe that they are the weakest link, In the JV boat, the members heavily focus on working as a team, and aim to support their teammates appose to focusing on why they are the most important members. This increased psychological advantage plays into using their physical strengths to their full extent. 2. What should the coach have done differently earlier in the season? At what point should he have intervened differently? The coach established the V boat team as a higher status than the JV boat team. Because the two boats race one another, setting a precedent that one is better than the other, actually benefit the lesser team. The JV boat has nothing to loose, while the V boat is already “the best”. If the coach had made the teams viewed as equal earlier in the season, he may have been more success in igniting competitive spirit in the V boat. This psychological aspect of team dynamics would have been a key issue to address earlier in...
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...Behavior – MBA545 The Army Crew Team Case Analysis Team Overview: This analysis is based on a crew team at West Point coached by Colonel Stas Preczewski. He has been a crewing coach for 9 years for both the Varsity and Junior Varsity Teams. This particular crew team races shells that are narrow and 60 feet long. The crew is made up of 8 rowers; one of the rowers is the “Coxswain” that steers the boat. The Coxswain is considered the leader of the team. His/Her responsibility is to carry out the strategic plan that the coach lays out. The top 8 individuals are chosen for the Varsity Team and the bottom 8 for the Junior Varsity Team. Current Situation: This sport consists of unique mental and physical attributes. The best teams have a balance of the following attributes: * Individual Strength * Rowing Technique * Psychological dimensions * Program organization Crew originated in 1856 with the first race being between Harvard and Yale. Races are typically 3.5 miles long and usually consist between 20 and 60 shells. They race against the clock instead of head to head, due to the amount of shells competing and the course. In order for a team to be successful they need to work as one. Individual strength and endurance is a key to success; however, team work is the essential success factor. If a team doesn’t work as one throughout the race, the smallest detail can inhibit them from success. Once rhythm is broken with the team, it will immediately...
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...The Acquisitions Team Government Acquisitions Introduction The United States government uses government acquisitions to bridge the gap between current workforce and the need for follow on service. After the actions that transpired on September 11, 2001, the call for contractors has increased in many realms throughout the United States government. The need for additional security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, have opened the door for many companies, like Blackwater and Triple Canopy, to bid and receive many million dollar contracts to pick up the slack for the United States military and government. These ventures, though provided a very lucrative future for the companies, have not always worked out in the best interest of the company or the United States government. For example, in 2007 Blackwater employees were involved in a shooting in Baghdad that claimed the life of 17 Iraqis. An investigation by the United States government concluded that the Blackwater employees were liable for the deaths and subsequently Blackwater lost a portion of the security contract. As horrible as this incident is, is the contractor liable for the deaths, but more importantly can the issues be traced back to the initial phases of the contract? Did the acquisition team miss the mark when they sent out the proposal for the contract? These are answers that were more than likely answered when the investigation occurred into this incident, but it strikes a very important question. What...
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...(Coach P.) of the Army Crew team for the United States Military Academy at West Point believes that he has a championship caliber team. His rowers worked hard throughout the entire off-season, focusing on their physical abilities and rowing technique, and were eager to begin training camp at the Atlanta Retreat. Here, Coach P. implemented a number of commonly employed methods for objectively ranking the rowers from top to bottom. The top eight would form the Varsity team, and the bottom eight would form the Junior Varsity (JV) team. While at training camp, Coach P. made his selections for each team. He then confirmed his results by pitting the Varsity and JV boats in a race that Varsity won handily. Upon leaving Atlanta, the coach was unaware of the challenges to soon arrive. To Coach P.’s dismay, the Varsity boat’s impressive initial performance wasn’t an indicator for their future success. As the season progressed, his Varsity boat, consisting of the statistically highest quality rowers, would routinely lose in races against the JV boat. Since all the facts supported that the Varsity boat was comprised of the best rowers, the coach was dumbfounded as to what course of action was to be taken. As the JV team continued to defeat the Varsity throughout the season, the Varsity team struggled with various issues. The stress of their low performance combined with the humiliation of losing to an inferior team was a recipe for a disaster. As a result, the Varsity team members grew distant...
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...The Army Crew Team Introduction: This case is about a frustrating situation that Colonel Stas Preczewski also known as Coach P., the coach of the Army Crew team for the United States Military Academy at West Point, who faced with total twist between his two teams. The Junior Varsity (JV) crew boat - consisting of the bottom eight rowers beat the Varsity (V) – top eight rowers, during practice and in some races. This was not supposed to happen, because of the speed, strength and coordination of the Varsity team. Coach P. had made many attempts to gather information that would help him to understand and resolve the unusual situation, but nothing had worked. One week before the culmination of the season, the National championship race, competing with over one hundred other schools, Coach P. deliberated over several options. He made a radical action that would be to acknowledge how the Junior Varsity team was better than the Varsity team. The first option was when he simply promoted the whole JV team to the Varsity boat for the race. The second option was to switch a small number of individual members of the two boats and the third option was to keep the current team members in each boat, but to try to intervene to improve the performance of the Varsity team. Facing with this problem, Coach P. held a meeting with the team members to discuss about the problems among the team. Diagnosis: Coach P. lacked leadership and needed to address the real problem which was no team spirit...
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...Army Crew Team Case Study While reading through this case study it becomes evident as to why JV manages to outperform the Varsity team even though the varsity team consists of the best crew members. We can understand why this happened by first evaluating the actions and behavior of the varsity members. To begin, the varsity team is made up of members who think mostly about themselves rather than being group oriented. It is clear that this causes distrust among the team so when the team encounters failure they revert to blaming one another. This is seen throughout the many emails sent between the crew members. Then during the races the varsity members tend to have no motivation to compete; eventually leading to their defeat. Now the JV team on the other hand manages to avoid many of these difficulties by utilizing their strong team commitment and trust among all members. This can be seen through the JV team’s acceptance of the CEP training and the positive group criticism seen throughout the team email. In a sport like rowing, the soft skills such as team work and communication are just as important as physical skills like strength and endurance. In order for a team to be successful they must have some physical capability but most importantly they absolutely must have coordination and motivation among the crew members. Since the Varsity was picked solely based off their strength and speed they lack many of the required soft skills that the JV team exhibits which allows the JV...
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...McRaven positively affected the United States military. He had such a profound impact on the military, not because of his accomplishments, but because of his leadership and mentorship. This paper will discuss how Admiral (Retired) McRaven demonstrated each of the Army leader attributes and competencies and the subsequent impact that he had on the military. I will describe how Admiral (Retired) McRaven contributed to my personal growth and development, leading to my personal leadership philosophy. I will conclude with the legacy that I personally hope to leave on the Army....
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...Case Analysis For The Army Crew Team I. Introduction The Army Crew Team is in utter frustration since the team that consisted of the top 8 members with excellent strength and condition, rowing technique, and psychological dimension kept frequently losing the JV team before the national championship race. Facing with this problem, Coach P. hold a meeting with the team members to discuss about the problems among the team. Now on, he has to make a decision among the choices of switching the Varsity and Junior Varsity boat, switching individual boat members or intervening to improve the Varsity boat’s performance. II. Problem identification 1. The members of Varsity don’t cooperate with each other and there are so many problems in the Varsity Team on the aspect of relationships, responsibilities, resources and rewards. Relationships: No leader but some disrupters in the team. They do not communicate with each other. Responsibilities: Team members just complained about others and don’t cooperate with each other. Rewards: they do not care too much about winning. 2. The coach P. is not a good machine operator to complement each member with its strengths and advantages to improve the productivity of a whole team but just like a manager of a production line to combine each member together. He does not have the appropriate means to communicate with team members and motivate the team. And he should find the...
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...97th Transportation Battalion from FT Eustis, VA was tasked to provide all required vessel’s crew. My primary task was first effectively to synchronize the CLI support mission and second to help our staff in seamless planning, coordination, and integration of the two U.S. Army watercraft crews. Additional tasks included ensuring timely reporting, logistical resupply, regional intelligence coordination, communications, and maintenance/contracting support. Our biggest challenges included coordination and synchronization of the following areas: menu development and submission, communications security, ammunition, CLII purchases, port operations, UCMJ authority, maintenance quality control, lacking leadership of food service personnel, and pre-deployment training. Obersvation1: Communications Security (COMSEC) Draw was not completed as required. Discussion: Initially vessel teams were supposed to complete required paperwork at their home station in order to draw COMSEC and Courier orders at Yokohama North Dock (YND). On the day of the draw it was discovered that the 97th Transportation Battalion crew did not have the required paperwork or clearance to obtain courier orders. There also seemed to be confusion as to what authority is needed to sign off on the required documentation. A last minute teleconference between 8th TSC, 35th CSSB, 10th RSG and 78th Signal BN ensured crews were able to draw COMSEC. COMSEC is required to communicate with 7th Fleet and not having it...
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