The design staff at Easy Chairs often
complains that the team leader, Josh, is hard to work with, but they
cannot do without him. He has great ideas and knows how to implement
them well, but in terms of getting the work done the team complains he
is a nightmare. Here is what his team has to say:âWe
send him emails and he either gives us one-word answers, fails to edit
what he sends, or fails to reply. Sometimes he tells two people to do
the same thing not remembering he has given the assignment to someone
else. The worse problem is that he prioritizes work in an email and then
changes things when events interfere. Again, not communicating the
change. Last week two of us edited a design for a custom front carrier
basket for a customer whose deadline was this week only to find that
Josh had changed the deadline to last week. The basket design that was
completed by us both had to be adjusted to one design and the rear
basket had to be done in two days. This meant long nights. Creating the
printer design code takes time. We have tried to talk with Josh about
things like this and he gets better for a while and then things are back
to normal. He just doesnât listen.âJosh was asked about the teamâs concerns and here was his reply:âI
spend a lot of time prioritizing and delegating job tasks to the team. I
always ask people if they are clear about what they have to do and
ninety percent of the time I get no answers. I have to assume they are
fine
with what I have said. I am the first to admit that I could be
better about my emails. However, I often call people to check on what is
being done or stop by to see if things are going okay. I donât want to
micromanage what they do. The problem last week is an example; I went to
check up on the front basket design Don was assigned only to find that
Joan was doing the same project (and not working on the rear basket as
the schedule said). The customer called me with changes, including a
deadline change, and I saw Joan in the hallway and told her about the
changes. I did not tell her she was to edit the basket design. She just
assumed that was what I was telling her to do. I went to Dan and gave
him the changes. Why didnât she say that I had gotten the wrong basket
design person? I sometimes think that they are not listening to me.âDwight
is curious about the communication issues that seem to be happening
here between Josh and the team and wants to take action. He wants an
email from you by the end of the week. It should contain the following
discussion:Directions:
Create an email to Dwight outlining, with enough detail, the approach you would take to resolve the teams complaints.
Identify the communication issues that are causing problems with the team scenario.
Explain at least six techniques you would employ to make the communication better between Josh and the team.
Explain how you would communicate all this information to the people involved.