Team Organization

I am part of a consulting organization on campus. We work with real clients and as a result it is integral that we meet all deadlines and provide our best work. In the beginning of the semester we have multiple projects to choose from based on our interests. The projects are sourced by the head partner. In a way this partner is the CEO of the firm. Next we have general partners who are in charge of recruitment, professional development, social and among others. These can be related to the CFO, CMO and etc. The next in line are the project managers who are the head in charge with each consulting project. The project managers are selected by the board through an interview process. The project managers make sure the project gets completed on time and that the consultants work together as a team. As a result, I feel this is close to a one boss hierarchy. However, at the same time the culture of the firm is very open and even employees are allowed to bring their own initiatives and sign their own clients. However, when we are working on the job it is quite ‘one boss’ like but the boss is open to our ideas as well. In the book it states that this an efficient method and ‘easy’ / clear method. There are some possible cons as well, as at times the boss may not be clear, which may lead to frustrated workers. However, in my personal experience this has not happened, as whoever is a project manager deserves to be one and has to prove their rigor and commitment in the interview process. Another reason to why the employees do not become frustrated is because we are able to keep in touch constantly. I believe technology has definitely improved the channels of communication within a business. For example, google drive, slack and instant messaging has given our team opportunities to communicate with each other without having to meet directly. This is especially critical in the real world as people are constantly travelling.

Another interesting aspect the authors mention is collectivism. I feel this also integral to a team’s success. There’s also a famous saying that, “too many cooks spoil the broth”. In this sense, I understand what the authors are trying to communicate. In my two semesters of consulting we had one project manager, and 4 consultants. This made it easy to break up the statement of work into two distinct phases with each having a team of two consultants. Each team usually has an engineer and a business minded person to optimize results. Currently, I am working with an engineer and we are working quite well. I feel the delegation of tasks within a team makes it easier to collaborate as there is only one additional member. The size of the task force made it easy to plan meetings and schedule client calls. This made it more likely that all members would be present for the client call. Having all members present shows how committed and serious we are to the client.


However, at the end of the day it also depends on the team members. For example, I feel a good team member needs to put the team’s success above theirs and needs to be responsible. A good team member should also express empathy towards other team members. I feel this is important for morale and makes someone trust their team. It is also important for team members to consider the thoughts of their teammates. I feel if someone has these qualities, then it will most likely not be difficult to operate in a team efficiently.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 1, 2017 at 8:12 AM

    You might give some more background about the consulting organization. Are the consultants all students? Who in the organization is not a student? Why would a company hire student consultants rather than professional consultants? Do you get paid for this work? Are there other benefits for you aside from pay for doing this consulting work? Answering questions such as these would then help to give some context for what you talk about. As it is now, there isn't much context at all.

    You then said the teamwork is successful. Could you give some measures of that? Do the clients express satisfaction in some way that let's your team know how it is doing?

    A bit later in the course we will take about the triangle problem where the employee does what the client wants but that is not what the employee's manager wants. You talked about drawing up a statement of work ahead of time. What happens if something comes up that client company after the statement of work? Is there some renegotiation of the project at that point? Or is it assumed that your team will stick with the original project, no matter what, even if the client encourages some departure from it?

    Some of this may be difficult to answer in a good way. You can say that. My own view of project management, based on when I was in the Campus IT organization where it was the approach to doing things, is that it is very good on intentionality and not good at all at handling contingency that wasn't anticipated. So I was looking for you to say something about that in your post.

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    Replies
    1. Francis Edgeworth Econ 490 Fall 2017October 2, 2017 at 5:19 PM

      All the consultants are student and the firm is completely student run. To answer your question of why would a company hire us is because we believe we do 80% of the work of a BBM for roughly 5-10% of the cost. Certain companies may hire students as they might know more knowledge about a college or college students compared to an outsider group. We do not get paid, but there are numerous events that are completely free. Such as golf outings, office visits, lunches and etc. We meet with the client halfway through the project to see if they are happy with the progress we have made. This is when the client provides feedback. To handle contingency it is usually up to the project manager. We may have to renegotiate terms but overall we accommodate reasonable requests.

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  2. John Maynard Keynes Econ 490 fall 2017October 1, 2017 at 12:39 PM

    I don’t disagree with you on what makes a good team member. That said I wonder if we could simplify what makes a good teammate. I had hard time giving a concise answer, and so like you I just kind of listed thing that a good teammate does. I think that everything you said is related to a team mate’s empathy. Which made me think that empathy and commitment to the task is the foundation of a good teammate. I might me simplifying it too much. But I think everything else comes from those two things.

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