MGMT 535 (Module 7) Reflection Blog: Communicating in Your Organization
MGMT 535 (Module 7) Reflection Blog: Communicating in Your Organization
Ironically I chose this exact article for my discussion post before I looked at this week's reading assignments. I specifically chose it because of the statement about how teamwork across organizational boundaries is unnatural. In my response to Rob (a classmate), I touched on it a little, but I will go into it with more depth in this blog post.
When I was in the Air Force I was the squadron superintendent for an operations support squadron. This type of squadron is unique in that it has anywhere from 7 to 10 flights on average. That's 7 to 10 unique jobs each with their own chain of command (under the squadron commander) and a job-specific subculture. As a result, it was always a challenge to find ways to get the squadron to come together as a unit versus 9 separate flights. We tried cookouts, sporting events, physical training days, team building events, etc. Even though some individuals would interact outside of their respective offices, for the most part, individuals stuck to who they knew or were familiar with. I even noticed this about myself because I was also the superintendent of one of the flights and of course, I had a common bond with the individuals from that flight simply because we had the same job. As hard as I tried to bond with individuals and build a relationship with the other flights, it was just more natural to feel a sense of belonging with my own flight.
To be completely honest we never really found something that we thought was successful. We were able to get some individuals to interact and even bond across flights, but not to the level that we would have liked. I remember reaching out to some of my colleagues in similar situations to mine and they also had similar challenges and had tried several different things as well with no real success.
I think one of my roles in that job was to try to bring the squadron together and create a sense of belonging, inclusion, and loyalty. When you are successful at this, people tend to be more invested in the overall success of the organization. Even though I don't feel I was able to achieve it completely, I did have small victories here and there and when I did, I felt as though we were operating at a very high level. For me personally, whenever I communicated to the entire team I always tried to be open, honest, as transparent as possible and I tried to facilitate an atmosphere of trust.
Ironically I chose this exact article for my discussion post before I looked at this week's reading assignments. I specifically chose it because of the statement about how teamwork across organizational boundaries is unnatural. In my response to Rob (a classmate), I touched on it a little, but I will go into it with more depth in this blog post.
When I was in the Air Force I was the squadron superintendent for an operations support squadron. This type of squadron is unique in that it has anywhere from 7 to 10 flights on average. That's 7 to 10 unique jobs each with their own chain of command (under the squadron commander) and a job-specific subculture. As a result, it was always a challenge to find ways to get the squadron to come together as a unit versus 9 separate flights. We tried cookouts, sporting events, physical training days, team building events, etc. Even though some individuals would interact outside of their respective offices, for the most part, individuals stuck to who they knew or were familiar with. I even noticed this about myself because I was also the superintendent of one of the flights and of course, I had a common bond with the individuals from that flight simply because we had the same job. As hard as I tried to bond with individuals and build a relationship with the other flights, it was just more natural to feel a sense of belonging with my own flight.
To be completely honest we never really found something that we thought was successful. We were able to get some individuals to interact and even bond across flights, but not to the level that we would have liked. I remember reaching out to some of my colleagues in similar situations to mine and they also had similar challenges and had tried several different things as well with no real success.
I think one of my roles in that job was to try to bring the squadron together and create a sense of belonging, inclusion, and loyalty. When you are successful at this, people tend to be more invested in the overall success of the organization. Even though I don't feel I was able to achieve it completely, I did have small victories here and there and when I did, I felt as though we were operating at a very high level. For me personally, whenever I communicated to the entire team I always tried to be open, honest, as transparent as possible and I tried to facilitate an atmosphere of trust.
Comments
Post a Comment