Teams and Team Building
Introduction: In this scenario, you are asked to be on a committee at XYZ Software that is studying the effectiveness of a virtual team. The virtual team concept is stemming from several factors, including hiring employees who are in remote locations away from the office and also as a request of employees, who while they live near the office, are interested in telecommuting while heavily involved in team projects. The company, up until this time, had been hesitant about allowing members to telecommute, because they didn’t think it was going to be successful, but finally agreed to select a group of employees and study their work habits working at home on a team vs. working in the office on a team. Characters: 1. Evan Tyrell 2. Warren Sebastian 3. J.R. Shanks 4. Kurt Moss 5. Ling Chen 6. Lupe Gomez Locations: 1. Student’s Office 2. Student’s Home 3. Conference Room 4. Coffee Shop
Scene 1: A Team Working Virtually In the first meeting, with half the team attending virtually, the Student welcomes everyone and prepares to start the meeting. Kurt interrupts and explains the difference between groups and teams. The bickering between J.R. and Kurt continues, and while the Student talks about virtual teams, the technical challenges inherent in telecommuting undermine the effectiveness of the meeting. Location Conference Room Scene setup Student faces the team members present on both sides of the table.
Evan is shown on the screen on the wall On-screen characters J.R. Shanks, Kurt Moss, Evan Tyrell (video) Off-screen characters Lupe Gomez, Ling Chen On-screen text: Today is your first meeting as an official virtual team… STUDENT Welcome, everyone! So, Evan is on video chat, and Lupe and Ling are calling in. Everyone is set up with work computers at home. Our group is officially virtual! KURT Well, technically, our “team” is virtual. Not our “group.” There’s a difference. J.R. Oh, here we go again. Enlighten us, Swami Kurt. KURT Thank you, Disciple Shanks, I will. Actually, a group is just a collection of people. Like, people at a concert, they’re a group but not a team. A team is a cohesive coalition of people working together to achieve mutual goals. Hopefully, with our team, the sum is greater than the parts.