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NMA LeaderLab

DEADLINE DILEMMA

OFFER OPPORTUNITIES

OVERCOME OBSTACLES

ACHIEVE AGREEMENT

Figure out how to deal with a Contractor team and get their help in a time-critical situation while addressing contractual restrictions and personal reluctances…

Find a win-win answer!

Effective relations with Contractors require

strong communication skills and a shared sense

of mission

Copyright © 2006, by National Management Association, Dayton, OH

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization

2210 Arbor Blvd.Dayton, OH 45349

937-294-0421Web Site: http://www.nma1.org

LeaderLab CEU Code 05005LL .1 CEU

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NMA LeaderLab Scenario

It’s Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. Your small proposal team is about to wrap up its WIDGET proposal which must be sent to reproduction before midnight; and all members of the team but you, the LEADER, are getting ready to leave for their front-row seats at the final NBA Championship game – a once-in-a-lifetime reward for their hard work on the proposal. Suddenly there’s a phone call from your boss…he has found a fatal error in your proposal that must be fixed before midnight, or your proposal will fail and your company could lose several million dollars.

All of your proposal team members except you are contracted workers, whose contract with your company does not permit paid overtime work. In addition, every one of them has been looking forward to this game for months, and has absolutely no interest in doing ANYTHING ELSE. You cannot fix the proposal without all their help, so you must convince them to stay and help. You can’t not pay them for their help per the contract with their employer. Any changes made on the proposal, will have to be approved by the Contractor, so the contractor will need to be easily persuaded to make those changes. You have 20 minutes to do so before their van leaves for the ball game…so you must ACT FAST!

Before beginning, your team must unanimously select its LEADER and OBSERVER (one of the Contract Employees who does not otherwise participate in the discussion). You will need to come up with an approach which overcomes the proposal team members objections and can be sold to the Contractor later, so GET TO WORK!

Each team LEADER will be allocated 3 minutes to brief his or her results including the agreement, if one was reached. The team OBSERVER will then have 2 minutes to summarize the process used to arrive at agreement or continued disagreement. There will be a hard cutoff at the end of five minutes.

The facilitator will take the last 5 minutes to comment on each team’s results. Teams which reach an acceptable agreement will stay to work the proposal, and teams which do not will leave for the ball game to celebrate.

ThemeLL #5 DEADLINE DILEMMA “Give and Take”

Scenario:

Challenge:

Operations:

Reports:

Evaluation:

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLabPrizes

TBD

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLab Lessons

• DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE of this proposal for your company and personal future

• “Stress your shared survival….”

• ASK YOUR TEAM what we can do to meet the deadline.

• “Explore all options….”

• DEVELOP A SOLUTION which compensates team members for their sacrifice (pay and NBA play)

• “Restore all lost benefits….”

• AGREE ON RESULTANT STEPS and confirm their buy-in

• “Document all results….”

Things to consider in your work environment!NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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NMA LeaderLab Facilitator Hints

Thank each team for their participation and inputs; hopefully this exercise helped them generate ideas for overcoming obstacles.

Begin with the teams that completed their assignment and reached an agreement, and comment on the associated conditions and process. Next, discuss the problems encountered by the other teams and relate these to real work situations.

Finally, go over the LeaderLab lessons which cover one proven approach to employee buy-in, and award prizes.

Assign each team a number (Team 1-5), then go through the LL instructions and make sure all teams adhere to the designated time allocation for each LL section. After taking reports from each of the teams, follow the script below to provide feedback. Use the box below to take notes on each team.

TEAM # STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4

1

2

3

4

5

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio

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LeaderLab Evaluation Form

PLEASE CHECK THE APPROPRIATE BOX Excellent Good Fair Poor

1. The overall LeaderLab program

2. Appropriate use of the materials that made learning easy and enjoyable

3. Opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas with others

4. Length of LeaderLab relative to its objectives and meeting your needs

5. Applicability to your responsibilities, needs, and roles at home, work, and elsewhere

6. What is the most important thing you learned during the LeaderLab?

7. Which part of the LeaderLab was of MOST VALUE to you? Why?

8. Which part of the LeaderLab was of LEAST VALUE to you? Why?

9. What suggestions for improvement do you have for future LeaderLabs?

Check one ─

Your comments and suggestions are very important to us. Please take a few moments to reflect on your experiences at the LeaderLab. Your input will help us to continue to provide professional quality services

and maximize learning during the future LeaderLabs.

Yes No Did the facilitator(s)…

Keep the sessions “moving and interesting”?

Speak at a level that could be easily heard and understood by everyone?

Keep the discussions constructive, crisp, and well controlled?

Practice “good facilitation skills”?

NMA…THE Leadership Development Organization, Dayton, Ohio