Case study ‘harry and the learning team’: How is each team members’ personality and emotional intelligence contributing to the ineffectiveness of the team?

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This case was prepared by Roy Kuruvilla, James Pilachowski, and Prashant Prasad under the supervision of Professor Lynn Isabella. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2004 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to [email protected]. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation.

HARRY AND LEARNING TEAM 28

On a chilly fall evening in early November, the learning team meeting, as always, started at 8:00 PM. All six members, Mark, Jane, Rajesh, Dick, Harry, and Svetlana were seated around the table with their laptops open. Dick was leading the first case for the night. He asked everyone if they were ready to begin the discussion for the Finance case.

Harry responded, “Ok, but can we go more slowly this time? The last time I sat through

finance class, the professor asked me a question about which I was clueless.” Dick and Jane exchanged quick glances. Harry seemed to catch the nonverbal gesture. He looked from one to the other, but said nothing. Rajesh replied, “That isn’t a problem, Harry. Just ask us about anything that doesn’t make sense as we go along. You know that.”

Rajesh waited for Harry to respond. Harry fidgeted in his chair, glanced at Dick, and grimaced slightly. He didn’t seem to be satisfied with Rajesh’s reassurance, but didn’t say anything else to the team. A New Team Forms at Darden

Learning team #28 was a diverse group. Mark and Harry were both “poets,” having studied political science and literature respectively at small liberal arts colleges. Mark had worked for a nonprofit; Harry was a graphic designer before Darden. Dick was a finance major from a top Eastern school and had worked as a financial analyst for six years before he decided to take a break by attending business school. He was married and had a six-month-old daughter whom he described as his “bundle of joy.” Like Dick, Jane was married with a two-year-old son. She had spent five years at a leading consulting firm as a business analyst, after graduating with a major in marketing. Svetlana was an accountant from Bulgaria and had been a relationship manager at a large commercial bank in Sofia for four years. While receiving an MBA was her primary goal, she also hoped to improve her English during her stint in the United States. Rajesh, an engineer, had worked in manufacturing for the largest petrochemical company in India.

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The learning teams were assigned during orientation, and the team described their first meeting as a “great experience.” Harry’s sentiment was shared by others: “We are such a diverse set of people. We all became friends instantaneously. We even went out for drinks the same evening, and I really got to know my team well. They are all fabulous people.” The team met a couple more times during orientation, and the rapport continued to be excellent. They decided to meet at 7 PM on Sunday for their first learning team meeting. No one seemed to mind that there was little discussion of norms or expectations. That very first Sunday, the team jumped straight into their accounting case.

The first quarter passed without any major hiccups, and the learning team check-in (a

designated class period set aside for learning teams to talk about their process) was a nonevent for them. They skipped the class and went off for lunch instead. While the work load was extremely heavy, all of the members agreed that they were learning more than they thought possible. However, the team had already begun to fracture into two subgroups, although they were not aware of it at the time. Communication tended to occur more smoothly within the subgroups than between the whole team. Dick and Jane, given their family commitments, shared a desire to get out of learning team every night before 10:00 PM. Mark and Harry (“the poets”) shared an interest in intellectualizing about questions that were typically outside the scope of the cases, but they struggled somewhat with the more technical aspects of accounting and finance. Finally, Svetlana and Rajesh tended to be more soft-spoken during case discussions, often requiring prompting to offer their own perspectives on cases.

Leave No Person Behind From the outset of the second quarter, Harry knew that he was in over his head in finance. He struggled through the first few cases, often using his afternoons to sift through the finance textbook, trying to make sense of the new concepts and techniques that had been introduced the day before or in that night’s case. In fact, on many occasions, he found himself neglecting his other courses, even when his team was expecting him to lead a case in one of those subjects.

After a week of struggling in this fashion, Harry implored his team for help in closing his knowledge gap. Initially, all were willing to take the extra time during learning team meetings to help get Harry up to speed. Not surprisingly, Mark was the most sympathetic. As a fellow poet, he also struggled somewhat with finance but had managed to build his own competency more rapidly than had Harry. Thus, it was Mark who mounted support for Harry during the early part of the quarter, standing beside his colleague even when he failed to prepare his other cases.

Dick and Jane understood finance quite well and were initially anxious to lend a hand to Harry to help him reach parity as soon as possible. Unfortunately, they became frustrated quickly when they realized that Harry’s struggles with finance would not be overcome within a week or two. For instance, when Harry expressed dismay about being lost while reading the fourth or fifth finance case of the quarter, Jane testily responded, “Why don’t you let us know specifically

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what you don’t understand, and we’ll take a few minutes to explain it to you.” Harry did not exactly know what he did not understand; he had trouble explaining that to the rest of the group. Consequently, the team spent 45 minutes trying to help him understand the general concepts of that night’s case. To Dick’s annoyance, they did not complete that night’s study questions. Secret Meeting Within two or three weeks, the team came to realize that Harry was simply not absorbing the material quickly enough to keep pace. His special learning sessions had grown progressively longer in duration. Now it was rare for one of his team-tutoring sessions in finance to last less than one hour. One afternoon, Dick sent an email to everyone on the team, except for Harry. The email suggested that the team meet the next afternoon for lunch to discuss potential solutions to “the Harry problem.” Only Mark seemed to have reservations about accepting the invitation. He did not think that it was fair for the team to talk about Harry behind his back. In the end, however, he decided to attend in order to ensure that Harry’s best interests were not entirely ignored during the meeting. As the team convened in Café 67 the next day, it was clear that Dick and Jane were in charge. They sat next to each other at the head of one of the café’s conference tables, and each nodded emphatically as the other explained how critical it was that “the Harry problem” be addressed quickly.

Dick: It is clear that we need to be more efficient if we are going to keep pace with the other teams. Right now, Harry is really holding us back. Jane and I wanted us to get together as a team to discuss potential solutions to this problem, so that we can get our team back on track.

Jane: Why don’t we go around the table and each share one potential solution to the problem? Rajesh, we haven’t really heard how you feel about this whole situation. Why don’t you help us start the discussion?

Rajesh shifted in his stool uncomfortably, looking from Jane to Svetlana.

Rajesh: I, uh, didn’t really think that we had an efficiency problem. I thought that we were trying to come up with solutions to help Harry. I don’t have a problem staying late some nights to help Harry learn finance. Mark: I agree with Rajesh. We shouldn’t be thinking about learning team in terms of a competition! We are doing what we need to, in order to get through the year as a team.

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Jane: Why don’t you tell that to my husband? While you are at it, explain to my children why I am never home in time to read to them or tuck them into bed! We need to find a way to reduce the amount of time we waste trying to make Harry understand a subject that he doesn’t seem capable of learning.

Hearing this, Rajesh immediately dropped his eyes to his rather sub-par slice of cheese

pizza. He wasn’t hungry anymore. He did not like it when people raised their voices during meetings. Both he and Svetlana often talked about how much they disliked the confrontational nature of so many of their team discussions. He was surprised to hear Svetlana chirp up.

Svetlana: Jane, I understand that you are disappointed that you haven’t had more time for your family this semester. However, I think that Rajesh and Mark are right about our needing to help Harry rather than assume that he is somehow ruining our team.

Dick: But, think about it, guys. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Does anyone really dispute that Harry is our weakest link? You all know that we certainly can’t trust him to lead finance cases. But, also, on any night that we have a finance case, we know that he won’t spend any time on other courses, so we can’t depend on him for operations or marketing. So, what can we count on him to do? How is he helping us? I am seriously considering asking him to leave the team. Maybe he would have better luck with a team that moved at his pace.

Jane: That sounds like a great plan to me. I know it won’t be easy. However, think about how great it would be every night, if we didn’t have Harry slowing us down. Rajesh: I don’t like that idea at all. It isn’t Harry’s fault that he is having so much trouble with this course. We should really be able to find some plan for compromising so that we can help him to learn and also help you guys get home to your families at a decent time each night.” Dick: Why don’t we agree to send Harry our notes from finance class and give him the best spreadsheet every night so that he can look at it after the meeting? We’ll explain this plan to Harry at our next meeting, so that he knows that things have changed.”

Jane readily agreed to this plan. Svetlana and Rajesh thought that the idea was better than

simply leaving Harry to his own devices for the rest of the year. More than anything, though, they seemed relieved that the plan would end the conversation and allow the team to step back from the conflict that was starting to bubble to the surface. Mark was relieved to hear that the team wasn’t seriously considering asking his friend to leave. On the other hand, he wondered if this course of action would really provide Harry with the support that he seemed to need so badly.

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The New Plan Is Unveiled The five members agreed to arrive early the next night so that they would all be present when Harry arrived. He walked into the room promptly at 8:00 PM to find his teammates waiting for him. They were awkwardly quiet. Mark would not look him in the eye.

Dick: Harry, we want to take some time to talk with you about how learning team has been progressing so far this semester. Dick waited for a moment before continuing. Harry didn’t say anything, wanting to hear

exactly what Dick was talking about. Dick: The team met last night to discuss what we can do about your problems with finance. We don’t think that we can afford to spend as much time walking through the concepts with you anymore. We agreed that is keeping us from being as efficient as we need to be.

Harry looked puzzled. He looked around the room; only Dick and Jane were willing to look at him directly. The others seemed to be busy working on their computers. Harry was hurt that the team had had such an important discussion without him. He looked down, trying to think of something to say.

Jane: We know it is hard for you. So we are each going to send you our notes from finance each day, and pick out the best spreadsheet, so that you have the best materials possible every day as you walk into class. In fact, since we’ll be spending more time on answering the questions for the cases, I’m willing to bet that we’ll have some of the best spreadsheets around. Harry: I feel guilty that I have been slowing you guys down. I didn’t realize that it was causing such a problem for everyone.

Harry again looked around the room, looking for evidence that everyone felt the same

way about the situation. Mark shifted in his chair, looking up as if he was about say something. Dick and Jane immediately looked at him. He looked back at his computer and remained silent. Rajesh and Svetlana looked even more uncomfortable with the conversation. They hoped that the conversation would end quickly and they could start talking about the cases.

Harry: OK. It seems as though the team has agreed. I will have to do my best to abide by the decision. Let’s get started on tonight’s cases so that we don’t waste any more time.

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The Plan in Action As the semester moved along, Harry became progressively quieter during case conversations. It was implicitly understood that he would not lead any case discussions. He spent almost all of his time struggling to decipher the finance notes and spreadsheets that he received every evening. Mark stayed after learning team almost every night to walk him through his own notes and spreadsheet. Harry greatly appreciated the assistance. However, the material was only getting more complicated. Because he was spending more time studying and worrying about upcoming exams, he wasn’t getting much sleep. Thus, he was having a great deal of trouble focusing in class and during learning team meetings.

During those meetings, he would not offer any of his thoughts unless someone asked him a direct question. In fact, he no longer asked any questions during learning team, regardless of the subject. He felt that doing so would only slow down the team. He worried that the team had lost faith in him and that if he did anything else to raise their ire, they might ask him to leave the team. After all, while the spreadsheets and notes were so over his head that they only provided a modicum of assistance, it was better than walking into class empty-handed. He could not afford to lose his access to this information. A New Precedent Is Set Harry’s concern about slowing down the team seemed to become pervasive throughout the team. Dick and Jane tended to work hard to keep the team focused on the case questions. They were thrilled to be leaving learning team every night by 10:00 PM. They noted with satisfaction that the great majority of other teams were still in their learning team rooms while they were walking out to the parking garage.

Rajesh and Svetlana talked between themselves about how they felt that the case discussions could be much richer if the team would allow their conversation to expand beyond the highly directive case questions. However, neither of them was willing to act as a catalyst in challenging Dick or Jane to change the way that the case discussions were structured.

Given their impromptu tutoring sessions, Mark was worried that his friend might not be able to pass the final exam in finance. After all, it was less than three weeks away. Moreover, he knew that Harry couldn’t depend upon participation to buoy his overall grade. Harry had admitted to him that he only spoke in class when his professor asked him a question, and he was convinced that his answers did not add value to the conversation at all.

Like Rajesh and Svetlana, Mark sensed that the learning team was not helping either Harry or any other member as much as it could. He wondered whether there was time this semester to take new steps to help Harry and to chart a new course for the learning team.