Cross Function Task Force

Cross Function Task Group

A cross-functional task force is made up of a group of individuals from different work areas with approximately the same status or hierarchical level that are brought together for one project. Therefore, this task force brings a variety of individuals with different backgrounds and outlooks; which typically results in a creative variety of input and is a great arena for creative ideas.

The cross-functional task force is a great way to solve organizational issues, but in order for this team to be successful they must have a pre-determined leader or organize.

While doing this assignment I was responsible for selecting the best candidates to match the key role for several positions. This team will be responsible for discovering the most desirable luxury car design features. According to Design Center Director, Sarah Fischer I have chosen the best possible team for the project.

I chose John Marsh as the Assessor and Advisor. I chose John because of he has 15 years of experience managing automotive developing. I was a bit skeptical at first because of his stubbornness, but decided after looking at all the other candidates that he would be best fit for the job. For a cross-functional task to be successful there needs to be a leader and John has the most experience and he is already filling the role as mentor to the entry level designers.

As creator, I chose Amrita Choudhury for her accumulated eight years experience at Ferrari as an interior/exterior designer, which she was commended for heading best selling designs in Europe and Asia.

Controller and organizer, the obvious choice was Marcell Collins. Marcell has excellent project management skills and colleagues has commented that Marcell has the ability to keep people on track and can keep them maintain their focus during complex projects. Although Marcell may lack in automobile design I think he is the best person to fill this position.

For Promoter/Maintainer the choice made was Janice Luikens. Janice has twelve years experience as public relations executive. She is creative while bringing excitement and momentum to the public relations department at Luxurion Auto.

To fill the position of Linker and Producer I chose Petra Diodorus. I chose Petra because of her ability to relay complex information in an understandable manner and her leadership in the classroom and training programs.

At the first meeting the group is informed of the team roles and responsibilities and set schedules when it is brought to my attention that John and Amrita have worked together in the past and had a very bad experience. Other team members feel uncomfortable with the interaction between these two.

In an effort to relieve the tension between John and Amrita I decided to have both attend a negotiation class and assign a specific portion of the project to be shared by the two, after discussing this with Sarah she agreed that this would be the most constructive course of action. I believe that both John and Amrita will both personally benefit from this class and that it will make the team more efficient.

As the project is developing several team members have privately reported that Amrita is insisting that the team select her designs instead of seeking out industry innovations. Because this has been reported by more than one person, I asked the team to call a meeting with Amrita, express to her how they appreciate her designs, but that they need to explain to her that the team also needs to research other avenues for possible design ideas. I also asked them to assure Amrita that she would be recognized as one of the star designers in the team's final report, because she has willingly contributed the designs that she has worked on alone. This addresses the needs of the team and also allows Amrita recognition for her work.

The goal is to create a luxury car with design concepts that will give Luxurion an edge. However, the group runs has fallen into the trap of ruling out unconventional designs. In an effort to inspire the group to be creative again I decided to use a devil's advocate to stimulate creativity, employees are allowed to ask questions and raise concerns, during this process the team is reassured that this is not an attack, it is being done to stimulate creative ideas. The team should take away from this process three or more valid major concerns. The team should also designate a member of the group to be the permanent devil's advocate.

After a couple of months the team has submitted a synopsis of their findings, however there is nothing that is truly innovative. The thought that some in the group are unable to think outside the box leads me to develop team confidence through training. In doing this the group is first congratulated on the process that they have made thus far and rewarded with a training meeting at a local resort, the training is lead by a top auto design guru. I believe that this will ease the team's fear of finding and proposing innovative concepts.

A team's effectiveness can basically be broken down into four groups which include context, composition, work design and process.

Context which can be broken down into subgroups of adequate resources, leadership and structure, climate of trust, performance evaluation and reward systems

Composition includes abilities of members, personality, allocating roles, diversity, size of teams, member flexibility and member preferences.

Work design can be described in terms of five core job dimensions including