Matt Barnes Week 4 – Organizational Category

There are high expectations about the work at BDM. The deadline we are working towards is very tight considering all the work that will need to be done before the launch of Sunny. However, with respect to my work, Amy and Amanda are extremely helpful when giving feedback. Before I start a project, expectations will be clearly laid out, potentially with examples, that makes doing the project unambiguous. I greatly appreciate the amount of feedback they give on the work because it allows me to both correct and improve what I do. Overall, there is a high expectation for quality work, but also emphasis on me learning from and correcting any mistakes I make along the way.

The primary way people communicate on the team is through electronic means because everyone is scattered across the country and world, and there is no central location to work from. As a result, it is impossible to see one-to-one interactions between other people on the team, but all of the interactions I have seen have been professional, though not rigidly formal. Everyone was friendly and respectful, and would joke around with each other if there was not a hard deadline to work against.

I don’t think the context of the work environment mandates addressing any issues, though I do think the situational leadership approach Amy has used is one of the most effective methods given the dispersed nature of the team.

I think one of the biggest strengths of BDM is drawing together a team of very talented individuals to work on the development of Sunny. Everybody I have interacted with so far brings something unique to the table and is able to provide valuable insight into the development process. However, I think this level of individuality does come at a slight disadvantage. Because most of the team members are individually contracted, there is not a huge amount of group cohesion yet. To address that, I think it would be helpful to sit down, informally, and have a meet and greet with the various team members to increase group cohesion and potentially increase the collaborative spirit.