1.
Write down which theory following scenario describes. Eric’s a functional manager, but his team seems to move really slowly. It turns out that everyone who reports to him has to hand him their work first, before they can give it to anyone else. He goes through it line by line, which sometimes takes hours! He doesn’t trust his team to release anything he hasn’t seen.
2.
Write down which theory following scenario describes. Bob is a programmer on the team, but he doesn’t really feel like he’s “one of the guys.” He doesn’t really have a lot of control over the work he’s assigned. Recently, Bob put in a long weekend to get his work done, but nobody really seemed to take notice.
3.
Write down which stage each scenario describes. Joe and Tom are both programmers on the Global Contracting project. They disagree on the overall architecture for the software they’re building, and frequently get into shouting matches over it. Joe thinks Tom’s design is too short-sighted and can’t be reused. Tom thinks Joe’s design is too complicated and probably won’t work. They’re at a point right now where they’re barely talking to each other.
4.
Write down which theory following scenario describes. There was a break-in at the office, and now people are really jittery. Plus, the heating system has been broken for weeks, and it’s freezing! No wonder nobody’s getting any work done.
5.
Everyone always does what Shelly says because a senior director assigned her personally.
6.
Write down which theory each scenario describes. Joe’s a functional manager, and his team is very efficient. He spot-checks their work, but for the most part he sets realistic performance goals and trusts them to meet them—he only pulls people aside if he finds that there’s a specific problem that has to be corrected.
7.
Write down which theory each scenario describes. A project manager is having a lot of trouble motivating the team. He tries setting up rewards and a good working environment. But the team remains difficult to motivate—mostly because their paychecks all bounced last week, and everyone is angry at the CEO because they didn’t get bonuses.
8.
The programmers always listen to the team lead because he’s a really good software architect.
9.
A functional manager assigns a tester to work on the project manager’s team.
10.
A project manager sets up an “Accolade Wall” and posts awards for team members who come in ahead of schedule.
