200 to 350 words Response. Every team member is a very important person to the team. A person that can take a situation, evaluate the process as it is applied to the outcome and make constructive suggestions or inputs really helps the team move forward.
Let me give you an example:
Tell me what you think here: First disclaimer: I am not telling you this example to show myself as a hero or anything like that. I really want you (and the class) to learn real world examples to apply to your organization. I was in Iraq as a Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) Airman in an Army battalion responsible for finding the insurgents that were killing our soldiers from these homemade bombs for 15 months in 2007-2008. I was an acting Company Commander (rank of Captain) at the time commanding 26 soldiers under me. As an Airman, it was odd to be in charge of Army Soldiers. However, we were ONE team and fought side-by-side. Other Army units had sustained deaths from these homemade bombs and our senior leaders wanted answers.
One night I got a call to go on a convoy down to a forward operating base (FOB) where part of my team was located to answer questions to a Lieutenant (Lt) Colonel who was fuming mad at one of my soldiers. When I arrived in his office, he promptly started yelling at me while I stood at attention. This is what he was mad over.
The Lt Colonel asked one of my soldiers’ what was the life-cycle of a 9-volt battery that was buried in the Iraqi sand for approximately 30 days attached to an IED. My soldier didn’t have an answer, but appropriate said sir, I don’t know that answer, but will get this to you as soon as possible.
This was not a good answer to the Lt Colonel, and he wanted me to explain to him why my soldiers were not knowledgeable of these facts. (like my soldiers should have known this impossible answer in the field with the conditions we were in). However, because we were losing soldiers and emotions were high, I took the brunt of the leader’s frustration.
Here is my point. Sometimes, there are not any right answers to a situation. As a leader, I told my troops they did the right thing to call me to come down and explain that there is no answer. We fought hard and unfortunately we lost service members. But, we always should think of ways to bounce around potential scenarios in a change process that might affect the process down the line. Additionally, being a vocal critic is a good thing! Nobody should fault you for showing that you care and want every potential negative situation mitigated!