The Lumen and Absorb teams at Crutchfield Chemical Engineering

Done by:

Shalu Welling

Shailja Kapoor

Sameep

Sandeep Kejriwal

Shakti Dash

Sanket Bhatia

Shailesh Gupta

Contents

The Case Crutchfield Chemical Engineering Lumen: The Project and Team Absorb: The Project and Team The Analysis The Problem Reviewing Data Conclusions

The Case… Crutchfield Chemical Engineering was an

international manufacturer of chemicals and fibers. CCE was in the last year of a companywide

downsizing that had resulted in 18% reduction in force.

CCE has 3 Corporate Technology Development departments

Burke was in the sixth year as a Director of the Polymers Department in the Corporate Technology Development.

Polymers department has 5 Research and Development teams, averaging 6 members.

His concern was the drastic differences in the performance and the motivational levels of the teams.

One- the Lumen team –appeared to have a high motivational level in their work.

There were three intermediate teams. One- Absorb team- as quiet low.

Wishing to reverse that burke had engaged organisational psychologist Joanna Mckinty- external consultant to study the department and report back.

Mckinty had done a detailed day-day analysis of team dynamics.

Crutchfield Chemical Engineering

A $29 billion conglomerate headquartered outside Geneva.

A US subsidiary of PPQ worldwide industries. Acquired by PPQ in 1996. A large international chemicals and fiber

manufactures CCE divisions had its own research and

development department.

It also maintained small, elite Corporate Technology Department (CTD) division in New Jersey headquaters.

The mission of CTD was to explore new technologies and product categories that might not fall under the purview of any particular business unit.

The CTD departments had the responsibility of creating the companies future.

Burke’s Polymers Department

Burkes’s Polymers Department was one of the three of in CTD.

His department had five projects team. Each team investigated a recently licensed

technology or product arena. Team leader designated had 100% of the time

allocated for the Team’s Development Project. Size of the team- 4 to 11 members.(average 6)

Lumen – The Project Team

Aimed to develop multilayer sheets of crystal for electronic monitoring of equipment.

Main customer of lumen was Cyrenea.\the team leader was Max Cooper.

Dual responsibility of developing prototype products and conducting prelimnary market assessments.

5 full time members $50 million - $100 millions business for CCE

Absorb- The Project Team

Develop a hybrid organic – inorganic fiberboard with superior heat absorption properties.

Dual responsibility of developing prototype products and conducting preliminary market assessments.

They experienced a difficulty ensuring uniform distribution of fibres in the prototype.

The team had six full time members. Team leader- Chip Wendall.

Analysis Data on skills and performance ,work environment

and motivation were based on the employee survey. It contained a good news and a bad news.(problem) HR’S conclusion that the careful selection of

personnel during the downsizing had succeeded in maintaining all the top performers in the department.

Technical skills well represented. Good mix of talented young researchers and

experienced veterans.

The Problem

Invention disclosures, patent applications,and new product launches were down sharply.

Bad news on employee motivation. Lumen team – High level of motivation Absorb team- Low level of motivation Three remaining teams were intermediate. Large differences in the creativity and

motivation between teams Lumen (high) and Absorb(low).

Solution

SOLUTION 1

A. Mckinty suggested that Burke should personally drop by team meetings and chat individually with a few people on the teams.

B. To personally talk with the team leaders.

C. To identify their current ideas, questions and concerns.

Solution 2

A. The dairy study.

B. The technique involved collecting diaries of everyday work for a two week period.

C. Data collection will involve team members including all the team members.

D. Diary will include : To describe the one event that happened in the

day. Feelings about the project Teams feelings about the project Teams work about the project Your work about the project

Solution 3

A. Using personality scores that HR had obtained from the overall organisation assessment.

B. To measure the Work Preference inventory.

C. A questionnaire is used to assess the tendency of the person to get intrinsically motivated.

Reviewing The Data

Reviewing The Data

Lumen Chronological Summary

Day 1: That morning, Max's (leader's) patent application draft

→Lots of positive feedback, excellent suggestions

→ Max has second draft by end of day → Others are inspired by Max, stay late to

review revision The team was eager to submit the application

Days 4-8: Customer(Cyrenea) complaint regarding product performance and future pricing

Team response? Let customer know that they will bend over backwards to please them

Max (leader) creates list of what's needed to be done, and who is best equipped to do it

Team deals with temporary rescheduling Pitch in to help overwhelmed teammate How does that make teammate feel? Customer responded with Total understanding;

in partnership with Lumen

Days 9-10: Potential customer's needs changed, but impressed by team and will keep in touch and them in mind

Productivity, efficiency, and success lead to free time to explore new avenues

Absorb team Chronological summary

Days 1-2: Little mention of work; write about frustration with Chip (team leader)

Members spending significant time discussion issue with each other

Hector runs experiments on new material samples with considerable success

Hector's response? Discouragement. → Why? Chip says "far from perfect“

Days 7-8: Team unsure about goals, how to spend time

Chip is away. Doing what? Meeting about "political" project with no value

Hector, not knowing what to do, runs experiments with interesting results

What does he do with the results? Nothing. Doesn't think anyone will care

Drawing conclusions

Mckinty drew conclusion that the diary study helped her get a fairly rich look into the two teams.

She could answer the question as to what the difference between the two teams were which created the drastic change in the motivational level.

Comparison Between Lumen and Absorb Based on the analysis

Lumen team Good Team Work and

Open Communication contributed to a great result

Good team work easily solved the problem

Everybody wins…

Absorb team Discourgement killed the

motivation Lack of Leadership led

into trap They went their own

way not same way hence lost.