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Team Development Case Studies

Case 1. After two failed searches for a new faculty member, a dean informed a department chair that until the faculty reached agreement on what it wanted, the line on the budget would not be approved. In order to arrive at that agreement, faculty had to address not only disagreements about the direction of the field and the needs of the department, but also a fundamental lack of trust in each other resulting from a long history of conflict. With the help of a team of CLOC consultants, they developed agreement on the specifics for the faculty search and on a new administrative structure that provided both shared power and accountability.

Case 2. The new dean of a large college asked CLOC to help maximize the effectiveness of his leadership team. He had been selected from within the college and wanted to maintain positive relationships, but felt that the team had gotten too large and unwieldy to work as an interconnected group. With the help of CLOC, the dean determined a new team structure based on a culture of camaraderie and in which joint decisions were thoroughly vetted by the group.

At an off-site retreat, time was spent clarifying team values and needs, integrating a new associate provost, and finding ways to let destructive bygones go. Individuals not placed on the new executive team had mixed feelings, so CLOC worked with the dean to create a plan for explaining the rationale and finding other ways to pull them into college-wide decision-making.