Leadership Training Case Studies

Case Study 1: Building a Team

Joe is Maintenance Coordinator for a public university. Joe is responsible for all the building maintenance and physical systems on campus. He has a number of departments to accomplish the assigned workload. He has an Electrical Department, a Plumbing Department, an HVAC Department, a Carpentry Department, and a Painting Department. The workload for his departments has increased in the last several years as the physical plant continues to age. Joe requested to hire additional workers, but the budget did not allow for it. It became apparent that Joe needed to find more creative ways to better utilize his current resources in order to get more accomplished.

Joe had observed that his departments were not working together well, or even at all, in some cases. It was common for one department to go into a building, “fix” a problem, and then leave a mess for the next department coming in behind them to do their part of the work. Workers seemed to think only about maximizing the output of their own department and finishing their own work quickly, with little regard for the impact on other departments and the long-term impact on the university.

What could Joe do to better coordinate the work of his departments and make better use of the resources he has, so that more work can be accomplished with the limited budget?


Allow your groups to discuss this and come up with strategies. After discussion of the case, ask the question: How could these same ideas be applied in our organization?

Possible answers (for the Trainer or Facilitator).
Joe could:

• Have each department select a team leader to represent them
• Call a meeting of all team leaders, share his budget numbers with them, and explain that they will be expected to work together more closely
• Have each team leader identify what he could do to help each of the other departments
• Continue to hold weekly meetings with team leaders so they get to know each other better, to share information, and to hear requests from each department for what they could use from others
• Begin cross-training people in more than one trade in order to promote sharing of available workers between functions when the workload permits this


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