In the movie, there was a merger of two very different types of teams. As these teams grew, management needed to adapt in order to control and coordinate key business processes in order to successfully complete the project.
From the very beginning, there was a lack of support functions between General Groves and Oppenheimer. Neither one of these leaders initiated control of relations. General Groves engages Oppenheimer, telling him that he wants to bring all the men together centrally and have a ringleader. Based on this conversation and our observations, it would appear that the organizational design that was initially implemented for the Manhattan Project is a centralized, mechanistic structure.
General Groves is the decision making authority, controlling all of the organization’s activities including all communications, procedures, and correspondence up and down the chain of command. Groves also limits the interaction between the groups, stating that he does not want the engineers talking to the theorists, and does not want the theorists talking to the manufacturing teams. Key things that General Groves and Oppenheimer did to integrate two very diverse organizational types was to develop an organizational structure, establish roles, divide authority and control, as well as outline functional teams.
Prior to Groves and Oppenheimer effectively integrating the military world and the free spirited scientist, they first had to decipher the values that motivated these groups in order to adequately plan for successful integration. The interdependence, mechanistic structure set up by General Groves was so rigid that it prohibited the groups from interacting at all, thus we see a decrease in productivity and conflict between the two teams. If they would have integrated the teams, allowing them to work together in an organic cross-functional team, all working for the same purpose, we believe the atomic bomb could have been created sooner.
In the original centralized mechanistic design, everyone answered to Groves, therefore there was no communication between teams. General Groves was the central authority and sole decision maker; meaning key business processes such as coordinating tasks, functions, and groups so they work together was very difficult and time consuming. In our new organic cross-functional structure, each team has a lead and they all work together and correspond with each other to come up with ideas and solutions, meaning that key business processes are easier to implement and organizations are more efficient.
Organizational structure was accomplished through difficult compromise between Groves and Oppenheimer. Compromise was essential to create a balance of mechanistic and organic structure. Groves was relentless with meeting deadlines, while Oppenheimer asked for more time; Groves wanted centralization while Oppenheimer promoted open discussion; Groves wanted rigorous work environment to increase productivity, while Oppenheimer encouraged leisure time to increase productivity. These examples are the extreme structure issues that ultimately challenged both Groves and Oppenheimer.
Balance was established with marginal changes in degree of ach organization type throughout the project to allow for the successful integration and completion of the atomic bomb creation. Once the appropriate organizational structure was established, the culture, morals, values and ethics evolved. However, Groves and Oppenheimer did, some additional things in terms of organizational design that aided in integration, specifically to handle conflict resolution and re-focusing in a crisis situation. Roles were defined for both Groves and Oppenheimer, such as when Oppenheimer requested from Groves to allow him to manage inside the lab and Groves can manage outside of the lab.
This role division allows for differentiation of management styles to meet the functional needs. Authority and control were also well established by the great minds that came to play in meeting each rigorous deadline. For instance when Groves communicated to Oppenheimer that open discussion at the cantina was not acceptable, Oppenheimer defended this approach and used his authority and control to negotiate a compromise with Groves. The final initiative made by Groves and Oppenheimer to integrate the diverse organizational types was to develop functional teams.
The function of each team was to meet their goal, within a 19-month deadline. The teams were comprised of intelligent men who pride themselves on progress and creativity. These teams not only served the purpose to meet the goal of their “function” but also to stimulate each other and challenge each other. Each member was competing against the other in the most sincere and unaggressive manner, all to serve the purpose of the organization. The functional teams were a brilliant integration step, because after all no mechanistic means would motivate these organic natured minds.
With this structure defined, the values for each were recognized and the motivational factors were in place to keep the morale up for quality work. The integration that Groves and Oppenheimer were successful in establishing allowed for the minds to be challenged into greatness, ideas to be “pinged” off one another for improvement, and goals to be met. The atomic bomb was the goal of the mechanistic Groves, however the organic Oppenheimer might now argue the greatest success was not the precise creation of the Fat Man and Little Boy, but rather the building a single organization culture from two that resulted in worldwide recognition of innovation excellence.
Describe the major deliberations of the atomic bomb project. (see supplemental material) In the film, much deliberation and consideration took place before moving forward with the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. The atomic bomb was a new and very powerful weapon, which announced a sudden and immediate threat to humanity. Their main purpose was sudden and as a mass indiscriminate destruction from a single weapon.
Three major perspectives, which influenced their decisions to move forward, were political, military, and moral factors. The first major deliberation took place between personal sacrifices and the importance of humanity. The scientist and engineers were asked to leave the comfort of their homes to work on a project bigger than they have ever imagined. General Groves forfeited his leadership on the front line in Europe in order to oversee the project. This was a colossal decision and personal risk for Groves’ since he was unsure if the creation of the bomb would ever prove to be successful.
The atomic bomb project was made to be a win-win scenario for the military. Only the best engineers in the world were invited to be part of this team and were told to use their minds and energy to develop this military bomb. The biggest decision made by each individual was to put all personal and family obligations aside and go beyond fanciful for this bomb. One more major deliberation existed between Oppenheimer’s wife and mistress. The mistress knew about the wife but was very afraid for Oppenheimer to have to make a decision between the two of them.
Once again causing much thought and deliberations on Oppenheimer’s part because he wanted to keep his mistress a secret. Another problem presented itself knowing the mistress was part of the “communist party”; therefore, general Groves did not want Oppenheimer communicating with her. This bomb caused people to deceive their family and public with regard to the experiments being conducted. Oppenheimer’s wife felt neglected and did not understand why everything had to be sacrificed when the only thing that was going to count at the end of the day is the “bomb”, not the individuals involved.
Moreover, another deliberation was personal motivation versus de-motivation. Many different events took place that caused both military men and scientist to lose motivation on this project. The first crisis took place when a scientist underwent massive brain swelling from radiation while testing the bomb and later died. Then another was injured due to poor timing while testing. Once injuries and deaths occurred, motivation from friends, coworkers, and soldiers begin to decrease. Another demotivating factor occurred when Oppenhiemer’s mistress died.
Oppenheimer began to ask, “Why did he pick me? His motivation to work on the project decreased dramatically, he lost site of the vision and wanted to quit. General Groves was able to get Oppenhiemer motivated again, becoming obsessed with work. Oppenheimer began to see a new world and could not give up his vision. General Groves had a long-term motivation mindset “rush, push, it is going to affect big lives, talk about future. ” Another consideration was discipline within the military versus security. On the military side, they were worried that the Germans were gaining ground in building the bomb.
Groves began looking at the enlisted men as a number instead of person. Military factors included high-level secrecy in the creation, delivery and deployment of the bombs. Groves wanted everything involving the military, bomb, and war to be a secret. He did not want anyone outside to get an inside scoop. On the security side, the military did not give the individuals any room to breathe and Oppenheimer was in charge of all inside security. With Groves, being in charge of outside and Oppenhiemer in charge of inside this caused some conflict of interest.
After successful completion of the European campaign, there was much deliberation as to whether or not to continue building the bomb. There was three major crisis of conscience, which took place: debate whether to use bomb, deliberation of whether to sign and submit petition to stop building the bomb, and will it be large enough to stop war forever. This is where disagreement began taking place. Being that the bomb creation and implementation consisted of two different organizational types: military men and scientists; there were many different views and perspectives on morality and continuation.
The military men were just looking at taking as many opponent soldiers lives as possible. On the other hand, scientists were looking at the atomic bombs as immoral and Oppenheimer felt that the United States had taken the wrong path. The atomic bomb shortened the war and saved many civilians’ lives in the mind of the military, in addition to being a “payback” of sorts for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Scientists could quantify chain reactions and compile statistics on the horrific deaths and injuries, but could not foresee the impact the decision would have on future generations. The decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved to be one of the most controversial acts of our era.
If you entered the project very early as a consulting group, what steps would you take the top managers (scientist and military) through to help them create an even more effective project. Purpose: The project was converting the theory of a nuclear bomb into a reality. The urgency was to end the war and beat the Germans in building the bomb. As a consultant to General Groves and Dr. Oppenheimer, we would advise that the success of this project depends on strong project management skills and effective leadership.
Communication must be clearly articulated throughout the many phases of the project, which include: define phase, define the objective and scope; conceptual phase, design the bomb and all components; build, test, modify and manufacture phase or constructing phase; and finally the close or completion phase. Project Stage Development Step One – Project Initiation. Normally the first step is initiating key deliberations and determining which of several projects is the most cost effective and generates the largest return on investment.
In the film, step one in selecting and prioritizing the nuclear bomb project was already predetermined by the military. The lack of initial project planning in building the bomb caused another General to sacrifice the financial resources needed to sustain and maintain his unit’s vehicles, while fighting on the European front lines. This phase defines project objective and score. The purpose of project and solutions to be implemented justify the existence of the project. A team is assembled by identifying skills, knowledge and abilities needed for the project. In the film, scientists were gathered from all over the US to work on the project.
A business case is usually prepared, which outlines statement of work to be accomplished. The statement of work includes an executive summary, SMART goals, scope, assumptions and risks, stakeholders and deliverables. Deliverables in this stage are the initiation of project objective and scope. In the film, there was little or no indication that this step was accomplished. Step Two – Define Project Planning. This phase is the roadmap of the project. Stakeholders are identified. Selection and set up of a project design involves decisions on how authority should be centralized or decentralized.
In the film, the organizational structure is specialized. A natural evolvement of the culture exhibited a united, innovative, creative, where ideas were free flowing. A resource plan is devised that identifies roles, responsibilities, and human resources required. Contract suppliers are identified to supply organizational inputs: what is needed, when it is needed, where to obtain it, and how to acquire supplies. Additional plans are established to control quality, risks, communication, procurement, and preparation of an acceptance plan. Contingency plans should also be prepared in the event of an emergency or change in direction is required.
Deliverables for this phase of the project include a project work breakdown structure of people, costs, and schedule. Due to time sensitivity of the project completion, General Groves and Dr. Oppenheimer need to be primary managers of project costs. They were also disorganized by haphazardly selecting the inadequately skilled contractors. Another example of lack of organized procurement surfaced when ordering supplies at the build out phase. Additionally, preparing a team charter to establish rules of conduct for communicating, managing conflict, and dissention and/or disagreement should be adopted during the planning phase.
Step Three – Project Execution. This is the phase of physically building, testing and delivering the bomb to the military. We would highly emphasize to the top managers that effective management and leadership practices are vital to this phase of the project. The project closely monitors and controls time, costs, quality, changes, risks, issues, team members, suppliers, customers (the military) and communication. Communication is vital in presenting deliverables, such as progress reports, activity forecasts, allocation of funds, issue priorities based on specific metrics, and exception reports.
In the film, Dr. Oppenheimer gave verbal status reports while riding in the car. General Groves followed up with one-on-one meetings in the Pentagon relaying progress of the project. We would advise these leaders to establish tollgates at each phase of the project with stakeholder members in attendance. This is a form of cross-functional teams. The tollgates present a status of the project, the cost to date, potential barriers that keep the project from meeting deadlines, outstanding issues, or contingencies for overcoming issues. Tollgates keep projects on time and on budget.
With the appropriate stakeholders present, they have authority to break down the barriers, commit to additional resources, or add potential suggestions from previous experiences. As mentioned previously, the test phase revealed the lack of contingency planning when dealing with the two injuries that occurred in the film. Step Four – Project Close. This phase communicates the close of the project to suppliers, contractors, releases the project resources, analyze financials, documents lessons learned, identify level of success of the project, and celebrate the end of the project.
The celebration occurred when the workers carried Dr. Oppenheimer on their shoulders through the streets in the secure compound. Management / Leadership. As a consulting group, we would meet with leaders General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer to discuss the overall management, leadership and communication process throughout the project. We would mention to both General Groves and Dr. Oppenheimer the difference in management styles required for military personnel, scientists and support staff. Team members should be selected who are compatible and work together toward the common goal of define, design, construct, and close out of the project.
Each participate on the team should be held accountable for their actions. A natural development of culture norms and values developed between workers under Dr. Oppenheimer’s leadership. Dr. Oppenheimer had the responsibility of directly managing highly skilled and educated professionals. A major issue in the film was the lack of accountability in leaking information on the project to other colleague scientists outside Los Alamos. The release of the information resulted in public outrage and a signed petition to the President of the United States to stop construction of the bomb.
While the scientists did not have a moral issue in building the bomb, outside stakeholders were opposed. This risk should have been discussed and contingency plans developed during project management step two. Oppenheimer did an excellent job of maintaining the momentum of the project, even though the scientists and engineers repeatedly failed to come up with solutions to the equations. On several occasions, the project seemed doomed. He included scientists in decision-making processes, suggested possible solutions when they suffered mental blocks, initiated brainstorming sessions, provided continuous encouragement and positive feedback.
He challenged the other scientists with “what if” scenarios. Oppenheimer’s enthusiasm for the project was contagious to team members when they were so mentally and physically exhausted they could barely focus, yet he continued to keep them motivated. This is evident by one specific comment made in the film, “Dr. Oppenheimer holds us all together. If he cracks, everything would fall. ” As consultants, we would remind Dr. Oppenheimer that he must a his management style when dealing with military personnel. He should be aware that the military is constantly watching and evaluating the progress of the project.
He must be able to clearly and concisely communicate through progress reports relating status of the project. The information would then be submitted to higher military leaders by General Groves. We would caution Dr. Oppenheimer not to allow General Groves to be blind-sided on any issue, but communicate information quickly. In the film, Dr. Oppenheimer did not share information with the General about his communication and relationship with his “communist” mistress. We would also recommend the same communication process to General Groves, who deliberately withheld information for three months when Oppenheimer’s mistress committed suicide.
Another incident that was not communicated was that the Germans were no longer close competitors in building the bomb. Both these incidents caused distrust between the two leaders. Because of Dr. Oppenheimer’s distress and distrust, he temporarily lost the motivation to continue working on the project. General Groves had a different style of motivation from Dr. Oppenheimer. Groves conveyed a sense of urgency to “rush,” “keep pushing,” “this project is going to affect big lives,” “talk about the future. ” As the consultants, we would caution General Groves to curtail his “want it NOW” attitude.
In summary, the success of this project depends on strong project management skills, abilities, and effective leadership and management qualities that are established in the initiation of the project. Communication must be clearly articulated throughout the many phases of the project. A challenge exists in bringing the formal centralized military structure with the need to have a flexible, free flowing scientific structure. As a consulting group combining these two extreme organizational structures, we would recommend a formal reporting structure to accommodate the centralized military structure organization.
The specialization of the scientists and supporting workforce will require a less formal, more flexible work design and change structure to promote an innovative and free flowing exchange of ideas to achieve the goal. The culture norms, values, and ethics will unite the team and promote management, control, coordination, and motivation that shape behavior of the people, ethics and structure. 4. The Atomic Bomb Project involved the very close mixing of two very diverse organizational types: the military operation and a relatively large group of spirited scientists.
Describe the key things that General Groves and Oppenheimer did to integrate them. The Atomic Bomb Project involved combining two distinctly different teams. It was important that General Groves and Dr. Oppenheimer incorporated the military and scientists in order to develop and reach their objective. There were several key issues that assisted in achieving the integration process. Oppenheimer stressed “free discussion” between the scientists in order to encourage brainstorming, the initial stage of this process.
Groves had a difficult time understanding the point of the discussions, as well as feared it would be a security problem. Oppenheimer explained the creative culture was how they worked in order to achieve the quick resolution of a complex issue they were asked to tackle. Both Groves and Oppenheimer has to compromise on this concern. It was necessary that the scientists had room to breathe and be creative; however, it had to be kept within certain military constraints to keep information from scattering. Another compromise that Groves and Oppenheimer had to make was the security surrounding the scientists.
The military personnel are comfortable with the strict setting in which they work because that is the culture; however, the scientists struggled with the set of laws that were imposed upon them. Oppenheimer and Groves came to the agreement that the responsibility for security inside the lab fell on Oppenheimer, while the security for outside the lab was the responsibility of Groves. This allowed the scientists to achieve their goal by being able to risks and be creative, but also following rules, norms, and standards set forth by the military.
It was crucial that Groves and Oppenheimer permitted the two groups to come together on several occasions, so they could get to know each other. Several examples of the socializing were displayed in the movie, such as Oppenheimer and his wife hosting a dinner party and a baseball game between both groups. During a celebration after the war, Oppenheimer asked Groves to dance with him in front of everyone. Groves accepted the dance, which was a noteworthy to the team displaying teamwork and integration. Groves and Oppenheimer both shared the same goal, which was making the bomb according to a set timeline.
There were many obstacles along the way, but when it came to reaching a goal, both were able to put differences aside and work together. Groves allowed Oppenheimer to bring in experts from the outside to gain additional ideas, as well as explore testing sites, equipment, and resources to get the job done. Both leaders were successfully able to incorporate these different cultures by gradually providing opportunities for the groups to mix and demonstrate ways in which they could work together. Ultimately, these efforts resulted in the history-making event that changed humanity forever.
