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Three Team Problems And How To Fix Them

Article Submitted by: Lori Snow

Thursday, 25 June 2009

A good team propels organizations to undreamt-of success. A bad team makes every flaw worse. Poor team development aggravates every inefficiency and error to the point where it can destroy your business. The Xpeerience Group specializes in not only fine tuning good teams into better ones, but helping teams with problems surpass their difficulties with innovative team development activities. Here are three issues the company has identified in many business teams - and ways to fix each of them.

Problem: Destructive Cliques

Cliques are actually a sign of improved team cohesion, but they also have issues that can easily make them non-productive. The main problem is that a destructive clique will exclude outsiders even when they're a vital part of team business, and can band together against other cliques and levels in the company's hierarchy. At its worst, a destructive clique develops its own "in-clique" procedures that it conceals from other groups. Even if these work, they'll eventually cause dysfunctions, because they force management to make decisions based on the wrong assumptions.

Solution: Remix the Team

You want to spread the good parts of a clique around, but get rid of the closed social environment, so assign a mix of clique members and outsiders to projects. You might be tempted to break up the clique completely, but remember that you want members to share their talents. Encourage them to share their positive internal habits and let small pairs in the clique share tasks. Remixing should also include a self-evaluation process so that everyone can share what they've learned. Use the results to address the clique's concerns without letting it operate as an isolated unit.

Problem: Distrust of Leadership

Every manager wants to be liked, but his or her responsibilities include unpleasant duties and of course, power over the team. It's very easy to fall into a position where the team dislikes and distrusts management. This problem gets worse when managers operate through very formal channels for everything from quality assurance to morale building. It puts the procedure, not the manager, at the front of everyone's mind, devaluing them as a human being. Many organizations are resigned to this as a fact of life, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Solution: Empathetic, Dynamic Management

As a manager, reestablish your human qualities first. Acknowledge that necessary formal processes are never perfect - but that they're still necessary. Like the team, you're balancing personal and organizational needs. To but yourself before the process, try to supplement formal tasks with informal contact. Don't try to "make friends" in some forced fashion or undermine your own authority. For example, if you're working through a quality assurance process supplement it with an informal chat about what QA's larger goals are, what information needs to be noted, and how the current process came to be.

Problem: Inconsistent Results

Once you build an effective team it's easy to get caught up in its efforts. After all, a good team makes work fun and absorbing, bringing the psychological "flow" state into things. Unfortunately, that can increase opportunities to flow in the wrong direction, where innovation gets explored for its own sake instead of to fulfill concrete goals. If you step in and apply managerial force, you can dampen team morale or transform it into a destructive clique, as members "wall off" the processes they like from wider scrutiny.

Solution: Directed Self-Assessment

To bring the team back to earth without fostering an "us versus them mentality" ask members to assess themselves according to well-defined goals. This provides a gentle reminder that the team is expected to meet specific objectives without attacking its methods. When the team discovers issues and room for improvement, ask them to drill down into specifics. That way, future team and management action feels like collaboration, not an imposition.

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About The Author:

The Xpeerience Group specializes in corporate team building activities and practical team development skills. To inquire about Xpeerience Group services, visit xpeeriencegroup or email info@xpeeriencegroup.com.

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