Teams have been extremely busy this spring. Some are starting to function better and others are continuing to struggle. Those that are struggling have one common factor from my vantage point. They have broken into subgroups and lost the glue that holds them together as a team.
As a team leader, the first step to dealing with this is to make sure all the subgroups feel valued for their contribution toward the overall goal. This may mean helping the members of the subgroups to have line of sight from what they are doing on a daily basis with what the overall team goal. This is an initial step to building shared identity and shared understanding. Overtime, it has the potential to break down barriers to cooperation and information exchange.
The second step is to create and to value structured unstructured time. Here, we open up time in our busy schedules to connect with people and to talk about matters not directly related to the task at hand. We value these moments of sharing because we are building relationships with people not just pushing them to get more work done. It also gives us a window into the whole person, not just the person who has a position and job title at the company.
The third step is answer the following six critical questions as a team:
- Why do we exist?
- How do we behave?
- What do we do?
- How will we succeed?
- What is most important, right now?
- Who must do what?
These six questions come from the following book: Lencioni, Patrick. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012). I have found them to be excellent and they have often generated new insights and perspectives, especially when a team has broken into subgroups. Often, they create a pathway to greater understanding and clarity which results in the subgroups slowly moving back into the direction of working as one team. And given current events, this is something we all seek and desire.
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