What to do when team work doesn't work?

Team working is now a vital part of organisational life in most companies in Singapore. Yet working in teams is a complex process with many difficulties involved. The Harvard Business Review recently highlighted eight major problems that teams encounter.

• Poor communication. Team members may interrupt or talk over one another. There may be consistent silence from some members during meetings, allusions to problems but failure to formally address them, or false consensus (everyone nods in agreement without truly agreeing).
• Absence of team identity. Members may not feel mutually accountable to one another for the team’s objectives. There may be a lack of commitment and effort, conflict between team goals and members’ personal goals, or poor collaboration.
• Difficulty making decisions. Team members may be rigidly adhering to their positions during decision making or making repeated arguments rather than introducing new information.
• Inability to resolve conflicts. Conflicts can not be resolved when there are heightened tensions and team members make personal attacks or aggressive gestures.
• Lack of participation. Team members fail to complete assignments. There may be poor attendance at team meetings or low energy during meetings.
• Lack of creativity. The team is unable to generate fresh ideas and perspectives and doesn’t turn unexpected events into opportunities.
• Groupthink. The team is unwilling or unable to consider alternative ideas or approaches. There is a lack of critical thinking and debate over ideas. This often happens when the team overemphasizes team agreement and unity.
• Ineffective leadership. Leaders can fail teams by not defining a compelling vision for the team, not delegating, or not representing multiple constituencies.

Of all these problems my belief is that poor communication and ineffective leadership are probably the major reason why teams fail to deliver results. Successful organizations need effective communications, and team leaders need to nurture a culture of open, honest and transparent communication amongst team members.

• The team leader must have a reputation for honesty and integrity in his or her dealing with the team and third parties.
• The team leader must be given by management clear and easily communicable statements or requirements concerning the task, as well as the reasons why.
• The team must understand the present systems in the organisation and the degree of reliability that they can place on them, so that they can monitor information flows around the shortfalls.
• The team with its team leader must establish respect and trust with the other teams in the organization, so that energies are concentrated on problems and not on scoring points off each other.
• The teams must at all times practise professionalism, and the high duty of care that is needed when dealing with other teams in the organization. Professionalism also demands assertion in attitudes and availability of information.
• The teams should adopt management by walking about (MBWA). The increase in ad hoc information flows and establishing informal lines of communication are enhanced through the mobility of teams and team leaders. This can also lead to the setting up of informal networking information flows.

While there are no universal answers to the complex nature of teams working together consideration of the above points may lead to further thought as to ideas that may be implemented in your organization.  
 

Chris Fenney, Co-founder and Director of Training Edge International and has more than 30 years experience in training and management development, gained in demanding yet sophiscated commercial organizations both in Europe and the U.S.A., where a high premium has always been placed on optimizing human resources and improving performance.

Email : [email protected], Website : www.trainingedgeasia.com