People Strategies: Teams must find common ground to achieve success

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Linda Bower is a speaker, executive coach and human performance improvement consultant in Rogersville. |ret||ret||tab|

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When I go to a social event and tell people what I do for a living, they start talking about their workplace. Their manager is a disaster, everybody is dysfunctional, executives are clueless (or owners are nuts), and they want to know why their company is such a mess. |ret||ret||tab|

For 15 years I've been searching for that answer at a professional level. I can expound theories, point to research and quote from the gurus. After all of that, my great conclusion is probably the same as anyone who hasn't studied the question: The reason work environments are unproductive is usually due to poor communication. |ret||ret||tab|

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a correlation between healthy communication and profitability. I've seen incredibly profitable and highly touted companies be mayhem inside because people were allowed to treat each other with disrespect and dishonor. The inability to make a profit correlation is often why companies don't realize (or care) that interpersonal communication is an investment priority. |ret||ret||tab|

Companies that ignore this issue don't understand themselves. They haven't learned one fundamental truth: An organization is nothing but a network of decisions employees make everyday. Each and every decision made by an employee, no matter how big or small, is based on information from someone else. If interpersonal communication is broken, decisions will be avoided or made with inadequate or inaccurate information.|ret||ret||tab|

A recent client situation shows how interpersonal communication was the cause and the solution to a group's inability to perform. |ret||ret||tab|

I was asked to "fix" a sales team that was failing financially, and valued team members and support staff were threatening to leave. A conflict-averse team leader and a few dominating team members had created a work environment that was fraught with personal attacks, one-upmanship and stuck opinions. |ret||ret||tab|

Marketing campaigns weren't launched because the team couldn't agree on which segments they should target. Services weren't improved or expanded because people saw marketplace needs individually rather than holistically. Every department that interacted with or supported the sales team expressed frustration about not being able to get anything done, and so on. |ret||ret||tab|

The popular idea of imposing "group values" wouldn't have worked. That just gives people more reason to point fingers at each other for being less than adequate. Nor do I bother putting people in a room to generically name all the "right" behaviors the team should demonstrate. People won't change if they think no one else will, or they believe their current "wrong" behavior is justifiable.|ret||ret||tab|

Instead, I chose to reset communication practices by getting the group to appreciate individual differences, then building on their commonality. First, team members were given an individual assignment to finish the following sentences.|ret||ret||tab|

Background:|ret||ret||tab|

I joined the company because|ret||ret||tab|

While working here, I have most appreciated the opportunity to|ret||ret||tab|

In a group situation:|ret||ret||tab|

I am most confident and willing to learn when|ret||ret||tab|

Every time we open and close a meeting I need to know|ret||ret||tab|

Before I can agree on a group decision I need to know|ret||ret||tab|

When conflict arises I might tend to|ret||ret||tab|

The reason I participate is|ret||ret||tab|

As an individual:|ret||ret||tab|

I work best when|ret||ret||tab|

I want to work with people who|ret||ret||tab|

My patience runs short when|ret||ret||tab|

Don't try to change my habit of|ret||ret||tab|

Help me to see|ret||ret||tab|

As an individual in this group:|ret||ret||tab|

There are three behaviors I need to see this group demonstrate consistently. They are|ret||ret||tab|

There is one behavior that will stop my contribution. It is|ret||ret||tab|

I think my most important contribution to the team can be|ret||ret||tab|

Answers were sent to one person who collated them, and distributed a booklet back to team members. |ret||ret||tab|

During a professionally facilitated team meeting, individuals were given the opportunity to share their insights and conclusions from reading the booklet. Then they were tasked with creating a set of standards for communicating among themselves, agreeable to everyone. |ret||ret||tab|

The exercise yielded a group decision about how to make group decisions. Most agreements were simple things like, "Let people speak without being interrupted," "Don't assume that silence means agreement," and "Every meeting ends with a review of decisions made."|ret||ret||tab|

Not-so-miraculously, the group dynamic changed almost immediately. They now had shared expectations for acceptable team behavior. |ret||ret||tab|

Marketing campaigns were launched successfully, competitive information was distributed, procedures for transferring work to the support staff were made standard, just to name a few progressions. In the end, everyone became so focused on customer business that they didn't have time to complain about the team. |ret||ret||tab|

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