Teams or groups? Sadly, and much too often, it seems the latter are more common

Citation

Davidson, H. (2011), "Teams or groups? Sadly, and much too often, it seems the latter are more common", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 10 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2011.37210aaa.002

Teams or groups? Sadly, and much too often, it seems the latter are more common

Article Type: Strategic commentary From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 10, Issue 1

“A team is ‘people doing something together’. ‘… the something that a team does isn’t what makes it a team; the together part is’.” (Robbins and Finley, 1997).

I’ve worked with the so-called top teams of many apparently dysfunctional organisations. Truthfully, I’m pretty jaundiced about the constant use of the word “team”, which always seems to assume a quality of relationship between executives that commonly, on close observation, just isn’t there. Through confidential one-to-one interviews, I have been surprised/astonished to find the frequency/scale of the following:

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  misperceptions of colleagues and their motivations;

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  jealousy arising from “perceived” favouritism by chief executives of certain executives over others;

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  disempowerment of some executives arising through perceived favoured executives bypassing formal decision-making processes and going straight to the chief executive to swing decisions “their way”;

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  “incidents”, often arising from imperfect decision-making or a sense of being “stitched-up”, undermining and poisoning relationships;

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  incidents not being talked out, discussed or resolved and left to fester/colour future dealings with colleagues;

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  attempts to talk issues out/have honest debate suppressed by chief executives who don’t like conflict, aided by colleagues preferring conciliatory styles of engagement, which has the net effect of suppressing necessary debate;

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  consequent lack of trust between executives and inevitable growth of distrust and suspicion;

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  consequent lack of honest, open relationships and constant misinterpretation of actions, behaviours and colleagues’ intentions;

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  poor personal and working relationships spilling over into venues where staff are present, resulting in loss of confidence of staff in the top team; and

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  stressed-out executives, exhibiting classic signs of over-work, tension and anxiety and feeling increasingly paralysed, bullied, under-valued, frustrated and helpless with low morale and motivation and sometimes poor physical and mental health.

The following are some of the common features that I have typically found that give rise to such behaviours:

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  Incorrect assumption that senior executives just “know” how to bond as a team – and will.

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  Failure to agree common values (and the behaviours that underpin them) that the top team must consistently model, encourage and reward. Executives thus operate in a moral vacuum.

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  Business that is experiencing profound change and challenge (of whatever nature) in its market place or sector.

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  Failure, for whatever reason, to have honest and vigorous debate, and be able to challenge colleagues in an assertive but constructive manner.

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  Failure to create the space and time to get to know each other – motives, ambitions, personal drivers, etc.

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  Failure to have individual mentoring/coaching support – corporately or privately.

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  Failure to have external team coaching and support and, if provided, a view that it lacks sufficient “hard-edge”.

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  Failure to have experienced Tuckman’s four stages of forming teams (forming, storming, norming and performing) – or to have skipped the “storming” stage.

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  Lack of clarity around personal remit, authority and accountabilities of each executive.

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  Poor decision making processes.

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  Poor leadership from a chief executive inconsistent in decision-making and suppressing challenge/debate.

The following are some of the components that are necessary to finding a solution:

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  External facilitation. In my opinion, facilitation needs to be trusted and sufficiently hard-edged to break through potential shields of denial.

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  Agreement on common values and the behaviours that underpin them, which must henceforth govern relationships between team members.

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  Time out to get to know/understand each other better. The active participation here of “all” team members, including the chief executive, is non-negotiable.

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  Goodwill and a readiness to acknowledge, respect, forgive and start again. It takes a long time to re-build trust once it is lost, but the starting point has to be an agreed common foundation.

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  Acceptance of the need to “re-storm” and work through accumulated angst. No more smouldering, unspoken issues and no “elephants in the room”.

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  Individual coaching and mentoring support. All executives, including the chief executive, need assistance to prepare job/person specifications for coaches/mentors.

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  Specialist and confidential psychological counselling needs to be made available for those who wish to use it – there are always some “damaged” individuals who require support way beyond the talents of regular coaches and mentors.

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  Regular and facilitated team off-site meetings need to be agreed.

In my experience, dysfunctional teams (at executive or any other level) rarely survive intact from the learning/development interventions I have described. The pain of departures, forced or otherwise, is acute. But, the joy of watching members of a formerly dysfunctional group give each other permission to call themselves a team – and celebrate accordingly – is intense and wonderful.

Hamish DavidsonChairman of Entrepreneurs in Action.

About the author

Hamish Davidson is one of the most experienced and well-respected recruitment specialists in the UK. He has spent time as a partner heading the UK executive resourcing team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and as chairman of Veredus Executive Resourcing and then Rockpools. Today, he leads his own diverse consultancy practice, Davidson & Partners. He also chairs Entrepreneurs in Action, which runs enterprise-based interactive programs designed to motivate and inspire young people; Iris Consulting, a niche research-focused, improvement consultancy; and MJI, a public affairs and transformation consultancy. Hamish Davidson can be contacted at: hdavidson@theeia.com