Following on from the five biggest people challenges we talked about in our last article, our attention turns this week to how to address these challenges.

How do you keep the team together?

If you recall, the biggest challenges we saw were:

Employee retention
Rethinking engagement
Wellbeing
Supporting line management capability
Workplace Flexibility Expectations

All pretty meaty topics I’m sure you would agree and the bottom line is that there is no quick or easy fix. Sorry about that.

The good news is, is that all of these areas can be rolled up under the umbrella of teamwork if that makes it easier to think about.

You may think you have a great team, you may be unlucky enough to feel as though you are on a terrible team. The upshot is, regardless of which teams you have or which you are on, there are likely to be a number of areas that could be holding you back and some (or all!) of our big 5 challenges will be expressions of that.

If you are struggling with line manager capability, that may look like a team with an inability to have hearty debates without it descending into politics or worse – non committal compliance, siloed working or a finger pointing blame culture. If you are unsure how wellbeing is in your organisation, you may be seeing increased levels of sickness absence, particularly longer-term absences associated with stress or anxiety. If your employees are resigning then this can be a symptom of a lack of engagement, poor wellbeing or poor management.

So what can you do? How does addressing teamwork help with these five people challenges that may be holding back your business?

Trust. Your team need to trust you and each other.

We’ve talked a lot about trust in the past and we will continue banging the trust drum - because it is the bedrock of what your team needs to be built upon. Team members willing to be vulnerable with each other, being genuine and open while being able to own up to mistakes and weaknesses is not just important, it’s completely essential. Only when team members can act together without concern for protecting themselves and can focus entirely on the job in hand can we stop wasting time and energy by politicking and managing others group behaviour.

If your team trust each other:

They admit their weaknesses and mistakes.
They ask for help.
They give the benefit of the doubt before arriving at conclusions.
They take risks offering feedback.
They appreciate and tap into each other’s skills and experiences.
They offer and accept apologies without hesitation.
They look forward to meetings and opportunities to work as a group.

Conflict. Your team need to be able to have unfiltered conflict, with no fear of repercussions, around ideas and problem solving.

I love talking about conflict in the workplace. It has such a negative impact when it happens as it usually does – but when done well is such a creative force and opportunity for progress that it really needs to be high on everyone’s agenda. The problem is, most of us walk around fearing and avoiding conflict. People talk in hushed tones to people they trust, but perhaps won’t speak their minds in meetings. People may try to put their point across, but are so worried being diplomatic about their words the point never carries across. We end up with agreement and acquiescence in meetings while the real debate (that goes nowhere, by the way) is carried out in smoking shelters or on the way to Tesco to grab a sandwich. You can’t have positive conflict without the first foundation layer of trust.

Does your team engage well with conflict?

They have lively and interesting meetings.
They make sure all ideas are heard.
Real problems are solved quickly.
There is minimal politics.
Critical topics are on the table for discussion.

Commitment. Your team need to be able to wholeheartedly commit to decisions and plans of action.

Moving on from a general reluctance to say what they really think, you will find that while the team may go through the motions of carrying out what they need to do, there is no real commitment on their part. If Ron thinks that Anita’s idea is utter rubbish but wasn’t able to say anything and everyone else agreed it, then if it does go sideways, is Ron going to care? Is he going to feel a bit smug that it did go wrong? Does that matter?

Your team need to be able to fully commit to ideas and plans and they can only do that when they have had an opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas. Great teams make clear decisions and move forward with complete buy-in, even from those who were initially against the idea.

Does your team commit?

They create clarity around directions and priorities.
The entire team is aligned around common objectives.
They learn from their mistakes.
They move forward swiftly, taking advantage of opportunities before competitors do.
They are able to change direction without hesitation or guilt.

Accountability. They hold each other accountable.

Hot on the heels of commitment is accountability. Or what we are more used to seeing which is an absence of accountability. We don’t like to call peers or other team members out on behaviour or action that goes against what we are trying to achieve. And yet the majority of issues I see in the workplace time and again is not the technical ability of people in the workplace. It’s the other bonkers stuff they do that annoy everyone else, or a work ethic that isn’t fitting with the organisational culture. Nobody does anything about it because it’s “not their place” to say anything, or they don’t want to upset anyone. If your team have the safety to trust each other, can hold healthy conversations, are committed to the plan because they had an opportunity to input to it, they can now be in a position where they can hold each other accountable. It sounds reasonable… and it’s really REALLY hard because as human beings we avoid what feels uncomfortable, and what we often find here is an unwillingness to tolerate the interpersonal discomfort that comes from calling someone out and a more general tendency to avoid difficult conversations.

Teams that hold one another accountable:

Ensure that poor performers feel the need to improve.
Question each other’s approaches without hesitation when needed.
Establish respect among team members who understand they are held to the same high standards.
Avoid excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action.

Results. The focus is in the achievement of collective results, not the individual.

I can’t think of a single business where results are not the sum of many different parts, from the pot washers to the CEOs, the person answering the phone to the one drilling a hole in someone’s head, results are always the conclusion of the actions of a team. But we often don’t think like that, and in some cases, we aren’t encouraged to think like that either. How many annual appraisals take into account the role you played as part of a team? How many pay rises are given based on the contributions of the individual? I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, but too much focus on the recognition or career development of the individual rather takes the eye off the collective ball don’t you think? The results that are in focus need to be collective if your team is going to thrive.

Teams that focus on the collective results:

Retain achievement-oriented individuals.
Minimise individualistic behaviour.
Avoid distractions.
Benefit from individuals who subjugate their own interests for the good of the team.

These five areas have been used at length, successfully by organisations the world over. They come from Patrick Lencioni, a hero of ours, who has outlined these steps to enable organisations to overcome common hurdles and build cohesive and effective teams. We know that these areas all build upon one another and can help to address the people challenges that we see all the time.

As Patrick says, teamwork comes down to practicing small steps over time. It’s not about complicated theories, its about common sense, persistence and in our opinion the most important part – acknowledging the imperfections of our humanity. Once we learn to know and understand one another, we can overcome our natural tendencies that make trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and a focus on results so elusive.

If you want to learn more about these 5 steps, we highly recommend reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

If anything in this article resonates, get in touch for a chat! Simply email: lucy@humaneverything.co.uk

Keeping the Team Together