The teamwork dilemma

Throughout my entire career, I have never, until this moment, been faced with a team of staff that exhibited a sense of teamwork and camaraderie completely absent, by choice. The biggest frustration with a situation like this is the communicated desire, on the part of the subordinate team, to be part of a team with mutually supportive members, while those same members actively choose not to hold each other accountable for behaviors and interactions. of others. The situation is essentially an environment where ‘everyone wants to work with team players’, but no one wants to ‘make an effort to build teamwork’; nor is there a demonstration of ‘expecting others’. It is an absolutely stagnant impasse with little motivation and initiative to overcome challenges where cliques, dissent and discrimination run wild with no personal restraint.

So how can a situation like this be improved?

Although I am entering the frontline team development stages with my leadership team, I have developed a model for this dilemma. The approach is a step-based action item process to drive progress through collaborative accountability with embedded expectations.

Step One: Align Leadership

The first step in working toward a solution is understanding and admitting that a problem really exists. With regard to leadership, each member of the leadership must be willing to take ownership of the issue at hand; in this case, teamwork.

Leadership members must also share a common goal of developing the problem in a positive direction. Members of leadership must also know the organization’s mission, vision, purpose, and goals. The overall process is only possible if all members of the leadership have a genuine interest and motivation as a complete “whole”, as a leadership team.

The senior leader must identify the leadership mindset of subordinate team leaders and subordinate managers. Without leadership consistency, efforts will not proceed as desired, leaving the efforts of the group’s key leader compromised. If leaders do not accept the change, the need for change, the goals and objectives, their roles must be evaluated to determine if they fit their role, as leaders must possess behaviors to institute and drive change for development.

Step Two: Bury the Past

Once the leadership is aligned, meet with the followers and explain that there is a ‘troubled past’ that has value, meaning and purpose. However, the ‘past’ is behind the team now, and a future is being structured. For a future to begin to take shape, the subordinate team must rise to the challenge of developing a future state vision with a supporting mission. In doing so, the team develops a clear picture of what the team will become as it develops in a positive direction.

In this critical piece of work environment development, the key leader must identify historical challenges and use sympathy to connect with followers while creating focus on the circle of influence with a clear message Focus on moving forward. The leader must communicate the past. like the past and the first behavioral steps into the future for this to be effective. Group members must understand that the focus is shifting away from external influencers to internal controllable factors. To build this journey, the leader must Create a vision – with the group. This is essential for group support and group accountability. Leadership research has shown that when groups and teams create solutions together, there is greater commitment among group members and, ultimately, greater accountability among peers. The group should be the collective voice in support of the vision. It may be necessary to work through vision. with them to instill the need for change. Next, the leader must Create a support mission. An example could be, “To provide the best care within our capabilities while being a catalyst for change in our organization through collaboration, teamwork, peer support and integrity.”

Step Three: Identify Agents of Change

Once the subordinate team has developed a mission and vision for future development, the leadership members must be agents of change while creating ‘internal champions’. An internal advocate should be someone who has values ​​that show and support the cohesiveness and advancement of teamwork.

By Identification of agents of change, the leader can to create leaders among the followers. These individuals can be trainers, committee members, committee chairs, development supervisors, and any other role that influences and supports change.

Step Four: Build a Support Structure

The use of change agents will drive development from the front line, where members of the leadership team are not constantly present. Change agents can also be the tools for accountability and responsibility for other subordinate staff members.

This front-line approach, along with the leadership members driving change, will continue to drive and develop progress in a positive direction, resulting in an effective support structure from the inside out.

This step should also include communication, publication and emphasis on the developed vision and mission.

Once these individuals are identified, the leader can begin Build a support structure. This can be done in a variety of ways, including departmental performance committees, training teams, recruitment and peer interview panels, employee focus group committees, and other areas of training and development.

Step Five: Group Development

Group development is about reinforcing positive behaviors, clearly communicating expected behaviors, and diminishing attention by correcting behaviors that inhibit change.

Once these teams and committees are established, the group development you can start by penetrating the workgroup with these change’s agents.

Step Six: Execution

Execution It comes from creating action plans and purposes for each of these change agents, committees, and focus groups. From this point, a group standard of behavior can be developed to reinforce Responsibility.

Step Seven: Responsibility

Once this behavior standard is developed, put it in writing and communicate it clearly as the behavior expectation; if possible, place it at each work station and in all areas of operation. Use of this standard, in conjunction with organization policies and procedures, provides a basis for addressing poor performance and behaviors in the future for development, retraining or, when necessary, removal of a member from the group through dismissal and termination. Leaders should post standards of behavior with other visual aids, such as the circle of influence and the steps to success described above that illustrate the transition from Leadership Alignment a Responsibility.

In general, leaders must understand a clear reality: not everyone is open or willing to change. For this reason, leaders must hold the group accountable. This can be difficult for followers to accept, as they feel they are gossiping each other for not meeting behavioral expectations. But above all, to sustain change and drive continuous change, the leader must-must-must-must hold subordinate leaders accountable for exhibiting behaviors and hold subordinate team members accountable for behaviors.