Try to tell the story happening in this picture…
What do you think each of these people is experiencing in this meeting? Each one is experiencing something different.
Would a fun team-building exercise help this team mature?
Not likely.
This team will never mature as long as The Worst Team Manager Ever is in their midst and unchecked. You know the type:
- Those who have to run the whole show, every day, even if there are others on their team with better abilities to lead and on different topics.
- Those who like to find fault with anyone over the least little nit-picky thing and are very vocal about their discoveries.
- Those with massive self-confidence and the ability and will to make others feel very small.
- Those who don’t have a clue as to the effect they have on their teammates.
No, this team, if they continue in this way, will never mature. They may be headed for Team Failure (when teammates start leaving the team, never to re-engage with these teammates again), rather than Team Fracture (when teammates can heal their wounds if given the ability to learn from their mistakes and grow into better teammates while still holding each other accountable for tasks and behaviors).
Fortunately, we are starting to see the changes we need in our work teams, so that these kinds of managers are becoming increasingly obsolete as positive psychology becomes a more active component in our teams, and when others address their inability to have psychological safety in the team.
Thank goodness!
When we talk about “team development,” many people have stories about fun activities they took part in that may or may not have helped their team “develop.”
But these team-building activities may cause more harm than good for our teams, especially for more introverted teammates.
When I was the Director of the Twin Cities Chapter of the COO Forum®, the most frequently talked-about topic during Covid was our members’ company cultures. These had just taken a deep dive when companies went from in-person to virtual officing.
This recurring theme was discussed in every meeting during the full length of the Covid shutdown – every month, for over two years. And yet, company culture is built around our teams, not our companies. As the team culture goes, so goes the company culture.
This kind of culture is built from the bottom up, even though there are components of it that are established from the top down.
When built from the bottom up, there is less chance of alienation and more chance of knowing our teammates, their best and worst abilities, and learning how to leverage each other’s awesomeness during teamwork. And when the team culture has been maximized, there’s nothing on earth that will divide the team, even if they have spats or “tiffs” as a former partner of mine called them, or when a team member leaves.
When teams master the ability to stop and restart when faced with problems and can openly discuss obstacles to their collaboration, they can overcome any challenge. Once a team has learned to accept each other as-is and value what each team member brings to the team, it can then mature and develop a high performance culture.
Think about what it would be like if we concentrated on valuing team culture more and corporate culture less.
Culture, in both realms, would take care of itself.