Getting Teams to Work: Are We Fixing the Wrong Problem?

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Getting Teams to Work: Are We Fixing the Wrong Problem?

by Doug DeCarlo

April 17, 2006


Some would say that teams just happen and that you can do little to get them to jell. Actually, I used to believe this until I found myself face-to-face with the team that couldn't shoot straight.
 
About all this seven-member core team could do well was to shoot at each other. This took the form of blaming the other guy for not meeting deadlines, sarcastic remarks during team meetings, finger pointing, constant bickering, exclaiming, "I thought that was your job" and, at times, hurling outright insults across the table.
 
These interpersonal conflicts are devastating on extreme projects which have their own challenges to begin with; that is, these are high-speed, high-change, highly complex, high-stress ventures. As a result of their unresolved conflicts, this new product development team was four months behind schedule in meeting its market window.
 
Food, Beer and Rocks 'n Ropes
The team's problems had not gone unnoticed by senior management, who brought in the human resources department to intervene.



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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
- Jack Handey