| PROBLEM |
SYMPTOM |
SOLUTION |
| Mismatched
need |
People with
private agendas working at cross-purposes |
Get hidden
agendas on the table by asking what people want, personally, from teaming; use the
Consensus Building Process. |
| Confused
goals , cluttered objectives |
People
don’t know what they’re supposed to do or it makes no sense |
Clarify the
reason the team exists: define its purpose and expected outcomes with a better Holistic Goal for
the team. |
| Unresolved
rules |
Team members
are uncertain what their job is |
Inform team
members what is expected of them; create clear objectives and specific tasks for team
members, with accountability of tasks being done. (If you can't do it, find a way. No
excuses, ask for help if needed.) |
| Bad
decision-making |
Teams may be
making the right decisions but in the wrong way |
Choose a
decision-making approach appropriate to each decision, based on a Holistic Goal, and with
appropriate monitoring and testing; design better objectives and allocation of tasks |
| Bad
policies, Stupid procedures |
Team is at the
mercy of the employee handbook from hell |
Throw away the
book and start making sense |
| Personality
conflicts |
Team members
do not get along |
Learn what
team members expect and want from each other, what they prefer, how they differ, start
valuing and using differences; build consensus |
| Bad
leadership |
Leadership is
tentative, inconsistent or stupid |
The leader
must learn to serve the team and keep its vision alive or leave leadership to someone else
who can. |
| Bleary
vision |
Leadership has
foisted a bill of goods on the team |
Get a better
vision or go away |
| Anti-team
culture |
The
organization is not really committed to the idea of teams |
Team for the
right reasons or don’t team at all; never force people onto a team. |
| Insufficient
feedback and information |
Performance
is not being measured, team members are groping in the dark |
Design
rewards that make teams feel safe doing their job; reward teaming as well as individual
behaviors;
associate specific responsibility and accountability with each task. Monitor, monitor,
monitor -- and revise the plan when needed. |
| Lack of
team trust |
The team is
not a team because members are unable to commit to it |
Stop being
untrustworthy or disband or reform team; trust-worthiness
means competent to do the job and acting in a responsible fashion. |
| Unwillingness
to change |
The team knows
what to do but will not do it |
Find out what
the blockage is; use dynamite or Vaseline to clear it |
| The wrong
tools |
The team has
been sent to battle with a slingshot |
Equip the team
with the right tools for its trade: or allow freedom to be creative. |