Sometimes teams just won't work together. They don't get on. They gossip. They backstab each other. They don't share information or take accountability. All this makes your life as a manager a living hell, and an unproductive one at that. They may be great individually but together they are the team from hell!
The most effective way to handle this is to get them to write a team contract. This gets them to agree the rules of behaviour within the team. As they are the ones to write these rules they are easier to enforce and indeed should be enforced by the team themselves.
I use the following approach to get the team to write a team contract. It takes about 90 minutes or so and you need to have all team members present. As team leader you should simply facilitate and avoid the temptation to contribute. They will get there!
- The Team From Hell. Get the team to list things that the team from hell do. If the team is bigger than six members, split them into two groups. Encourage them to get down as many ideas as possible. Run through the list with them.
- The Things The Team From Hell Says. Give each person individually some Post-It notes and ask them to write down the kind of things they would hear the team from hell saying. These should be verbatim. They should put one thing said on each Post-It. When they have written five or six each collect them together on a table so all are clearly visible and spaced out.
- Tick them! Ask them to take a pen and think about their team over the last few months. Which ones have they heard? Get them to put a tick against the quote that they have heard from someone in the team recently. Make sure they do this without talking to anyone else.
- Review the ticks. Most likely some of the Post-It notes will have more ticks. Read these out. Ask them what this tells them about the team. Pretty much always someone will say: We're the team from hell!
- Make it positive. Ask them to now make a list of what the Dream Team does. Limit them to ten points but insist that each point starts with a verb. This helps them focus on specific actions rather than generalities.
- Make it a contract. To make the Dream Team list into a contract simply change the words "Dream Team" to "We will." Ask a volunteer to type it up then print it off.
- Breach of Contract. Before asking each team member to sign the contract, ask them to decide what they will do if someone breaks the contract. Add this to the end of the contract.
- Publicize it! Get a frame and put the team contract where the team members work. Refer to it constantly.
While I have seen varied use of the finished team contract, the actual process of writing it can help a team that has dysfunctional behaviours start addressing them.
Your small improvement for today is get your team to make a team contract.