Kevin Murphy Wrote
"I have worked at projecting team accountabilites and been criticized for
that move. I believe the main fear sources in not trusting that the team
will deal with the individual accountablities in the long run. The team
will weed out nonproducers. The manager fears, if he or she does not have
an individual to blame, they will be left without a quick answer, when
they are held accountable."
Kevin, you are right when you say there is fear. In my experience the
fear is on both sides of the team/management relationship. I facilitated
a team which had a major problem with a member who was sabotaging the
team's efforts because he wanted to return to the traditional
employee/manager relationship. The team's coach actively tried to
influence the team to address this issue. The team refused saying it was
a problem for management to handle. Ironically, they were complaining all
the time about the situation. The team began to totally focus on the
errant team member which resulted in a significant drop in the efficiency
of the team. However, they still refused to address the issue. Finally,
management had to step in and address the situation.
In retrospect, the team should have addressed the problem since they were
totally empowered to do so. However, my experience has taught me that
team's do not like to address interpersonal issues and would rather pass
them on to management. There is a fear of what will happen if they try to
address the issue. Management was frustrated because the time it took to
address the team's problem because they were trying to empower the team
and not be too direct. Management's fear is the loss of productivity and
the time it will take to address the issue. They would rather just step
in and direct the team; however, they realize that this undermines
empowerment and results in a significant delay in the team's growth.
My question to Learning Org's participant's is: "What are you experiences
with team's addressing interpersonal issues and how would you facilitate a
learning experience for a team so they will begin to lose their fear of
addressing these delicate issues in the future?"
Kevin Haurin
KErH@msn.com
--"Kevin Haurin" <KErH@msn.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>