The same happened in a small team that reached
out to us for help because there were interpersonal tensions that were
negatively impacting team performance and collaboration. The atmosphere in the
team was negative, and there was barely any communication between team members.
This is sometimes labeled as a ‘cold conflict’ – the conflict is covert, not
overt, but nonetheless has a toxic effects on team atmosphere.
We planned three sessions of three hours with the entire team to address these issues and improve collaboration, with a facilitator from True Colours. It took us only two sessions to work things through, even though the conflict had been slumbering for more than a year. Once the difficult topics were on the table and we were able to hear everyone’s perspective, the solutions and agreements bubbled up spontaneously. Finding solutions was not the hard part, the most challenging step was for the team members to find the courage to openly talk about their frustrations.
In the last session the team made several agreements on how to address future irritations between team members in an open and transparent way, before they had the chance to grow into something bigger. Regular ‘team-check-ins’ was one of them: have a dialogue together around team atmosphere, and which small of big frustrations might be alive around the team collaboration. Not always easy, but afterwards it contributed tremendously to safety and trust between team members.
What about your team? Is tension between team members easily addressed and talked about? Which good practices do you have or could you install to avoid little frustrations turning into big ones?