Sally, Executive VP, invited me to help her transform her team from being dysfunctional to a team that delivered all its potential. I told her I would give it a shot, but before meeting with them, we had to lay the necessary groundwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preparation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Being asked to facilitate a dysfunctional group is an intervention. Before undertaking any group intervention, it\nis essential to be well informed about the audience you will work with. This conforms to the principle that\n\u201ctreatment without diagnosis is malpractice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before meeting with the group, the following questions\nneeded answers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the answers to these questions, we would proceed to\nmeet with the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who asked for the\nintervention?<\/strong> Sally B., EVP of Socks and Stuff, Inc. \u201cWhat prompted the request, Sally?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have a business\ndevelopment group with ten executives and three support staff from IT,\nmarketing, and distribution. They are\nall first born, all leaders, direct, take-charge people who are smart,\nunfamiliar with group process, and live in silos. They can\u2019t even agree on the length of the\nmeetings, time, place, and purpose. \nEverything is up for debate. They\nhave no fun together. They are serious\nand argumentative. I organized the group,\nand I chose the wrong people. I don\u2019t\neven like to attend their non-meetings.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who decided it was a\ndysfunctional group?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of the group\nwho came to Sally wanting to resign because of in-fighting.<\/em> What does the group\nthink of itself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The descriptors come from a sampling of the group by Sally\u2019s\nsecretary who sets the time, place, and purpose of each meeting. She polled half of the group and recorded\ntheir descriptors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selfish. Self-centered. Non-listeners. Polite when it is politically called\nfor. Spotty attendance. Leaders without a leader. Loyal only to their department. Don\u2019t see the big picture. Controlled hostility. Consistently talk about their toughness. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Does the group want\nhelp?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NO.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Describe the\ndysfunction. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Inability to reach\nconsensus on nearly everything. \nSelf-promoters, not company oriented. \nDisrespectful of anyone not at their level of accomplishment or position.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the group were\nfunctional, what would be different?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Answer from Sally: The group would think of the organization\nfirst, then their department. They would\ncommit to what\u2019s good for the future, including employees and customers. They would support and respect each other and\nall employees. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last question. What are the expected outcomes if\/when\nfunctionality returns?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Answer from Sally: Ditto to my answer on functionality. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Delivery<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Helen, Sally\u2019s assistant, arranged the group meeting at 1-3\npm in the conference room. \u201cAll persons required to attend and arrive at\n12:55 pm<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sally opened the meeting. \nTo her surprise, everyone was 5-10 minutes early. \u201cI\u2019m happy we are all present and on time. (A\nfew giggles). Let me introduce Warren\nHoffman, our meeting facilitator and available if needed again. The purpose is to create a supportive culture\nwhere all do our best without looking for individual credit. If one succeeds, all succeed. It\u2019s all yours, Warren.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did a little research on this group. What I learned is on the sheet being\ndistributed. Read the comments, and then\ngive us your responses.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Silence and chair shuffling for 10 minutes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s discuss your responses. Who would like to start?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An articulate, well-dressed woman began. \u201cI have something to say. (She paused looking around the room,\ninviting attention.) \u201cI\u2019d like to know\nwho said we were self-centered and lived in silos.\u201d (No one spoke). \u201cDoes that mean that our facilitator made\nthat up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t make it up! \nI said it. And I think it unwise\nof you to ask who said what. It\u2019s none\nof your business.\u201d The voice was that of\na junior staff member. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo you want to tell us what you said?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m the one who said that we are tough minded. We are not kind to each other, and I\u2019m also guilty\nof that. It was not kind of me to add\nself-centeredness. I apologize. It\u2019s time I start being kind and stop\ncriticizing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comments flowed freely after this initial exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI indicated that we did not need help. I now change my mind. Given what I\u2019ve read, we need a lot of\nhelp. And you can start with me. I am a below average listener. Just ask my wife. How do I get better?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI need help on how to get consensus when there are many\noptions on the table. It\u2019s confusing and\nas a group we don\u2019t settle on anything except arguing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t look forward to these meetings since we end up in\nthe ditch nearly every time. How we got\nselected for this group is a mystery. We\nseem to do ok as individuals, and we\u2019re terrible as a group. Help!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conversation was vigorous, and the discussion was\ndynamic. The facilitator thanked the\ngroup for their comments and suggested they get a blank sheet of paper and\nsharpen their pencils or pet their ballpoint pens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the paper please record three things: 1. What you can\ncontribute to this group? 2. Your\nprimary strength. 3. Your obvious limitations. When that\u2019s finished, turn to the person on\nyour right and share what you have written. Be aware of the depth of your\nconversation. Some of you may wish to\nshare your learnings when we are finished. \nOk? Begin\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shared learnings poured from the group after the\nconversations were concluded. This exercise lasted ninety minutes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWow. I have gained a\nfriend. We never spoke to each other\nbefore. And we agreed to have coffee at\nleast once each week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnother wow for me. \nWe could be twins. We share\nidentical strengths and limitations. The\nonly difference is what we hope to contribute to this group. Amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are so different that it\u2019s exhilarating! Being different genders may be part of\nthat. I want to hear more from my\npartner and now will listen rather than ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the beat went\non\u2026\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Personal connections in pairs made the difference. Listening without arguing was\ncelebrated. Learning what is important\nto others helped frame what they learned about themselves. Sharing learnings is valuable for\neveryone. When credit is laid aside and\neveryone shares in the learning process, everyone gains, and no one loses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sally, Executive VP, invited me to help her transform her team from being dysfunctional to a team that delivered all its potential. I told her I would give it a shot, but before meeting with them, we had to lay the necessary groundwork. Preparation Being asked to facilitate a dysfunctional group is an intervention. Before…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[36,34,16,35],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-know_your_audience","tag-dysfunctional-groups","tag-know-your-audience","tag-platinum-communications","tag-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knowyouraudience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n