Resolving the issues
This is Part 3 of a 3 part story about a team that was initially working together well and then began to have problems that were impacting the team members and the outcome of their initiative. In Part I we provided background information, in Part II we discussed why the team was having the problems they were having and in our final part, Part III, we will discuss the resolution to the problems to get the team back on track.
Jack took the following steps to resolve the issues with the team to improve the team situation and get everyone back on track working toward a common goal:
- He first contacted the original team members to apologize for the situation.
- He then arranged for a team meeting with the entire team to acknowledge his fault in the situation to the entire team. This was a face-to-face half day planning session that, along with an apology from Jack, included:
- Time spent on team building activities
- A review of the new project scope and the impact on the timeline and budget
- Time spent with the new project sponsor to answer questions and address concerns about the project and also for the sponsor to share his vision and mission of the project with the team
- Discussing roles and responsibilities on the team and team norms along with how problems and conflicts will be resolved, status will be reported and team meetings will be conducted.
- For the next 2 months, Jack attended each weekly team meeting to be sure the team was moving in the right direction. After 2 months, he noted the team was once again moving along nicely and began to step back from day-to-day oversight. However, he stayed more involved – popping in a bit more frequently and making a note to always share with the team when changes were happening!
Jack decided that the consultant would work directly with him as that would work out more effectively than having him work as part of the team. In hindsight, he would have done a bit of research before bringing on this consultant. However, he believes the consultant could add value to the project just not working directly with the team. If the only issue Jack had was that not everyone on the team got along with the consultant, he would work to resolve that issue; but he felt it was more important to work on the other issues especially since the consultant was only on for a short period to manage one major activity.
Overall, Jack’s lesson learned was that although the team was working along well, he needed to step back in and better manage them when changes occurred. The changes were disruptive to the flow of the team and his attentions were required to have kept things moving along smoothly.
Thank you for your comment Martin and for reading! While I agree that are times when stepping back in may be too much, I do believe there are some situations where that is the best best for the leader. Sometimes being more engaged and more involved is the best bet to correct a situation. I do agree also that some situations can be avoided by spending a bit more time MBWA. Thank you again for your comment and thoughts on the case study.
Hello Gina, Thanks for sharing this case study. I think it is something we can all say we’ve expeienced at some point: taking our eye off the team.
When we are busy we often neglect the basics. Jack failed to communicate and he failed to plan. However, it’s good to learn that we can recover from a bad situation if we are humble. I don’t think Jack would have had the same outcome if he hadn’t apologised.
The only caution I would add is this: Stepping back in may be too much. Better to practice management by walking around (MBWA.) This is about keeping in toch, two-way communication, and taking an interest in your team.
As ever,
Martin