Like It or Not, the Team Process Is Here to Stay!

By Pat Thornton

All organizations count on groups and teams to work cooperatively. That’s critical because the workload continues to increase, and the knowledge base is growing too rapidly for anyone to take it on alone. When the world speeds up, it gets tougher to manage and tougher to work.

Furthermore, when the group process is working properly, you CAN accomplish more. Of course, individual effort is critical to success. There’s also a lot to be said for group process. Numerous studies have proven that when everyone puts their shoulders to the wheel and backs a decision, its wisdom or its inaccuracy will be borne out faster.

Team process is here to stay. You might as well get used to it because working in groups and teams will be “the” process for the foreseeable future. Team building competencies critical for team members during today’s uncertain times are different from same-old “trust circles” and other programs in the “good old days” that worked well in more stable times.

In these fast-paced times, senior management is called upon to make tough decisions that can sometimes hurt. They may be under pressure from shareholders and stakeholders to produce results. This may lead to the perception that they don’t care, or are completely insensitive to the needs of their employees. The fact is, they probably have a range of distasteful decisions they have to make.

As an employee, you are likely among the first to feel the full brunt of the downside of a decision. Let’s say there’s no money for new offices or furniture or your two best friends had to be let go. You might easily draw the conclusion that management talks a “humanistic” line, but doesn’t walk that line. In some cases, that just might be the situation if the organization doesn’t have much experience in the art and science of breaking bad news.

Generally, management tries to do the best it can under such pressurized circumstances. Sometimes, management has information that they cannot share just yet, so their decisions may appear to be harsh and illogical. No one in management wants to make a bad decision. No one takes any pleasure in being disliked by employees. Recognize that the primary consideration in most management decisions is the impact on the bottom line. If you disagree with a decision, you only have two options to restore the “way things were:”

• Get It Back: In an appropriate and professional manner, provide management with the ammunition or data it needs to reverse that decision or to reconsider it.
• Give It Up: Get busy trying to find the positives for yourself that always accompany change. Then, get on-board with the new change and make it your job to help the organization succeed.

During change, EVERYONE needs to be accountable for doing their part to make the changes work. The consequences of failed change initiatives will be much more unpleasant than anything you’re feeling now. Often, teams ARE the difference between an organization that is “ahead of the curve” or constantly playing “catch up” in a world that no longer tolerates companies that change too slow. Just pick up any newspaper… it’s full of examples of organizations that did not change quickly enough.

Remember: Good Leaders Cannot Exist Without Good Followers.

About

Pat Thornton, President, Change Resources Group Inc. has been successfully providing services to organizations in the area of team building for over 20 years to address the impacts of a wide diversity of change challenges, such as new leadership, consolidations and mergers, site relocations, restructuring, market and customer changes, and high growth. http://www.talentretention.com

CRG has executed a wide range of initiatives designed to help our clients maintain levels of service excellence, while improving team cohesion, productivity and profitability in a constantly changing world of work. CRG has become known for its innovative retreats and team building events using current reality TV formats, such as: The Amazing Race, Apprentice, Survivor, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader