This is a continuation of the previous post How to work in teams and I will give you some good examples of bad teamwork. Let's say that you already have a team, you formed it by yourself, you were taken as a team member or you just landed there. In university projects as in real life sometime you have to form a team or join a team knowing just a little about your team members. Many teams are build on skills or "politics", politics meaning personal likes or dislikes, or even worse just because they are the only ones who invited you to join, you don't really like them but whatever.
The problem with team building is that you know just the surface of those persons - at the first contact, maybe they are nice and fun to be around in the cafeteria or at a beer on any given Friday, this does not mean you know the person.
Another criteria is their skill, also known by what they say about them and their good advertising, with a bit of luck maybe you catch some other opinions in the grapevine. This does not mean you really know the skills.
The third and the most common criteria is "politics". Sometimes is bad, sometimes is good. This means that some of the team members are buddies of that person, or they like him more than the other option, or they don't like him at all even if would be a good asset for the team, or I join this group just because I was asked, don't like them but I must be in a team.
Now let's look at some of the bad ways to work.
Friendships before team. Buddies in teams, those kind of good friends, is a walk on thin ice. Now you don't have to run from this because friendships can grow at any time in your team. The good thing is that the collaboration is more relaxed but too relaxed can be a bad thing, so it should be kept at a professional level. In case of a team conflict with one of them you have also his friends against you, this makes more difficult to fight one of them. In order to keep it smooth should be set a rule that we are friends outside, here we are a team with everybody and we work for the team not for our friendship.
Group power struggle. Another "good" way to work is to let the team split in groups that will be more interested to force their will against the other groups forgetting the main goal of the team.
Failing to compromise. As in any relationship the secret of success is the ability to compromise. In teams you have different personality traits, different visions and different ego but none of them should be let to take over and getting in the way. If the goal is set and the "what we do" and "for whom" are agreed then the way should be followed and reaching a compromise between team member's wishes is a must. It is said that if 10% of each member's idea is in the final concept is ok.
Failing to agree quickly. Maybe sounds that rushing is not a good idea but sometimes a Blitzkrieg is the best thing a team can have in the first brainstorming session. Brainstorm, choose the best ideas, brainstorm again on the chosen ideas, put together the best results for each idea and if the result is still not agreed vote and live with the elected idea, end of the day. And KEEP ALL ON A CLOCK (e.g. just 15 minutes to brainstorm, 5 minutes each to present his idea(s), 10 minutes discussion to choose, 15 minutes second brainstorm, 5 minutes each to present, 15 minutes to choose the best and 5 minutes to vote). Sounds a bit hardcore sometimes and can raise some minor conflicts due to fatigue and time pressure.
BUT here is what will happen if not. We have 7 team members, each has one week to come up with ideas, at the meeting each one is taking time to present and convince the others that his idea is the best (can take up to 30-40 minutes for each) and no idea is completely agreed by the others. You will select some good ideas and start an endless discussion (pointless at one point) then you will return to brainstorm again on the selected ideas but again you will have time to do it on your own style. Present it again in public, going again to an endless story, trying to come up with a concept to prove one idea is better, ending after one week again with 2-3 ideas out of many. Finally after one month of trying to prove your concept you are disappointed that you invested a lot of time and your idea is trashed. Soon the team will have to choose one concept and will be done in rush because is already too late and many members will be upset for spending time on a trashed concept.
Getting attached to your own idea. This mainly happens when you fail to agree quickly. The more time you spend with an idea the more you will love it and get attached, this means you will fight to force it to the others, while the others are trying the same.
Endless talking. This one needs no introduction and is close related with keep discussions to the point. Talking and again talking and then discussing and over discussing a subject are NOT productive and pointless. Yes, they are part of "my subject is better than yours" or "I need attention" but they produce nothing except time wasted for nothing. I had in some of the teams guys that loved to discuss anything, every word said should have been discussed and turned out that in the end in rush and time pressure their ideas won because nobody had any power pt time for another discussion. Result was only one or two motivated team members and the others were on the "whatever" tune. Bad project, poor results, hated project.
Leaving the discussion table before getting an agreement. Any team meeting should be treated as a business meeting. You wouldn't leave a business discussion without getting a result or reaching a conclusion, would you? The same should go for team meetings, if you gather for a topic you should not leave without a result. "Let's sleep one night over it" is not a result, is a delay and a sign of a lack of agreement on the matter, a wish of getting time to force your ideas over the others. Guess what will happen next meeting? Again discussing the same old topic.
Lone wolves. This type of people should not been in a team, they don't know the team concept, they worked too much alone to be able to compromise or accept other ideas. Again I had this kind of guys that were forced to work in a team, very bad experience. They play only by their rules even when they agree to play by the team rules, their ideas are always the best, they make their own time table, they have their own personal agenda and when presenting the idea are still forcing their own and during the presentation are focusing more on their contribution to the project than on the project.
Not going out with the team. I am mainly against the corporate bullshit with happy team buildings, let's send them to an adventure park to play and have some psycho games of trust. Maybe are good for others, I hate them, why fall and let your team to catch you ... for the sake of growing trust in your team. This is bullshit and people making money out of it! No member will let you fall in the public view even if he hates you and this will not change your relationship because is a forced "fun times together". But not getting out with your team in a not organized way is a problem. Going and eating together at lunch is a good time to improve the mood and be part of the team, meeting for a beer in weekend or after work is another good opportunity. You can say that "alcohol connecting people" is not healthy but it is. I had teams where we also barbecued together and had a good and constructive talk about the project in an informal way, without pressure and from there we got great ideas and results. I had teams where the contact was only project related and the mood was low, others went just fine - depends on the team and how professional they are. I had teams where forced by situation we ended up in a pub I bought the first round and the second round and never got from them even a coffee for the rest of our collaboration. I don't say you need to be friends or move together, I like to say that work is work, life is life and I am free to choose my friends, I don't need them to be my friends but still I would go out with them when invited. Not going out with your team is in the end a sign of a bad team.
Hope that this short insight will help others to have better experiences in teams.
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