If your company runs around the clock on a twenty four by seven, three sixty five schedule, it could be at risk for communication issues among the teams who cover different shifts. Twenty-four hour operations add an additional dimension of complication to working in teams.

Before you run into problems and start hearing things like “Well, we couldn’t because third shift didn’t…” or “Yea, those day shift guys think they’re better than…” take some proactive steps to ensure good communication between your shifts.

The key to your success is having each shift communicate critical issues to the next shift so they can be successful. Too many times companies end up with shift teams working against – rather than with – each other. It’s critical that you consistently communicate how each shift team contributes to the success of the whole. That will help you keep their communication lines open.

Here are four simple tactics you can implement to overcome that challenge.

1. Overlap shifts by thirty minutes. Use that time to have a shift transition meeting to identify key issues and successes that were encountered by the outgoing shift.
2. Place easels around the team work space. Designate what items will be updated on the easel by each shift.
3. Distribute a shift transition email. This email should be in a standard format that’s been communicated to all shift workers so they can quickly read it and get on with their work.
4. Create a ‘communicator’ role on each shift. This role would be responsible for meeting with the previous and following shifts at shift transition time to communicate key issues.

These are four pretty low tech solutions. With today’s technology, there’s no reason to have communication disconnects between shifts. What other suggestions do you have? Let’s talk about it in the forum.

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A new team (two members and a lead) was recently formed to provide technical support for a new product. I started a few weeks before the second member and built up some knowledge and resources. As soon as the new member joined, I shared everything I had.

Two tasks were put to the team and we decided that we would meet to discuss the best way forward. However, the new team member has spent a great deal of time to move forward with the task without discussing it with me and sharing any of the documentation until I mentioned it today.

This makes me think that there is potential for competition conflict to arise, and for such a small team this would be a big problem.

I would like to know how best to handle this? Is it possible to keep somebody like this onside without directly addressing the issue? At this stage, it would seem petty to me to ask why he had not discussed a team task for which we are both responsible before going ahead.

The Team Doc Says…

Given what you’ve described, it probably feels like a slap in the face since you were so open to sharing when this new team member came on board.

It’s not clear to me whether you are the lead on this team or not. I’m assuming you are not or you would have already taken the bull by the horns and dealt with this issue.

This situation is unacceptable. When a task is supposed to be shared between team members, that’s what should happen.

So let’s assume the team member was acting with good intent. Perhaps he was getting prepared to collaborate with you so the two of you could move the task forward. That’s a good thing. Maybe not as collaborative as you would like, but his focus was on a good outcome.

On the other hand, let’s assume he just doesn’t like working in a team and wanted to do it all himself. That’s not a good thing. And you got left with the short end of the stick. This may be an indicator of how this team member will behave going forward.

It would definitely not be petty of you to address this issue with your team member. The two of you need to have a good working relationship or your team will be sunk. I recommend you have a conversation with him to set the stage for your future work together. Don’t make it a confrontation, use an information seeking approach such as,

“John, you and I were tagged with working on the x project together. Before we could get started, you did a lot of the work and brought it to the table. While I appreciate your enthusiasm and effort, I was wondering why you felt you needed to do that rather than the two of us work on it together?”

Then, just listen. At the end of the discussion, identify some working agreements that will help the two of you move forward. And do let me know how this works out for you.

I am just starting a uni module which involves team work in an online discussion board. Basically we never meet each other face to face. How do you think this will change our team work and what would be the two most important ground rules?

The Team Doc Says…

Congratulations to you and kudos for realizing there could be additional challenges in your virtual team arrangement. One of the main issues that can derail a virtual team is communication. Of course this is the same issue that can derail teams that are not virtual.

So one of your team ground rules should be around communication — as in what will be shared and how it will be shared. Since the team is virtual, a wiki or blog might be a good idea. And, of course, you can always use email with threaded discussions (that could get a bit cumbersome though).

The other key ground rule should be around resolving conflict. Your team will need to define when the team needs to get involved, how they will get involved and what process will be used to resolve the conflict. I’ve defined a process for resolving conflict in a virtual team here.

You’ll also want to make sure that you define team roles which will help you communicate better and (hopefully!) minimize conflict.

What about you reader? Have any additional suggestions? Please leave a comment.

My boss is a good guy with great intentions and a friend from many years back. I began working with him two years ago and our problem lies in him giving my staff assignments and work duties without even consulting me. He did so for a year-and-half, and then I got an opportunity to head another division which also came under his supervision, but in an industry that he does not master. After a few months in my new assignment he is doing it again, calling on my staff for information and asking them to report on matters related to current work and completely by-passing me. He does that once and sometimes twice daily. I usually find out from my staff that they’re working on something he’s asked them for. In the beginning I ignored it, then I tried to implement a system where we’re all on the same page – didn’t work, then I confronted him and explained to him he should maintain the chain of command and come through me when he needs information from my staff. Needless to say, nothing worked and this puts a lot of stress on me and my staff. I’ve got a Master of Science in management, worked in big and small organizations for over 25 years and everything I’ve learned tells me what he is doing is wrong. How do I deal with this situation? And, what can I do about it?

The Team Doc Says…

I’ll just cut to the chase on this one. Since this has been going on for so long, I don’t see anything changing. You either need to decide to live with this behavior from your boss or move on.

But there is something you can do to keep yourself in the loop. And that lies with your team members. You should set up a regular schedule of meetings with your team to find out what new assignments they’ve been given by your boss.

Plus you need to institute a communication link from your team when he has assigned them work. Set up some guidelines that require your team members to notify you when your boss has tapped into them. That could be a voice mail, email, or a hop into your office to let you know.

So the key here is to control what you can (as long as you decide to stay in that job), and do your best to ignore the rest.

Do you have any additional advice reader? Please leave a comment.