Team Falls Apart When It Gets Busy

I would like to see my day shift team work together better. When it gets really busy instead of being supportive to each other they seem to fall apart as a team. The team is spread out on separate floors so when they can see each other they assume that their teammates are not doing anything. They don’t seem to trust or respect each other. The afternoon shift has the same hurdles of working in separate area but they seem to respect each other and are supportive.

The Team Doc Says…

I’m not sure what you mean by not supporting each other although you alluded to it when you indicated they don’t seem to trust or respect each other. You must be seeing this in their behaviors or you would not be making this assumption.

For teams that are separated by physical barriers — a wall, a floor, a street, a state, a country or even an ocean — it is always harder to build and maintain trust. No matter how big or small, any type of barrier can cause huge disconnects in a team.

That means, as the leader, you need to go out of your way to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for the team to interact and build trust. Here’s a way to begin.

1. Every morning (yes, every morning!) have a 15 minute face-to-face meeting with all team members to quickly review what’s on tap for the day and to identify any issues that need to be addressed. This can be a “stand up” meeting. It should be fast-paced and very interactive (meaning everyone should participate).

2. If your team has ready access to technology, set up the capability for them to interact in real time by having everyone sign up for a twitter account. Have each account set up as private and connect the entire team together by following each other. Then have them install the twhirl application at their workstation so they can monitor what’s going on and interact as needed. They could also keep themselves logged in to twitter and get updates on the web. Having your entire team team set up on twitter gives them the ability to interact and talk to one another just like they would if they were sitting right next to each other. Plus this gives them a real time archive of what’s going on in the team.

3. Set up a blog for them to keep each other updated on longer term projects and to stay connected to the other shifts. You could easily get the open source wordpress software loaded on your company intranet and grant everyone access for posting. Request that each team — or person on the team — post an update every day. A team blog will not only help them become closer, it will also help you document institutional knowledge which is a really good thing in this day and time.

4. Last, but not least, make sure each team member understands their role and how their part of the whole helps the team be successful. You could accomplish this by having some short team meetings to clarify team member roles and talk about how each of them is important to the team’s goals and ultimate outcome.

Let me know how this works for you by leaving a comment. If I’m way off base here on my assumptions about your team, let me know that too. Good luck!

How about you reader? Do you have other suggestions? Please add a comment with your thoughts.