Discussion: View Thread

  • 1.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-24-2009 19:15
    Colleagues,

    I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict.  I have been asked to mediate a day long "intervention" wherein this team and the team members' managers all participate.  The team is approximately six individuals.  Each individual has a manager from a different region of the country.  That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each of the team members has a different manager (none of the managers are collocated at the team site).  For example, the within team responsibilities are broken down for "budget specialist" (who has a manager), "acquisitions" (who has a different manager), "accounting" etc.

    At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals playing political games and assuming more power and control than their positions dictate.  Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member of this 'team' reports to a different boss...  I mentioned that the managers are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time.  However, they will be present for this day long session.

    I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...
    • What are reasonable objectives and goals?
    • Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding strategies.
    • What should I avoid?
    • Approaches?
    • Advice?

    Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,

    Brad


    Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    Associate Professor of Management
    100 S. Grant St.
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, IN 47907
    Ph. (765) 494-4483
    email: algeb@purdue.edu



  • 2.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-24-2009 23:47
    Hi Brad, I have some experience mediating intra-group conflict and my
    recent research is on status conflicts specifically. So I can make a
    few suggestions.

    1) One issue may be that those who are playing politics are doing so
    b/c their relevant expertise is being disregarded by others b/c of
    their low status positions. So not only are they frustrated and trying
    to enhance their status, but also the group may be failing to
    incorporate their information.

    2) Try to help the group establish influence norms around relevant
    expertise that varies by task discussion rather than status position
    in the group on an ongoing basis

    3) Rather than identify roles, like devil's advocate that may lead to
    a negative attribution of the person in the role, try to negotiate
    information sharing and assumption testing norms.

    I hope this helps. Good luck!

    Corinne Bendersky
    UCLA Anderson school of management

    Quoting Alge Brad <algeb@PURDUE.EDU>:

    > Colleagues,
    >
    > I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large
    > bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict. I have
    > been asked to mediate a day long ³intervention² wherein this team and the
    > team members¹ managers all participate. The team is approximately six
    > individuals. Each individual has a manager from a different region of the
    > country. That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each
    > of the team members has a different manager (none of the managers are
    > collocated at the team site). For example, the within team responsibilities
    > are broken down for ³budget specialist² (who has a manager), ³acquisitions²
    > (who has a different manager), ³accounting² etc.
    >
    > At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals
    > playing political games and assuming more power and control than their
    > positions dictate. Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not
    > present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member
    > of this Œteam¹ reports to a different boss... I mentioned that the managers
    > are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time. However,
    > they will be present for this day long session.
    >
    > I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...
    > * What are reasonable objectives and goals?
    > * Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting
    > (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding
    > strategies.
    > * What should I avoid?
    > * Approaches?
    > * Advice?
    >
    > Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,
    >
    > Brad
    >
    >
    > Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    > Associate Professor of Management
    > 100 S. Grant St.
    > Purdue University
    > West Lafayette, IN 47907
    > Ph. (765) 494-4483
    > email: algeb@purdue.edu
    >
    >
    >


  • 3.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-25-2009 10:45
    Brad,
    This sounds like an interesting consulting assignment.

    I have some questions and possibilities.

    1. Does the team need to work together if they are reporting to different managers? Why not separate them? Are they supposed to be providing an integrating role across organizational boundaries?
    2. What are the bases for the lack of respect and trust between the groups? Everyone wants to be respected and to "look good." What's the history here?
    3. Who cares if they don't get along? Is there a business reason for managing this group/not team?
    4. Are you familiar with Kaplan & Norton's Strategy Maps and the role that human capital, social capital and organizational capital play in building core capabilities that deliver on customer value propositions that contribute to the bottom line? This may help.

    Suggestions:
    1. Session One (what): what are the biggest problems you're facing? Adult learning theory suggests that unless adults are working on issues that are current, relevant and fun/pressing, they are likely to disengage. Introduce the role of habituality (at visible behavior, conscious thought, and core values assumptions beliefs and expectations) and how habits can be dysfunctional. Discuss energy and how some are energy suckers and some are net energy contributors.

    2. Session Two (Where to): conduct a case discussion of Making the Tough Team Call A (UVA case) and introduce the generic conflict management matrix (axes--competition and cooperation). Help them develop out of this the vision of the kind of group/team they want to have. You might also introduce Katzenbach&Smith's groups vs. teams here. Also the Language of Leadership (eliminate your buts, don't disguise your opinions as questions, etc.) What are the consequences of NOT developing a good team?

    Lunch

    3. Session Three (HOW): Teach the Greenland case on developing world class teams. Identify the 30 or so characteristics of world class teams that come out of that discussion... (this group of four set a world record crossing Greenland and in the process wrote a diary of key elements in that)

    4. Session Four (therefore act): clarify the kind of group/team they want to have. Ask each to note what they are willing to do to do in the next sixty days to improve the functionality of the group. Assign roles for the next two months for TASK, PROCESS, CREATIVITY, RESPECT/COURTESY, and PRACTICALITY.. If you need six roles so everyone has something to do, find two more. Assign a book for them to read between now and your sixty day FOLLOW UP... perhaps Katzenbach&Smith or Organizing Genius or (not Belbin), Powered by Feel (sorry, but I believe it--I co-authored this)... \

    Then meet again in sixty days for a half day or whole day follow up.

    In the meantime, you could/should visit a team meeting every two weeks and take notes on their process... and if they invite it, intervene as you see appropriate to help them learn to speak to each other with the four/cum six roles above in place.

    I hope this helps. I'm happy to talk about this if you wish.

    On a broader issue, can you write this situation up disguised as a case? I'd be happy to work with you if you wish to do so. It can/should be disguised of course. They might enjoy doing that, but even if not, you can disguise the names and help all of us/our students learn from this.

    Further, we might develop in the MED or elsewhere a chat room for wiki-cases. We have a wiki-case site at our school where we're working to democratize the case development process by including students' experiences. Perhaps MED could develop a BLOG page where we could converse about specific topics--in this case building teams among executives (teaching smart people how to learn--Argyris).

    Regards,

    Jim
    James G. S. Clawson
    Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration
    Darden GSB, University of Virginia
    Box 6550, Charlottesville, VA 22906
    100 Darden Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA
    Tel: 434 924 7488 Fax: 434 243 7680
    Web: http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Corinne Bendersky
    Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 11:47 PM
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: Re: [OB-LIST] Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Hi Brad, I have some experience mediating intra-group conflict and my
    recent research is on status conflicts specifically. So I can make a
    few suggestions.

    1) One issue may be that those who are playing politics are doing so
    b/c their relevant expertise is being disregarded by others b/c of
    their low status positions. So not only are they frustrated and trying
    to enhance their status, but also the group may be failing to
    incorporate their information.

    2) Try to help the group establish influence norms around relevant
    expertise that varies by task discussion rather than status position
    in the group on an ongoing basis

    3) Rather than identify roles, like devil's advocate that may lead to
    a negative attribution of the person in the role, try to negotiate
    information sharing and assumption testing norms.

    I hope this helps. Good luck!

    Corinne Bendersky
    UCLA Anderson school of management

    Quoting Alge Brad <algeb@PURDUE.EDU>:

    > Colleagues,
    >
    > I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large
    > bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict. I have
    > been asked to mediate a day long ³intervention² wherein this team and the
    > team members¹ managers all participate. The team is approximately six
    > individuals. Each individual has a manager from a different region of the
    > country. That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each
    > of the team members has a different manager (none of the managers are
    > collocated at the team site). For example, the within team responsibilities
    > are broken down for ³budget specialist² (who has a manager), ³acquisitions²
    > (who has a different manager), ³accounting² etc.
    >
    > At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals
    > playing political games and assuming more power and control than their
    > positions dictate. Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not
    > present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member
    > of this Œteam¹ reports to a different boss... I mentioned that the managers
    > are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time. However,
    > they will be present for this day long session.
    >
    > I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...
    > * What are reasonable objectives and goals?
    > * Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting
    > (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding
    > strategies.
    > * What should I avoid?
    > * Approaches?
    > * Advice?
    >
    > Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,
    >
    > Brad
    >
    >
    > Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    > Associate Professor of Management
    > 100 S. Grant St.
    > Purdue University
    > West Lafayette, IN 47907
    > Ph. (765) 494-4483
    > email: algeb@purdue.edu
    >
    >
    >


  • 4.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-25-2009 12:15

    Brad,

     

    You are getting wonderful suggestions and advise.  Allow me to add a little of my views to what have already been said. 

     

    The first thing is to assume that if the organization put this cross-functional group/team together is because it is a business necessity. If this is not true then send everyone back to their own department and that would be end of it, for now. 

     

    But if it is important for these people to work together, then you have a structural problem: the functional managers should be out of the picture.  Employees are working on a unique task and each needs to concentrate on this task and nothing else.  They should be reporting solely to a team leader, and refer back to their own functional areas only when it is absolutely necessary to consult an issue, etc.

     

    This would take care of a lot of the conflict, but they need to understand that if they are in the team is because they are all perceived as experts in their area (some might have not been selected on this basis); that the expertise in accounting is not any better than the expertise in production, they are just different; and no one is a long ranger anymore in organizations!

     

    Thanks,

     

    Ivan

     

    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Alge Brad
    Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 6:15 PM
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [OB-LIST] Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

     

    Colleagues,

    I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict.  I have been asked to mediate a day long "intervention" wherein this team and the team members' managers all participate.  The team is approximately six individuals.  Each individual has a manager from a different region of the country.  That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each of the team members has a different manager (none of the managers are collocated at the team site).  For example, the within team responsibilities are broken down for "budget specialist" (who has a manager), "acquisitions" (who has a different manager), "accounting" etc.

    At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals playing political games and assuming more power and control than their positions dictate.  Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member of this 'team' reports to a different boss...  I mentioned that the managers are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time.  However, they will be present for this day long session.

    I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...

    • What are reasonable objectives and goals?
    • Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding strategies.
    • What should I avoid?
    • Approaches?
    • Advice?


    Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,

    Brad


    Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    Associate Professor of Management
    100 S. Grant St.
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, IN 47907
    Ph. (765) 494-4483
    email: algeb@purdue.edu



  • 5.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-25-2009 14:44
    Brad:
    This is a challenging situation. If they have to work together on a regular basis the conflict builds until there occasionally explosive moments.

    I can tell you about one group I worked with in South Africa in a large, international organization. We were approached because a team of fourteen people, mostly PhDs, were at each other's throats so much they were occasionally sabotaging each others work and they were struggling when working with other departments. We approached it this way:

    1)  My colleague interviewed the team participants and the higher level people who were attempting to lead the team. In the interviews, we did not ask about the problems...they all knew there were problems...and it is always someone else. We used an Appreciative Inquiry approach with variations. Towards the end of the interviews, we would turn to what one difficulty would they like to see addressed.

    2)  We took that information and designed a three day intervention that was held off site. The time together focused on how the team could together identify innovative ways to work together. The attempt was to take the focus off "how bad we are."  During that session we introduced them to "organizational advocacy"--how people in organizations expand capacity by identifying the things that work well in their groups, talk about them, and attempt to expand on them. We had them use a mind map about what an informative and constructive conversation looks like where people accountable to eac h other (constructive accountability). We introduced them to the concept that everything they think, say, and do. both on an off the job, represents their company, the one they are always in the process of designing. We discussed "standup meetings"--that even when you are gossiping or talking on the phone--or working, you are adding or detracting from the work that is going on for yourself and others--and the company.  The interesting thing was that people who had not talked to each other directly for weeks were testing out talking together by lunch and by afternoon break they were laughing and having a good time.  The Director of that division came in and was shocked. He and their supervisor were amazed. (As were we.)

    3)  The second day we opened asking them for feedback on the day before. What had they been thinking about it since then? They gave enthusiastic feedback. We asked them what they wanted to learn more about and they asked for more on the accountability "inside the work" we had talked about. As a result, we  focused in on "constructive accountability" and had them in discussion groups about what it would look like in their work if advocacy and constructive accountability were part of the culture of their group. This took the better part of the day.

    4)  The last day was having them work in groups to design what they were willing to commit to over the three weeks until the next meeting (which was only one day). It was during tha t meeting that we finally got to talking directly about conflict and what it looks like to be a good contributing member of their group. In that meeting, they reported that there was a remarkable change in how they felt both about their work and about the others in the group. My colleague met with them three months later and then three months after that. He reported that, although there were bumps in the road, the group for the most part had turned the corner and were back on track.

    Unfortunately, I stopped going to SA shortly after that and I do not have another report.

    Dr. Jane Seiling, Lima, OH
    Lawrence Technological University


    -----Original Message-----
    From: Alge Brad <algeb@PURDUE.EDU>
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Sent: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 7:15 pm
    Subject: [OB-LIST] Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Colleagues,

    I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict.  I have been asked to mediate a day long "intervention" wherein this team and the team members' managers all participate.  The team is approximately six individuals.  Each individual has a manager from a different region of the country.  That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each of the team members has a differe nt manager (none of the managers are collocated at the team site).  For example, the within team responsibilities are broken down for "budget specialist" (who has a manager), "acquisitions" (who has a different manager), "accounting" etc.

    At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals playing political games and assuming more power and control than their positions dictate.  Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member of this 'team' reports to a different boss...  I mentioned that the managers are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time.  However, they will be present for this day long session.

    I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...
    • What are reasonable objectives and goals?
    • Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding strategies.
    • What should I avoid?
    • Approaches?
    • Advice?

    Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,

    Brad


    Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    Associate Professor of Management
    100 S. Grant St.
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, IN 47907
    Ph. (765) 494-4483
    email: algeb@purdue.edu


    Check all of your email inboxes from anywhere on the web. Try the new Email Toolbar now!


  • 6.  Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Posted 04-25-2009 15:13

    Conflict can be constructicve if it is task and not personality based.

    But teams like this need some kind of leader (from a higher level--someone who is objective and honest) to set the rules for discussion and to tie the discussion to reality (facts).

    Usually when things like this arise the leadership of the whole company is poor--so the issue is much wider than just one team

    E.L.



    Edwin A. Locke
    Dean's Professor of Leadership and Motivation (Emeritus)
    Robert H. Smith School of Business
    32122 Canyon Ridge Drive
    Westlake Village, CA 91361
    818 706 9361 (in CA) TEL
    same FAX
    elocke@rhsmith.umd.edu
    http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu
    http://edwinlocke.com
    Alge Brad <algeb@PURDUE.EDU>



    To

    <OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU>

    cc


    Subject

    [OB-LIST] Help: Conflict & Teambuilding Interventions

    Colleagues,

    I have a situation where a team in a financial division of a large bureaucracy is experiencing a high degree of within team conflict. I have been asked to mediate a day long "intervention" wherein this team and the team members' managers all participate. The team is approximately six individuals. Each individual has a manager from a different region of the country. That is, although the team is generally focused on finance, each of the team members has a different manager (none of the managers are collocated at the team site). For example, the within team responsibilities are broken down for "budget specialist" (who has a manager), "acquisitions" (who has a different manager), "accounting" etc.

    At the crux of the conflict is a polarized group, with some individuals playing political games and assuming more power and control than their positions dictate. Of course, that fact that direct supervisors are not present most of the time helps fuel this as does the fact this each member of this 'team' reports to a different boss... I mentioned that the managers are not collocated with their team and rarely have much face time. However, they will be present for this day long session.

    I need help and advice for how to best approach the session...

      • What are reasonable objectives and goals?
      • Do you have experience with any good interventions in a field setting (that seemed to work). E.g., conflict resolution strategies, teambuilding strategies.
      • What should I avoid?
      • Approaches?
      • Advice?

    Any expertise you can share is greatly appreciated,

    Brad


    Bradley J. Alge, PhD
    Associate Professor of Management
    100 S. Grant St.
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, IN 47907
    Ph. (765) 494-4483
    email:     algeb@purdue.edu