At our company, project teams are formed by picking numbers out of a hat. It doesn’t matter what your strengths are, once you pick that number that’s it. Unfortunately, I ended up on a team with a lot of very strong personalities and we didn’t work well together at all. It was painful to come to work every day knowing that it would be full of negativity. The only thing we ever agreed upon was that we needed to talk to our manager and get reassigned, but we were told to “just work it out.” The company spends so much time touting its team culture, yet there’s no support or direction from management when issues arise – and inevitably they always will. We’re not perfect. It’s not that we’re bad people, we just don’t work well together. As you can imagine, our work suffered as well.
Instead of our manager asking why and starting a discussion, we all got in trouble for producing less than satisfactory work, which furthered the negativity and blame. Not long after, a friend of mine mentioned a job opening at a rival company. I decided it was a good time for a change and applied for the job.
My new company is team centered as well and I must admit I was a little worried. However, teams aren’t left to chance. Rather than pulling numbers out of a hat, our manager meets with each of us individually then puts a team together that compliments everyone’s personality and skill set. Sure, we still have problems, but when they arise, we know that the support will be there to overcome any of them.
I work in a very competitive field. It’s a kill or be killed industry and if you don’t do something, someone will gladly come up and take your place. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of competition among my colleagues. There’s even been times, and I’m guilty of it too, when in the back of our mind we hope our co-workers fail so we look better. The negativity in the department was overwhelming. The amount of stress to survive was getting to the point where people were thinking about leaving the industry completely. I was one of them. I was just about ready to reach my breaking point, when the CEO decided it was time to do something. He restructured the department so that we all worked on teams. Reviews were not only based on our work, but on how well we worked together as a team.
Once a month, we met with our manager to review how the team was doing, review our progress and discuss any issues. Everyone had a chance to talk. We were also encouraged to socialize with our team members. Our CEO understood that it was hard to find time outside of work to socialize with each other because we all have very busy personal lives, so instead each team was given one Friday afternoon off per month to spend time together outside of the office. It was great! We had a chance to get to know one another on a personal level. It was amazing how much we all had in common.
Soon we went from a group of people who saw each other as roadblocks to our own success, to a group of people who depended on each other to help each of us achieve our greatest potential. Our CEO took a big risk, but I’m so thankful he did. I enjoy being at work and I look forward to being with my teammates each day!