How to make change happen in teams?
In working with teams that are looking to change something in the way they work, the
challenge is how to make that change stick. Based on my own experience of coaching teams,
there are certain elements that help the team to change behavior and make that change
stick:
Team members trust each other. Trust is sometimes hard to define. One of my
Finnish friends says he trusts someone when he would go to the Winter War with
them. In essence, this means you really trust someone when you know they won’t let
you down, they will always have your back, and you can trust their word. It goes back
to David Meister’s definition of trust: credibility, reliability and intimacy divided by
self-orientation. Trust is the essential element for any change in a team, and if that is
missing, you first need to work on building it.
Roles are clear and everyone understands what is expected of them, particularly
what they need to change. Very often team members don’t communicate with each
other about how they work together. It is very useful to have each and every team
member clarify their expectations to every other team member. This provides an
opportunity to prioritise and clarify what is useful and what is not. At the same time,
it also encourages dialogue and gives an opportunity for feedback.
The team takes responsibility for the change and actually holds each other
accountable. This is probably the most difficult part, where some structure and
guidance can help. Teams often find it difficult to give each other feedback to
encourage new behaviors/discourage old behaviors. Many teams think this is the
Team Leader’s responsibility. Yet it is important that everyone feels empowered to
give feedback to each other, without any hierarchical relationship. You do not need
to be someone’s manager in order to be able to give feedback to them.
This can be made easier by appointing a “change partner” to each team member, so
they can support each other in the change process, discuss any difficulties, give
feedback to each other and encourage the progress made. Once they’ve practiced it
with one team member, giving feedback becomes easier also with the other team
members. After a while it becomes part of the team’s culture.
Clear ground rules for how the team works together. This may seem like a trivial
issue, and I’ve been surprised how few teams actually have these guidelines. It
should be one of the first things every new team does – define how they will work
together. Getting this clarified at the very beginning will avoid many
misunderstandings and conflicts later. These guidelines should be set up by the team
together in behavioral terms, not just generic words (listening vs. we do not interrupt
each other in our meetings). They should also be documented and accessible/visible
so that the team can refer to them when someone is not respecting them. Having
common rules/guidelines, makes it easier to give feedback, as you can refer to
something that has been defined together, instead of being imposed by someone
else.
Motivation. The team members need to see a benefit of the change they are making,
something should be better after the change. This may seem obvious, but again it is
good to be clear about the benefits of the change at the start, as well as what will
happen if we do not change anything. One team that I worked with doubted about
their own capacity to change, saying they’ve tried it before and nothing changed.
Looking into their motivations created a surprising and open conversation about
fears and opportunities, which brought up some root causes that needed addressing
before any change would be possible.
Psychological safety. Change often feels uncomfortable and sometimes even risky at
the beginning. Psychological safety helps in allowing team members to feel safe to
share their worries, mistakes and awkward feelings while practicing new behaviors
and implementing the changes. It is important that the Team Leader shows example
here, sharing their own experience and awkward feelings while doing things
differently.
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