Through the surface
Fabrizio Ulivi
People Strategy | Change Management | Organizational Development | Leadership Development
Today's story is about a fast-growing company with a team caught in the midst of conflicts.
This is the story of how, together with David (not the real name), a struggling team leader, we tackled internal conflicts and ended up working on a company restructure to find a path to success.
The story begins with a relatively small but fast-growing business facing tumultuous dynamics within the leadership team.
Recognizing the urgency, David, the team leader, sought my assistance to navigate those rough waters and bring back some harmony to the team and to the rest of the workplace.
[Note: Throughout this story, as I refer to the leadership team, I mean the CEO David and his direct reports, each heading a different department in the business]
"It feels like everything is falling apart"
This is how David described the situation during one of our preliminary, informal meetings.
Listening to David's frustrations, I soon understood the gravity of the situation.
The team was grappling with trust issues, breakdowns in communication, and clashes of egos.
It was clear to both of us that these challenges needed to be addressed head-on.
It takes the whole team to solve this problem
David and I collaborated closely to develop a plan of action. Our first step was to run a team-building workshop aimed at fostering collaboration and understanding among the team members.
It was not an easy task - with all the issues the team was facing, finding time and, most importantly, creating interest in such an initiative felt at times like an upward climb. But luckily, this team could count on a stubborn leader who was truly committed to solve the problem.
We engaged the team in a workshop that allowed all members to work through one of my favorite frameworks for team building activities, the one created by Patrick Lencioni and known as "The 5 dysfunctions of a team". This framework is particularly useful because it allows for team dynamics to be tackled one by one through a stepped process, with each step building on the previous ones.
The flow looks like this:
During the workshop, the vibe was fantastic and kept improving as moved along. We encouraged all team members to work together, solve problems collectively, and appreciate each other's strengths while transparently acknowledging their weaknesses.
Gradually, the barriers began to crumble, and team members started to grasp the importance of effective communication, respect, transparency and collaboration.
By the end of the workshop, the team had:
It felt like we made it.
David was enthusiastic, and so were the team members. They never had the opportunity to engage in a facilitated session as this one, and the feedback they provided made me incredibly happy.
But we were not done yet.
However, we soon realized that resolving team dynamics alone wouldn't be sufficient for lasting change.
During the workshop, I noticed that several of the issues the team members described were not just interpersonal ones.
They often described the problem of not fully understanding how their work impacted other people's and other teams.
They shared that it was not clear how different departments could more proactively support each other.
They complained about their people doing work that they were not supposed, nor able to, do.
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The problem, or at least part of it, was not the leadership team. There were structural issues that required immediate attention.
We needed a more comprehensive approach.
Together, we embarked on a company-wide restructuring effort, aiming to address the root causes of conflicts.
We interviewed several people across the organization, analyzed existing processes, identified communication gaps, and redefined roles and responsibilities to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
Together with David and the leadership team, we defined a roadmap to communicate and roll out the changes we realized were needed.
Towards a brighter future
Things are going much better at David's company today. The leadership team has understood and bought into the action plan we helped them create, and they are following through with it.
David is both driving and supporting this transformation and, while the journey has just begun, he feels much more optimistic about the future of the business.
People is now actively engaging in problem-solving, seeking each other's feedback, and working on redefining their company structure and the way they work together.
The conflicts David was initially afraid of do not occur any more. Or better, they do occur but now the team knows how to handle them and end up with solutions rather than frictions.
The way ahead may still be long, sure, but it looks like the change of pace was definitely needed.
I can't wait to see how they do moving forward.
What did I learn?
I cherish this type of experiences. I started with what looked like a team building, and then realized that we were just scratching the surface.
This reminded me of something that my mentor, Shi Bisset, taught me a long time ago as she was certifying me as an OD practitioner: If we are not going deeper into a problem, if we are satisfied by addressing what is visible on the surface, we are just addressing the symptoms.
We need to go deeper, getting to the root causes of a problem, if we want to truly solve it.
This is what David and I did: We could have stopped at the symptom, but decided to delve deeper. And found out that the problem was not the team - the organisation needed to be fixed.
If we stopped at the team building, today this story would likely be very different.
I would love to hear from you!
How cohesive is your team today?
What do you do to ensure commitment and accountability in your team?
How do you make sure that bad team dynamics are addressed and solved?
What would you have done differently in this case?
About Fabrizio
Fabrizio is Managing Partner at SB&A, a People Strategy firm based in Shanghai since 1982. With his team, he partners with businesses and their people to create solutions that are truly addressing their needs. From organizational development to people and talent strategy, they help them figure out what it is that they truly need. And then they create it and roll it out.
In his spare time, he plays the trumpet, runs a tabletop roleplaying campaign with his friends (they fight vampires and dark overlords), wonders about AI and how it will impact our lives (without ever finding a good answer), and enjoys reading hard-boiled and science fiction.