pcl case study
Toxic team
the issue
A manufacturing materials supplier for a key global market was in despair about the tensions and acrimony surfacing within one of its customer facing administrative teams. Interestingly, although they seemed incapable of getting along with each other, this team was exceptionally good at what it did – so good in fact that the team’s manager was frequently out of the country delivering presentations to equivalent departments in other divisions of the global operation. This indeed was an exacerbating factor. Initially these problems were contained within the department, however, the concern was that the toxic emotions that they were generating permeated to other departments and would become evident to their customers.
the solution
PCL team building was used at two distinct levels - individual and team. At the individual level the focus was on personal insight and development issues. Coaching sessions developed awareness about behavioural tendencies that interfere with effective relationships. At the team level the agenda was to work on the dynamics of the group and to explore the diversity and convergence of values across team members. Each participant signed up to a personal development plan, and to a development plan for the team with dates set for evaluation.
the results
Immediate outcomes were very positive. Participants felt that they had a basis on which to make progress on an individual and team level. Specifically, the group reported that: - they used the codified rules for communication on a day to day basis - the climate within the team had improved - they reported that they could more easily communicate with each other - they made reference to the agreed team values framework
www.psychological-consultancy.com