How to rebuild after team trauma
Has a team within your organisation or the whole of your organisation gone through a trauma in the last 2 years?
Most organisations I work with report having a trauma of some sort effect their organisation in recent times like; redundancies, merger or acquisition of the organisation, along with bullying, disciplinary or grievance complaints or investigations. At the time of these traumas the focus is rarely on the health of the team but on staving off bankruptcy, reducing costs, value realisation or acquisitions or keeping compliant to protect from tribunal cases. After the dust has settled, business as usual continues, however the new reality isn’t the same as the old and so teams often become dysfunctional.
There are 3 key areas that symptoms can be seen when a team hasn’t recovered from the trauma and has become dysfunctional:
Performance - this shows up in engagement of the team measured not just in surveys but in their willingness to go the extra mile to deliver. Their willingness to participate, refer others to work at the organisation or attend team events. The quality of work where there is rework required or projects are not being delivered on time and with quality. Finally the stagnation of teams, taking too long to make decisions or not making decisions at all leads to a failure to deliver a service to your customer and falling behind your competition.
Stability and wellness of teams - demonstrated in high sickness rates, turnover rates and accidents in a work place this is effecting the health and wellbeing of your employees and can be directly measured. The other indication is the number of disciplinary, grievance and bully claims and investigations.
Financials - the direct cost of sickness, accidents and turnover, effects the bottom line whilst the impact on revenue or the value realisation of an acquisition hits the top line.
What can you do when you identify a team or organisation in trauma?
The first step is to find out exactly where you are now and decide using the data and measurements that are available to help you decide the extent of the problem, the cost for the organisation of not fixing the problem and therefore the investment that is appropriate to resolve the issues.
Next is to rebuild, these are the top 5 areas most companies focus on:
This can be done in a number of ways and every company is different with the solution needing to be tailored to suit its needs and budget but a targeted approach with a focus on change that sticks is essential to realise the return on investment. A plan with goals, measurement and a timeline is essentially so that effectiveness can be demonstrated and further tailoring can take place throughout the project.
Finally a review of the whole project should take place, find out what went well and how it could have been done better. What didn’t go so well and what can be learnt from that and how can improvements be made. But most of all celebrate the wins along the way with everyone involved, recognise the changes and efforts made to really embed your new culture which will finally allow teams to recover from their trauma and move forward.
