Dysfunctional team dynamics in financial services

The client suffered from dysfunctional team dynamics: lack of trust, inability to deal with conflict, and team members were happy to make themselves look good at the expense of others. 

The CCL “Leader-Leader” programme was tailored to tackle these issues.

 

First, we had to understand each and every team member. We held a 1:1 call with each of them, to get a feel for how they saw the team dynamics.  This highlighted what was working and what needed to be changed. We also asked each member what one thing they would change in order to achieve a positive team environment. Once we had gathered together their individual findings, we developed a programme designed to build unity and a bond of belonging to the team.

 

CCL and the team members met 3 times over a 6-month period, each time for a 1- or 2-day session. The definition and agreement of a joint team purpose quickly broke down unhelpful  silo mentality. The team also agreed on a new set of team norms that required 100% commitment (e.g. arriving late for meetings was no longer acceptable, nor was interrupting each other).  These agreed improvements in how the team functioned led to clear, focused direction-setting on what they would achieve, as a team, over the next 12 months. 

 

Objectives and joint collaboration were agreed: not only did everyone understand what had to be achieved, they were able to agree how it would be achieved.  This was vital, because some individual team members had to give up some of their resources to achieve a successful outcome. 

 

 Over the 6-month period, the team developed an understanding of healthy conflict, and the importance of continuous feedback and accountability. The breakthrough after the second session was the change in team attitude: everyone truly believed that the “intention” of a colleague’s comment or critique was for support and encouragement, and not for personal gain. The team members learned how to understand each other’s priorities, enabling them to better support their colleagues and ultimately to grow success in the business. 

 

This programme was delivered pre-COVID. The results have been inspiring: all targets and objectives have been achieved, with some of the best business results ever recorded. Equally important, there is now a true sense of team cohesiveness and understanding. 

 

To date, the original training programme has been cascaded across other parts of the organisation, so even more teams are thriving. Mental wellbeing is now an active consideration, and team members continue to support each other for joint success.