Building Trust within Teams
Having helped a number of organisations review
staff satisfaction results and develop a plan to tackle the
causes of dissatisfaction, we have found that the dissonance
between vision that senior management believes is in place
and stark contrast with front-line staff. Here are some typical
examples:
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Vision
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Reality
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"A fun, creative environment for staff"
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Realitygossip-ridden; conflict unresolved;
too much done; high stress and strain
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"A strong sense of purpose"
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Direction limited and/or unsaid; not
broken down into manageable chunks
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Our managers are "empowering, role models"
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Managers hoard information; inter-competitiveness
between departments
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"Fast decision-making"
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Bureaucratic checks and permission-gaining
systems
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"Experts with complimentary skills"
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under-utilised skills
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"We wish to grow great people"
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Appraisal system backwards looking;
'no time' for training; obsessive focus on weaknesses
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"Deliver customer delight"
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Customer seen as a trouble maker or
hindrance to doing the job or the 'success' of the project
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To change this dynamic requires spending
a great deal of time actively communicating and sharing the
vision. Communicating , however, is not the same as telling.
What are the ways that I can use to create positive alignment
within my organisation? Consensus is built through applying
the disciplines of:
- Involvement - active involvement of staff
at all levels in developing the vision - listen to their
feedback, incorporate their suggestions. There will always
be a gap between current reality and vision - see this gap
as a natural, creative force.
- Education - Be prepared to re-educate your
team and organisation in the new behaviours and attitudes
the vision demands. If you truly wish to deliver customer
delight - you may require training in customer service,
empowering front-line staff - there is a need to ensure
that staff see a tangible difference.
- Honesty - You set the tone - you have
to change your behaviours, your systems and your attitudes
in line with the vision. If you don't treat internal and
external customers in ways that delight them - why should
staff? Two things to ensure you move from current reality:
- Maintain awareness of progress - how
do you measure your progress - look for tangible signs
of change.
- You keep what is working and learn
from and discard what is not.
- Congruency - between words and action.
Reward those who act in ways that deliver the vision. It
easy for people to say the right thing and do something
different.
- Persistence - Change takes time. Do not
expect instant results. People need time to go through the
change curve. The danger is that in your desire to see change,
you introduce yet another one into the process and before
long there is change overload. My experience of working
with the Public Sector in recent years is precisely this
- too much change for the system to cope. The good leaders
recognise this and focus on one or two changes and persist
with these to conclusion and then tackle the next thing.
Consensus takes a great deal of time and will
only succeed if you communicate. Suprisingly, every organisation/team
I have come into contact has a problem with communication.
Often this is the reason I have been contacted to help improve
communication.
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Over Communicate
The need to consider the communication message to the
different methods (medium) is paramount in communicating
the new vision. It may seem blindingly obvious, but
announcing a new vision requires more than a newsletter
or posters on a wall. Yet this is exactly what can happen.
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There is a theory that you have to say the same thing
seven times in seven ways to ensure the message is internalised
by the recipient. Think of great ad campaigns - they
often aren't memorable on the first viewing for most
people. It takes time.
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Source: Eddie Obeng: New Rules for the
New World
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We live in a world where there are many more
ways we can communicate to others. All the different methods
have there uses and the challenge is to match the message
to the medium. The chart below attempts to show that depending
on the level of emotional content in the message and need
to interact to develop clarity & understanding the more you
move towards personal interaction.
If Making Vision Reality can help you develop
a realistic vision or assist developing a change management
strategy, give us a call on 01825 712373 or e-mail us at the
address below.
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