Disgruntled Team Member
Over several sessions, one of the members has disappeared for long periods of time and/or is frequently on his blackberry. During a standard intervention (what are we doing well /what could we be doing better), he was vocal in stating that he wasn’t convinced about the AL approach. He said “We’re all professionals here and are used to solving problems. I’m aware of the deadline for our presentation and we could make more progress without this approach if we could just all freely state our thoughts.” Others in the group stated that they felt the approach was helping the team and that the organization had failed to solve this problem three times in the past. Other team members also thought the team could do better coming to consensus more quickly and they agreed on an approach to experiment with. However, the “disgruntled” team member’s behavior continues. After a recent session, just as she is leaving the room, the coach overhears a few members who have remained behind talking about how upset they are with this team member’s behavior.
Tags: Action Learning Coach
Trackback from your site.
Philipp Werenfels
| #
I would ask the members who are upset with the behavior of their team member if they were willing to bring up this issue in our follow up meeting.
If not, I asked for permission to address this issue at the beginning of our next meeting. I would prepare questions like:
1) How is our speed / progress with solving the problem?
2) How are we doing as a team?
3) What can we do better as a team?
4) How do we know that we integrate everybody’s knowledge and experience in solving this problem?
5) How do we recognize commitment from our team-members?
6) What needs to happen that everybody is integrated in the problem solving process?
7) Did we select the people to solve this problem?
Reply
Santi Medrana
| #
The strength of the Action Learning method lies in the proper induction of the participants in the process. The commitment to the process which includes taking breaks and answering phone calls have to be established before the session has started. However, in this situation when the session is already in progress the coach must stay with the process and may remind the participants of their responsibilites to the process through an intervention, look for learning opportunites and lead the group to find a concensus on the problem.
Reply
Cleo Wolff
| #
I agree with the second intervention Philipp suggested. AL sessions are made to solve problems and this is a potential problem if someone in the team decides to go into that. This is a great example how to deal with challenges.
Cleo
Reply
Dorothy Tsui
| #
This reply is written in Chinese (Traditional) for the translation function testing.
當團隊集中解決問題，而忽略過程中的學習和反思時，個案中的情況便會較易出現。或可試用以下問題，促使隊員反思行動學習對整個團隊成長的好處，並平衡解決問題的需要：
﹣ 經過此行動學習的過程，我們這個團隊於解決問題方面，在那方面有進步？
﹣ 我們從這過程中學到什麼，以有助團隊合作來解決問題？
﹣ 團隊合作對解決問題的有何重要性？
﹣ 我們如何平衡學習和解決問題的需要？
Reply
kevinhao
| #
测试一下文字翻译功能
Reply
DrBea
| #
The first time the person left the room, I would check in with – has left the room. What’s the impact on the team when a person leaves? How do we want to handle it? How do we want to handle it when they return? Who from the team will handle that when they return?
I’ve observed
During a check in when the participant was there, depending on what was actually said I would use one of two sequence of questions …
If the individual was pushing that the process was interfering – I would ask them directly … Please just trust the process for today. Just for today can I get you commit to the process? Being here fully? And following the rules? Can you do that?
If no one brought up the challenge of during the standard 3 questions I would ask –
How is the commitment level of all participants both to the process and solving the problem?
What is the impact on the team when all members are not fully committed?
How will we increase the level of commitment from all participants?
Happy Coaching
Bea
Reply
CorinaKheo
| #
When the disgruntle member returned after leaving for a long time. I will ask the participants:
“how is the team doing so far?”
The members may reply doing fine.
“If anybody notice team member missing for a while?”
Likely, they will say a member walks out for a while.
“What is the impact to team performance if a member left then return after a long while?”
They may say that particular member may miss out alot of information and may ask questions that have already been asked.
“What can the team as a whole do better from here?”
“
Reply