A CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION, NOT COMPLAINTS

Inviting creative challenge is a high level of innovative teamwork. It can be undermined by the lack of a more basic set of group norms governing interpersonal relationships.

Too often leadership teams are plagued with internal fractiousness. There is mistrust or misunderstanding laterally among members of the team as well as a degree of upward resentment. The fracture lines might run along gender or ethnic divisions, between functions, between staff who came from different organization cultures that were merged, between older and newer staff, or between staff with very different personalities or agendas. Whatever its source, members of the team develop the dysfunctional habit of complaining to each other or the senior leader about fellow team members. They fail to take up the complaint with the person or persons who need to be addressed to resolve it: those who are the target of their complaints.

When leaders observe this behavior, they can be sure it is a sign that there are also complaints about themselves that they are not hearing. Complaining has become acceptable in the culture. It has become the substitute for courageous, honest, and productive dialogue. In fact, leaders themselves may be engaging in this behavior, complaining to senior staff about each other and thus setting the tone for this behavior.

When team members bring complaints about each other to the leader, a mistake that leaders make is listening to the complaints and thereby colluding with the dysfunctional culture. In most cases it is preferable for a leader to say something like this:

“This sounds important. Let’s get _______ [the target of the complaint] in here and straighten this out.”

If possible, get the other party in there right then and present the issue as a matter of perceptions, not facts. This is a no-fault process. It takes the complaint, which is an interpretation of the other’s intention and behavior and sometimes an assessment of the other’s competence, and it attempts to break it down into an information exchange about what actually occurred and why those actions were taken. Often, the grounds for the complaint disappear once all the information is available to both parties. If not, sufficient information emerges to allow the situation to become a learning experience for one or both parties, or to clarify further steps that are needed to resolve it. The leader might ask a question of the two parties along these lines:

“_______ [the one making the complaint] is concerned that you appear to have done _______ . Could you fill us in on the situation and what you did so we can understand it better?”

More important than clarifying the particular situation, you are modeling the value of directly addressing issues with each other and thereby strengthening the team. By making direct communication the expected action, you are supporting a culture of courageous relationships. This inevitably will extend to team members’ relationships with you.

The leadership task is to build a culture in which conflict is handled through healthy and creative dialogue. Leaders have enormous influence in this regard. If they don’t handle conflict well themselves or if they allow it to stay below the surface, significant damage can be done to the ability of the leadership team to perform its function effectively. If leaders handle this well, they can have a high degree of confidence that they, too, are hearing what they need to hear about themselves, instead of everyone but them hearing it.