The latest attempt at a teambuilder was innocuous enough. The instructor was competent, the material solid. It contained its usual share of ice breaker and team activities in order to break down barriers. What was most interesting about was the talk after the teambuilder, not the talk during it.
One of the ice breakers was that you had to tell the group about a mistake you made in your professional life. It was designed to be a group catharsis, showing everyone in the room that we all made mistakes and we are forgiven. Each member of the group dutifully told a tale, most humorous, and the teambuilder continued on its merry way.
When it was over, small groups gathered around the room, or left together, busily chatting on their way up to the team’s space. The topic of most of those conversations was how long did the person have to think of a ‘safe’ mistake story to relate. To a person, they all feared that if they told the ‘wrong’ story, or something too close to the present, it would be cataloged and recorded by the head of the department for use against them. They also feared it would be used as gossip fodder by those close to the head of the department. So, each person carefully crafted a story that would satisfy the teambuilder leader, but one that would not be used against them at an unspecified future date. Ironically, the teambuilder did foster conversation for the team. It just happened that the conversation was about how much they didn’t trust their leader.
What would those conversations be with your department, your group, or your reports? Would they prepare carefully crafted statements meant for your listening pleasure and then, when out of earshot, say what they really thought? Do you promote an atmosphere where this type of behavior doesn’t have to happen, or have you or someone in the department fostered such a lack of trust that clandestine whispers are the only way people can honestly communicate? Would you be subject to that same irony found in the story? Would the only team building come from everyone agreeing how they couldn’t say something without fear of it being used against them?
Pay attention to the after session whispers. They may tell you more about your people than any teambuilding trust building exercise ever could. And, if you are privy to some of those whispers, take them seriously, and start a self-repair effort immediately. The best way to stop the whispers is to give them nothing to whisper about in the first place.
The Good Management Blog 