My thirteen years of working with teams to make them more effective and profitable has taught me to never “count one’s chickens” as far as agreed team actions are concerned.

The Greek Prime Minister’s decision to announce a referendum on the aid package to solve its debt crisis demonstrates that very effectively. Too often I’ve been asked to help a situation where everyone thinks they’ve come to an agreement only to find that someone has changed their mind. It leaves everyone stunned, perplexed, angry or open mouthed. So I would have loved to have been the fly on the wall in Angela Merkel’s office in Germany when the news broke of the Greek announcement, I bet the air was blue!

Often happens in Board Rooms
But then I’ve seen it happen so often. Team agreements, Board Room discussion or Partnership meeting often agree a course of action and almost immediately afterwards someone changes their mind and does the exact opposite! For some it’s a game, for others it’s “Playing politics”

However, it generally happens when one person has been bullied into an agreement. Often it’s only after the meeting that the individual feels brave enough or angry enough to make a U-turn.

How to prevent it

• When you think you are helping an individual or team don’t assume you’re giving them “a gift” and that they’ll thank you for it
• Don’t bully people into a corner where they are obviously at a disadvantage and then assume that you have agreement.
• Secondly, provide the “loser” with lots of reassurance after the agreement that they’ve made the correct decision.
• Finally, provide support to take action that makes the individual “look good” to their team and to those being affected.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Talent Management.