Every consultant has multiple stories about nightmare projects. You know the ones with more people issues than technical. It can be a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture, poor management or staffing choices, distrust and resentment from past issues and personality conflicts. Whatever the reason, there is clearly a log jam of emotional content blocking progress and team work.
It's easy to not get involved with people issues for external consultants so long as the project sponsor is happy. But in my experience, making it a priority and dealing with it as a goal upfront has helped make projects more successful. In the end every project entails change that has to be accepted by the company and its customers. A team with such conflicts can not create good changes and implement well. Success is not just being on time and on budget, it's how well the organization and end users adopt the change.
When the environment has a lot of tension I always facilitate a series of feedback sessions. Not a meeting. Not water cooler gossip about who thinks who or what is the problem. A well structured feedback session to elicit what is working, not working and a list of tasks for improvement steps. In general, they are a good practice and a vital tool in improving team work when done well.
The approach: Highlight what is working well to build upon it and uncover what is not working well to make changes. A feedback session is not about blame or all negative. Allow people to vent but in a constructive way. Discuss what is working well and encourage more of it. The discussion is about process not specific people.
Key to honest feedback: A comfortable environment to empower everyone to have a voice. It's important to make everyone feel comfortable about speaking, especially in companies that do not encourage open communication. Half the battle is won when the attendees are willing to let their guard down to share and make improvements. Set expectations before the session by communicating in person and in the meeting invite the approach and agenda.
Want to learn more? In upcoming posts we'll discuss facilitation techniques for a successful feedback session.