Real-world scenarios: Toxic team turnarounds in action

By Paul Falcone

Much of the literature available around employee accountability, performance management and constructive confrontation focuses on individual relationships between managers and their direct reports. However, so much work is done by teams, and it’s important that we look at a team equivalent to ensure we’re able to address larger groups of people with similar types of accountability, performance or behavioral challenges.

A practical example

Hospital nurses, like many tight-knit working teams, sometimes experience ill will and a sense of exclusion from peers for various reasons. Teams may take sides and turn on one another, inadvertently leaving patients frustrated by a lack of appropriate patient care. The unit nursing director finds herself in HR’s office all too often, complaining about the constant gossiping, backbiting and ill will that plagues the unit.

But something’s changed recently that escalates the problem significantly: Nurses on opposing teams have stopped answering patient call lights in order to get their counterparts in trouble. With patient care potentially compromised, it’s time to find a solution and hold everyone accountable.

If you’re the HR business partner with this client team, you might want to suggest a “team turnaround intervention”—an opportunity to partner with the unit nursing director to address the matter openly and give everyone on the team a chance to reinvent their relationships and start over, all the while enforcing patient-care standards and reminding everyone of the consequences of continuing down this risky road. The beauty of the team-turnaround approach in situations like this is that it gives team members the chance to reinvent themselves and end the self-inflicted misery that may have festered over months or years.

Step 1: The all-hands meeting

Where to start? Schedule a meeting for the entire team—or at least two half-team meetings when dealing with 24/7 staff operations, as is typically seen in nursing—and explain the broader challenge. There should be three leaders on hand: the immediate supervisor (nursing director), her boss (in this case, the chief nursing officer, or CNO) and HR. This way the entire team hears the same, consistent message from a “unified front” of senior leaders. The overall goal should be to create a healthy and transparent team dialog, where differences can be aired without fear of being attacked or blamed.

The CNO can open the initial all-hands meeting as follows:

“Everyone, we’ve called this meeting to get on the same page. As the chief nursing officer, I’ve heard a number of ongoing complaints from several of you, as well as from your managers. I can assure you that the concerns and issues have risen to the highest levels of hospital management, and it’s time we address this together as a team. I also know from those of you I’ve spoken with that you simply want the antagonistic behavior to stop, and you’re willing to do your part in turning a new leaf and starting over again. We’re here to help you do just that.

“Over the next two days, the unit nursing director and HR will be holding three additional meetings. The first meeting is for one half of the group, the second meeting is for the other half and the third meeting will have us all in this room back together like we’re doing right now to address our findings.

“These won’t be gripe sessions, but we would like to hear from you all directly about the problems you’ve experienced. More importantly, we’re going to ask you what you’d be willing to do to fix the problem at hand. If any of you would like to meet with HR, your nursing supervisor or me after your group meetings to discuss things you didn’t feel comfortable sharing publicly, you’re welcome to do so.

“Once we have all your ideas and suggestions, we’ll come together for that larger group meeting to share what we’re willing to do and what you’re willing to do as a team to fix the problem once and for all. We’re all adults, we’ll handle this respectfully and maturely, but we’ll be holding everyone accountable—ourselves included as the management team—to a new standard of performance and conduct going forward. What comments or suggestions do you have about our intended approach?”

Step 2: HR leads the first and second small group meetings

Each of the two small group meetings can be handled in similar fashion:

“Welcome to the small group meeting. In this first part of the meeting, we’d like to hear about the problems you’ve been experiencing with the other team. How did it get to the point where patient call lights are going unanswered if the patient belongs to a nurse on the other team? And what would you be willing to commit to, to fix the problem at hand?”

If the group is hesitant to talk, tease the information out of them by asking, “How would you grade teamwork and camaraderie on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best?” That typically will get them talking, even if you have to ask them by name to proffer an answer. Expect to hear 2s and 3s, which is not uncommon when group relations have degraded to this level. Then follow up with two critical questions:

• “Why would you grade us a [3]?”
• “In an ideal world, what would make us a 10?”

That forced ranking exercise typically triggers lots of opinions and engages the team in a healthy dialog about the situation. Names typically come into play as to who the bully may be, who appears to get preferential treatment, who instigates the majority of the problems and the like. After hearing a healthy number of accusations, move the second half of the group discussion in a new direction:

“Okay, we hear you. Fair enough. But here’s the more important question: What would you be willing to do both individually and as a group to change the dynamic of the team and make it more friendly, supportive and inclusive?”

Jot down their responses on a large posterboard for everyone to see in preparation of your larger group meeting with the combined team once the mini-team meetings are concluded.

Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting, LLC. Find the full list of his books at Amazon.com/author/paulfalcone. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@paulfalconeHR.