Toxic team turnarounds: Leading the group reconciliation meeting
By Paul Falcone
Hopefully, you read part 1 of this column last week detailing a particular example of how HR can lead a toxic team turnaround, this one involving hospital nurses. We conclude that series with how to lead a large group reconciliation meeting.
When you come together again as the larger team after hearing from the smaller groups, HR can open the meeting as follows:
“Everyone, we’ve had a chance to sit and listen to both sides, and we hear you. We hear your frustrations, we hear your concerns and, most importantly, we hear how you want things to change. And we fully agree. As a leadership team, we not only want you to perform more cohesively as a group, but we also want you to feel more engaged and motivated at work.
“We know that you’ll perform your best when you feel like your boss and your peers have your back. And we want you to enjoy your work and assume good intentions, eliminating the angst and tension that can seep into the culture when people feel like they have to walk on eggshells around one another or fear that someone is out to get them in trouble.
“The purpose of this large group meeting isn’t to discuss the what of it all. We’ve talked about that with each group individually, and there’s no need to rehash the issues that have gotten us to this point. Instead, we want to focus on the how: How do we move beyond this in a healthy manner? How do we reinstitute a sense of good faith and support for one another, and how do we reinvent our relationships to build more respect and trust into our working relationships?
“To do that, I want to post what each team said it would be willing to do in the smaller group meetings. These are the things you’ve committed to, and I’m putting them on paper because this will serve as our go-forward contract. These are your ideas and commitments, codified to ensure we’re all on the same page from this point forward. We can add to it now if we’re missing anything, but this is our very own commitment plan going forward until the matter is resolved. Do you understand the significance of this handout and what it represents?” [Yes]
You can then hand out a formal one-sheet outlining these bilateral commitments. Conclude the meeting with the following caveats:
“Team, these are your suggestions and your commitments going forward. Fulfilling your commitments will not only end the conflicts we have all experienced up to now, it will also result in better patient care and a much more satisfactory work environment for everyone concerned.
“That being said, this also serves as a formal notice that if these types of problematic behaviors continue, management will have no choice but to proceed with documented disciplinary action for any repeat offenders. Does that sound like a fair and reasonable expectation in our part?” [Yes]
“Does anyone have any additional questions, suggestions or recommendations at this point?” [No]
“Great. Thank you all for participating, for embracing our approach to changing the tone and tenor of the team, and for sharing your suggestions for an improved working relationship with your peers. I have high expectations regarding your success, and I agree fully with your action plan. Thank you for making this shared solution a new way forward that we can all embrace.”
This healthy intervention allows each side to be heard and permits employees to vent in a safe manner. It also gives you, the HR leader, the opportunity to share solutions and hold people accountable to them.
You’ll have treated your team like adults, and you now can wipe the slate clean and welcome back everyone to the organization as if it were their first day. No, not everyone will “play nicely” immediately, as wounds heal very differently.
However, you’ll have given everyone an equal chance to end the misery, encouraging each individual to be the first domino and demonstrate the change they wish to see in others.
Further, if anyone can’t or won’t comply with the new commitments they’ve made, the go-forward plan you’ve established will serve as a critical part of the written record now in place to accord workplace due process should the matter proceed to progressive discipline or termination for anyone.
HR’s solution provides the nursing leadership team with critical insights into the challenges facing the unit while allowing them to find their own solutions and reset expectations.
That’s a triple win for the management team, the unit nurses and the organization, which now has a much better chance of removing toxicity from the workplace and replacing it with a more cooperative and smoother-functioning nursing service.
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.
