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Psychological Services – Group
A multinational pharmaceutical company was left without
a State Sales Manager for three months until the new incumbent was due
to join. The team of Sales Representatives had become warring parties,
as they attempted to operate as a self-managed work team until the new
manager arrived. What began as an exciting opportunity for this team,
quickly degenerated into an ineffective and conflicted group of people.
The team had elected a leader, choosing the member with the most product and company knowledge, who had been with the company for 17 years. The six young and dynamic team members, seeing this as an opportunity to “show them what we can do” immediately began innovating new processes and ideas. The team-elected leader, the oldest and most experienced rep, became more and more oppositional and conventional in his thinking, to attempt to “keep things stable” until their manager arrived. These two very divergent thinking and behaviour styles, and subsequent goals, resulted in significant conflict within the team.
After using a 360 degree diagnostic tool to define and measure the extent of the defensive thinking and behaviour, the team was educated in constructive and defensive thinking and its resultant behaviour.
This allowed the individual team members to gain insight into their own ineffective survival mechanisms, and how the collective use of defensive strategies had brought about the current conflict situation. The younger team members then understood the reasons for the team leader’s apparent obstructiveness: wanting to “get things right” and “not rock the boat”. The leader was able to let go of their fear of failure, and allow the team to try new ideas.
Within two months, this team beat all sales records for their state, and were awarded the “Top Team” award at the company’s annual awards night. The new manager walked into a team who had become innovative, cohesive, and highly motivated.
The team had elected a leader, choosing the member with the most product and company knowledge, who had been with the company for 17 years. The six young and dynamic team members, seeing this as an opportunity to “show them what we can do” immediately began innovating new processes and ideas. The team-elected leader, the oldest and most experienced rep, became more and more oppositional and conventional in his thinking, to attempt to “keep things stable” until their manager arrived. These two very divergent thinking and behaviour styles, and subsequent goals, resulted in significant conflict within the team.
After using a 360 degree diagnostic tool to define and measure the extent of the defensive thinking and behaviour, the team was educated in constructive and defensive thinking and its resultant behaviour.
This allowed the individual team members to gain insight into their own ineffective survival mechanisms, and how the collective use of defensive strategies had brought about the current conflict situation. The younger team members then understood the reasons for the team leader’s apparent obstructiveness: wanting to “get things right” and “not rock the boat”. The leader was able to let go of their fear of failure, and allow the team to try new ideas.
Within two months, this team beat all sales records for their state, and were awarded the “Top Team” award at the company’s annual awards night. The new manager walked into a team who had become innovative, cohesive, and highly motivated.