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The Team Is Not the Sum of Its Parts
It is not hard to detect when a team, or an organization, goes sideways. There are usually plenty of warning signals and symptoms. The only real surprise is how easy it seems for some leaders to ignore them. Symptoms include:
- cliques, subgroups or coalitions of mixed loyalty begin to form and work at cross-purposes
- side deals negotiated outside of the full team
- directives from the top go unanswered or are regularly second-guessed
- lack of candour causes the really important and meaningful conversations to go underground
- lack of self-regulating, self-aligning team discipline results in missed deadlines
- conflicting priorities become common and, sometimes, outright sabotage can occur
To make matters worse, ...