The Firm's HR team, which comprised 11 members based at three locations, was increasingly experiencing friction and unresolved problems. Team communication was poor and there was a lack of trust and cooperation, especially between people from different offices.

This was intensified by the recent introduction of a new working system, which had changed the distribution of responsibilities and reduced role clarity. A blame culture had developed where people showed little willingness to take personal ownership and did not provide constructive feedback. This led to a defensive style of communication, where most correspondence occurred by email and team members were unsympathetic to the mistakes of others.

Solution

Using feedback from the team members, OPP® designed a programme that included exercises to highlight communication, feedback and trust issues, integrated with the FIRO-B® and MBTI® personality questionnaires.

Initially OPP facilitated a team discussion based on team members' FIRO-B profiles, and how they related to their current issues. To further these discussions, OPP used the 'Johari Window' and 'Prisoner's Dilemma' exercises. The Johari Window demonstrated how greater awareness of oneself and others improves communications and cooperation without distractions and conflict and the Prisoner’s Dilemma highlighted the inherent difficulty of achieving cooperative behaviour when opposing behaviour is rewarded. It reflected the lack of trust within the team, illustrating to the members that they often had little confidence in receiving cooperation from others. This demonstrated the need for clear common goals and for team members to agree on tasks and responsibilities and collaborate to achieve them. Another exercise used the MBTI preferences of the team to explore how they would like to receive feedback on their performance.

To conclude the event, the team members agreed on actions that would help the team to develop and improve relationships. They identified a need to improve communication methods, increase social interaction and produce clarity of roles.

Business benefits

Many steps have been implemented as a result of the event, including:

The whole team now gets together for meetings on a more regular basis
'Buddying' arrangements have been put in place between the different sites
Team members are taking the time to visit each other at the different locations, and make an effort to meet socially

The HR Manager has reported that, despite initial skepticism towards the day, communication has already improved: "Prior to the event, I wasn't convinced it would make much difference as our issues were big and I thought it would take more that one day to deal with these. I also expected the day to perhaps be too volatile, so I was not looking forward to it. However, it turned out to be very non-confrontational, and it made me understand why people behave the way they do. The team now gives each other better, more constructive feedback, and we say what we feel or need, and how we want feedback to be given."

"The FIRO-B questionnaire was very valuable, and the most meaningful part of the day for me. It helped me to understand myself and my colleagues better, what makes different people tick, and that we don't place the same importance on the same things."

For more information about using the MBTI and FIRO-B personality questionnaires in your organisation for individual, team or leadership development, please contact our Sales Team on +44 (0)1865 404500 or by email at: enquiry@opp.eu.com.

® OPP and the OPP logo are registered trade marks of OPP Ltd.
® FIRO-B is a registered trade mark of CPP, Inc. OPP Ltd is licensed to use the trade mark in Europe.
® MBTI and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are registered trade marks of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust. OPP Ltd is licensed to use the trade marks in Euro