People who are attacked by management WILL defend themselves

August 4, 2015

We talk about teamwork but we often structure our workplaces so that there are winners and losers.

We set up compensation and appraisal systems supposedly to “reward good performance.” But often, only a small percentage of the workgroup will gain the award and be seen as winners. The rest can feel attacked as losers and this does not generally set up overall collaboration and cooperation in your workplace. People will communicate, and that can work for you or against you.

Another reality is that those people who feel they are being attacked by their management will defend themselves.

Often, this involves a personal situation where individuals may convince others that they are also being attacked and that the workplace is unfair, or some such thing. Or, the reality may be that the group IS actually being attacked! Things are being done TO them that makes them feel less assured for their job or their income. If so, they will predictably “circle the wagons” and work together rather than with management. They are not being involved and engaged. But this can be changed.

A key is to involve and engage them in communications about perceptions about perceived issues and to get and implement their ideas for workplace performance improvement. If they feel they are part of the team, they will collaborate (some faster than others). Over time, you can build collaboration and engagement, rather than have to deal with the defensiveness.

The Square Wheels facilitation tools are an excellent and simple tool to improve such discussions. And the newest toolkit below is designed to get you started with your engagement process. It is very easy to use, only $25 complete, and it works really simply with no training required and ample ideas and tips for facilitation:

You can find an easy to use toolkit for facilitating meetings. That is what we do…

We also have a coaching toolkits – materials for involving and engaging people as to how to link the conversations to personal coaching and mentoring for performance improvement.

For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant.