Tone Nordling

Create a forgiving atmosphere between groups

The next time you notice that the team is complaining about another department, a business partner, or a customer, you can draw up a list of the behaviors in your team that are liable to make things difficult for the other group. For example: you respond with counter-arguments instead of asking questions, choose separate tables in the lunch room, only reply to emails after reminders.

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Happier teams

Create a forgiving atmosphere between groups

Conflicts between groups may be differently charged. Sometimes a slight frustration over another party’s failure to deliver, other times a reluctance to help people outside your group, and sometimes a hostile atmosphere. How do you achieve forgiveness? According to a large-scale survey study by researcher Daryl R. Van Tongeren et al., groups need to stop defending their own behavior and assume joint liability for any errors that may have been committed. Choosing to believe that the other party wants to cooperate is also a positive step.

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Oskar Henrikson

Feedback loop

Go around the team. Each person receives feedback from everyone else. Talk about a situation in which you think the person did something well and helped achieve your shared goals.

Oskar Henrikson

The feedback coin

Bring or agree on a symbolic item for the team, such as a gold coin or a toy. Give a colleague positive feedback and the item. Your colleague now has 24 hours to find a new person to give feedback to, as well as the symbolic item. Evaluate at the next team meeting.

Establish boundaries and step out of the box

Ask everyone on the team to list their most important tasks (max. 10) in the next month. Then list the decisions that may need to made quickly. Do you have the authority to make these decisions yourself? Check with the team.

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