The team is the essential decision-making vehicle in any organization and yet, despite the thousands of books that exist related to effective teamwork, most teams never reach the high performing stage. Many remain stuck in the storming stage for months and even years while some teams make it to the norming stage but seldom move on to the high performing stage.

The reality is, in today’s hectic corporate environment filled with tight deadlines, rapid change and high levels of stress, most teams focus on the accomplishment of the task at hand but spend very little time on interpersonal issues. Occasionally, team members spend a day or two participating in a fun off-site meeting but, when they return to work on Monday morning, no real substantive change takes place. The reality is that teams are composed of human beings who have personal needs, conflicting agendas, egos, different personalities, individual issues to deal with and competing priorities. Not understanding this reality and ignoring interpersonal issues is like buying an expensive piece of equipment and never doing any maintenance. The equipment will eventually break down.

Patrick Lencioni had it right when he wrote, in his landmark book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, that a lack of trust and fear of conflict are the most fundamental team dysfunctions. Clearly, if a team spends little or no time dealing with inevitable interpersonal issues (basic maintenance), there can never be the building of trust and relationships, the very foundation of any team. If team members feel that their voices aren’t being heard, they will resort to “fight or flight” – leaving the team to wallow in the storming stage for a long time.

At Points of You, we believe that teams must take time to deal with the people side of things. Our process empowers team members to tell their stories in an authentic way so that their colleagues better understand and connect with them. The methodology enables teams to surface and deal with underlying issues in a frank, non-threatening and fun way. The result is that the trust-building process is activated and team members feel that they are being listened to. Best of all, it only takes a few hours to start this essential process and very little time to maintain it. The result – reaching the high performing stage of team development quickly. What are you waiting for?