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Leadership (Brain Circuits)
Don’t mention it! Tackling your team’s taboos, Part 4
In the final part of our series on “undiscussables,” Ginka Toegel and Jean-Louis Barsoux outline ways to deal with the deepest “undiscussable”: team members behaving in certain ways without being aware of their behavior.
Doing but not realizing
These undiscussables are collectively held, unconscious behaviors—the most difficult to uncover. Team members may notice isolated problems in their dynamic but cannot connect the dots to identify root causes. As a result, they often jump to the wrong conclusions about what drives team inefficiencies and poor performance, which can cause anxiety. Though unnoticed by the team, such behavior patterns may be readily discernible to outsiders.
Problem diagnosis: Do team members exhibit warped interactions?
Go through this checklist to see whether team members’ interactions seem anxious or defensive:
- Do they unwittingly engage in unproductive behaviors?
- Does the team have trouble identifying root causes for its ineffectiveness?
- Does it “spin its wheels” on minor issues?
- Do important items often get postponed or fall between the cracks?
Why it happens
Unconscious and unacknowledged undiscussables manifest in seemingly unrelated team dynamics (hence the difficulty in connecting the dots). Teams instinctively develop defensive routines to cope with anxiety, such as that generated by feeling collectively ignored or undervalued. This allows them to avoid thinking about or even naming the underlying issues. Behavior patterns that emerge from anxiety begin on an unconscious level, then become part of “the way we do things.” People fall into rigid roles, sit in the same chairs, and follow rituals that impair their ability to question assumptions and get their jobs done.
Beginning the fix
- Invite a trusted adviser from another part of the organization or an external facilitator to observe the team and give feedback on communication habits (including body language, who talks and how often, whom people look at when they talk, who interrupts whom, who or what is blamed when things go wrong, what is not spoken about, who stays silent, and whose comments are ignored).
- Engage a trained observer to carry out what MIT Sloan School of Management organizational psychologist Edgar Schein calls humble inquiry, where the aim is to elicit information and feelings important to the team’s mission. (The questioner’s outsider status allows for naive, unthreatening questioning of the unconscious processes at play).
- Use the Five Whys technique (asking “Why?” at least five times) to help the outsider drill down to deeper levels and surface what the team is avoiding.
Key learnings
Team leaders often underestimate the consequences of doing nothing to address undiscussables, which almost invariably results in strained working relationships. High-performing teams pay attention not only to what they achieve, but how they achieve it by working together. This does not come naturally: you have to work at it and introduce routines and forums to purge your team of undiscussables before they take root and cause problems. Tackling the taboos brings relief, boosts energy, bolsters team goodwill, and boosts organizational performance.
Further reading
Don’t mention it! Is it time to tackle your team’s taboos? Part 1
Don’t mention it! Is it time to tackle your team’s taboos? Part 2
Don’t mention it! Is it time to tackle your team’s taboos? Part 3
Let’s Talk: Why It’s Time to Stop Avoiding Taboo Topics at Work
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