You’re leading a healthcare team that’s struggling to work together. What’s the first step you take?

The first step is to facilitate open communication by organizing a team meeting. This meeting should serve as a safe space where each team member can voice their concerns, challenges, and suggestions without fear of judgment. Emphasizing the common goal of patient care and the value of each role within the team can help align perspectives. Listening attentively to each member not only helps in understanding the root causes of the struggle but also demonstrates respect and value for their contributions, setting the stage for collaborative problem-solving and improved teamwork.

The beginning should be with understanding the team's current situation in details. Knowing about their personal and professional goals, their strenghts, weaknesses, priorities, experience and expertise will help us in drafting and crafting the path towards project accomplishment. Sometimes we face conflicts/ego clashes in team members, so we need to handle it with lot of care and delegate tasks accordingly so our team will continue to operate as ONE entity! If needed, some trainings/grooming will also be required for a new project and as a leader we need to identify the gaps in the existing system and start hand holding and uplifting our people until we achieve our desired outcomes. Build the trust and team will work with you for you.

É preciso conhecer bem o time. Identificar quais são as forças e gaps individuais, e assim direcionar de maneira eficiente a força de trabalho. Assegurar que todos compreendem o papel na contribuição para o projeto e consequente sucesso coletivo. Estar atento a qualquer sinal de conflito para agir rapidamente. Por último, e muito importante, esteja disponível, para oferecer suporte e procure compreender as necessidades de cada um, contribuindo genuinamente no desenvolvimento da equipe.

Communication: Effective communication is crucial for a strong company culture. As Leader need to communicate openly, transparently, and consistently with their team members. They should listen actively, provide feedback, and ensure that everyone is aligned with the organization's mission and values.

Team struggling to work together is a clear sign of imbalance, and misalignment of 2 things - 1. individual's goals and 2. individual's goals with the what org is trying to accomplish. There might also be trust issues at the bottom of it. Start pinning down the root caused if you thing there are trust issues. If that's not the case, start creating alignment and balance. If you can start deploying org goals to your team's goals. This will create focus. Then depending on individua's strength, give them a metric to track. Tracking, reporting at regular intervals, will help them make more conscious efforts to work together. Monitor for the friction and start addressing the root causes if they are different than the above mentioned two.

To assess a struggling team, active listening is key. Here's how: Dedicated time & private space: Shows commitment and encourages openness. Guiding questions: Tailored to observations, avoid leading questions. Full attention, nonverbal cues (eye contact, nodding), clarify & reflect back. Avoid interrupting, use encouraging statements & validate feelings. Pay Attention to: Verbal & nonverbal cues, recurring themes. Benefits of Active Listening: Gathers accurate information about team dynamics and needs. Builds trust and rapport, fostering collaboration. Identifies areas for improvement, informing further action. Active listening is an ongoing process, creating a safe space for open communication and a thriving team environment.

The first step to address a healthcare team struggling to work together is to focus on improving communication and collaboration among team members. This involves creating an environment where team members feel comfortable speaking up with their expertise, influencing decisions, and valuing diverse opinions. Implementing strategies to enhance communication, such as ensuring relevant knowledge is shared, encouraging input from all team members, and valuing diverse perspectives, can help overcome challenges and improve teamwork effectiveness

Conduct a Team Meeting: Schedule a team meeting to discuss the current challenges and encourage team members to share their perspectives on what is causing the lack of cooperation. Ensure that all team members have an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.

Root causes are hidden triggers behind observable issues in healthcare teams. Tools like the 5 Whys, Fishbone diagram, and Pareto chart aid in identifying them. The 5 Whys Technique involves questioning "Why?" repeatedly to reveal layers of causation, uncovering the core problem. The Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa) categorizes potential causes into branches, such as people, process, equipment, environment, and management. The Pareto Chart prioritizes issues, following the 80/20 rule where 80% of problems may stem from 20% of causes. These tools offer strategic pathways to uncover and prioritize root causes, essential for effective problem-solving in healthcare teams.

Encourage Active Listening: Emphasize the importance of active listening during team interactions. Encourage team members to listen attentively to each other's viewpoints, acknowledge their input, and seek to understand different perspectives before responding.

When sharing your findings, it’s important to do so with sensitivity to avoid placing blame or creating defensiveness. Focus on the issues and their impacts rather than on individual faults. Highlighting that the aim is to improve the team as a whole can help maintain a positive and constructive tone.

One thing I've found helpful is to choose appropriate methods to convey your findings, considering the nature of the information and the preferences of your audience. Reports, presentations, and meetings are effective tools in this regard. Utilize clear visuals and concise language to ensure that your message is easily understood.

The first step I would take to address the struggling teamwork within the healthcare team is to facilitate a team-building exercise or workshop aimed at improving communication, trust, and collaboration among team members.

Successful solutions for improving teamwork necessitate a clear, actionable plan. Instead of SMART goals, consider using the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will). This framework facilitates collaborative goal setting, encouraging team members to: Define clear goals (Goal): What do we want to achieve together? Assess current reality (Reality): Where are we now, and what are the challenges? Brainstorm options (Options): How can we bridge the gap and achieve our goals? Develop a plan with clear "will" (Will): What specific actions will we take, who will be responsible, and by when? This empowers team ownership and fosters a unique sense of shared responsibility for the plan's success.

Establish Clear Goals and Expectations: Clearly define the team's objectives, roles, and responsibilities to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Setting specific, achievable goals can help align the team's efforts and focus their energy towards a common purpose.

Successfully navigating the healthcare management landscape requires a proactive approach. Implementing solutions is the pivotal step in transforming plans into tangible outcomes. Also, in my opinion, flexibility is key; a plan should be a living document, subject to review and adjustment based on evolving circumstances. Constant evaluation, celebration of successes, and adaptive leadership are the hallmarks of effective implementation.

Implement Team-building Activities: Organize team-building activities and exercises to help team members bond, build stronger relationships, and improve collaboration. These activities can promote unity, enhance communication, and create opportunities for team members to work together towards a common goal.

Some nuances I observed and am implementing in my own competence level: 1. Every team is a mix of human beings with varying degrees of commitment, and varying levels of application. 2. Try to have dialogues and identify root drivers for each person. It is important to note that not every such dialogue will be fruitful and may require many touch bases to break the shell / reveal underlying drivers. 3. From among the high functioning individuals, identify key strengths of each member, and then simply work to remove their obstacles. Let them breathe and exist on their own. 4. Just remember, apart from the forming storming, norming routine, the smoothness of a team building process is inversely proportional to the urgency of deliverable :)

When implementing a solution with a struggling team, prioritise psychological safety. Foster an environment where open communication and constructive criticism are encouraged without fear of blame. This empowers individuals to actively engage in the solution implementation process, sharing ideas and concerns openly. Through honest dialogue, the team can collectively explore options, identify roadblocks, and work together to overcome challenges, leading to more effective and sustainable solutions.

Foster a Culture of Respect and Trust: Promote a culture of respect, empathy, and trust within the team. Encourage team members to treat each other with professionalism, kindness, and mutual support, fostering a positive work environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated.

I feel the most important step is to ensure you have absolutely no biases & opinions good / otherwise against any of the team members. As human beings we have a natural tendency to be biased either way and that then influences our decision making and actions. Once we have removed all biases the next steps would be, to first simply observe the entire team when they interact together, many a times you will get multiple clues of what's working and what's not. After that one on one interactions with each team member will help you understand each person's perspective better and why they behave the way they do in a team. It always boils down to - Everyone just wants to be heard and expects their views to be respected even if not accepted. 😊

I've observed that fostering a team culture where there's a shared purpose and vision can be incredibly beneficial. In my experience, when the team aligns around a meaningful goal, like a significant 'moonshot' in healthcare, it seems to bring everyone together, bridging individual roles. This shared direction has often helped in creating a more collaborative environment. I've noticed that when each team member sees how their contributions fit into the bigger picture, it not only improves coordination but also seems to drive our collective efficiency and effectiveness, which is vital in healthcare. This approach, from my perspective, appears to be a valuable practice in fostering a cohesive and high-performing team.

First, I listen. I meet with each member and hear their perspectives. Then I call a group meeting and get all viewpoints out in the open. I identify common values. What motivates them as a team? We share our focus on patient care. The team must develop solutions together. Trust is vital too. We know our core values, we'll work it out.

Unless the elephant in the room is called out, nothing moves forward. The thing to do is - put everyone in a room and spell out the issues. No one leaves the room till there is alignment and the issues are resolved.

I'd initiate open communication to understand individual concerns, foster a team discussion, and identify common goals. Building trust and addressing any underlying issues can help create a more cohesive healthcare team.

A health care TEAM struggling to work together is a team which already knows what's wrong with it. It May be just a few simple things or big ego clashes. To lead such a team towards calm waters and bring them to achievement level will need space allotment for each team member's vision and implementing them one buy one. Thereby each learns from the other. The team was put together for a reason and that must be understood by the members. Each one's strength will cover up the weakness of the other. Once the members learn this then the team will be complete.