Teams are capable of achieving great things. They are also capable of getting horribly lost.
As individuals we all have blind-spots, but when a whole team has the same blind spot they are likely heading for danger.
Teams who adhere to a view, or an objective, and ignore anything that contradicts their chosen view.
The problem is XXX. Our competitors are incompetent. Our competitors are impregnable. We will succeed…
Self confidence, fear, or habitual thinking can become blindfolds that prevent a team from seeing where they are, and what’s really happening. Not seeing the truth.
Or maybe you see it, and close your eyes to it because you don’t like what you see.
Team blind spots.
These can help you feel comfortable short term but also lead to failure.
Blind spots are easier to see in others than in your own team – a common symptom is that you don’t know you have them.
Fortunately there are telltale signs.
When important outcomes come as a big surprise, too late to avoid. A project fails, a competitor outsells you, a bunch of people resign, machinery breaks down, customer complaints ramp up.
When failures are always another team’s fault and success is always your team’s.
When regular team meetings focus only on targets and wins, not on where we are today.
When big problems are raised in the corridors, or messaging, not in team meetings.
When reports are created but not read.
When reports are changed to remove or camouflage “uncomfortable” measures – the ones that don’t show we’re winning.
When you don’t have reports…
The secret to removing blind spots isn’t for brave individuals to stand out from the crowd, it’s for the crowd to have their blindfolds taken off so they can see for themselves where they are.
Teams who invest time into reading detailed reports, walking around their workplace, talking openly with leaders and each other, watching everything – not just problems – spend less time on problems. Because they have fewer surprises.
They see problems coming and aren’t afraid to talk about them.
They go looking for problems.
“…blind spots are easier to see in others than in your own team – a common symptom is that you don’t know you have them…fortunately there are telltale signs…”
Does your team regularly discuss negative issues and problems?
Do you have clear, consistent measures of progress, or performance?
How many of these show poor performance? How often? Is your scorecard always green?
How often does your team review performance? A whole fixed list, not just what went wrong yesterday..
How often does a big failure come as a big surprise? How often do you see it coming?
Do measures that are often negative get talked about less or more?
Are there topics that are off limits for team discussion?
Or people?
Where is your team right now?
How do you know where you are?
.
.
“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”
Even when one is metaphorically blind, it is troubling how one can continue to walk as usual for a while without any immediate impact on daily life. The larger a successful company is, the longer it can endure mistakes, which delays the recognition of these errors. Furthermore, even if one notices a problem, amidst the myriad of information exchanged, it is often not easy to gain recognition for the anomaly and to garner support for solutions. This article reminds me that it is essential to allocate time to listen to employees’ voices and create an environment where the proposed solutions can be easily implemented by employees without fear.
You’re right Ryoichi… As you know, larger organizations can add a different level of complexity, especially when decision makers are remote from decision takers. “seeing” isn’t just a visual one-way thing, it’s dependent on feeling consequences. Feedback, pushback, encouragement, pain or reward all help us know what’s happening. Big organizations can be slow to give feedback or when it comes it’s too late to be useful. Big organizations can offset this but only if teams are empowered and informed, and not waiting for someone in the center to make decisions. Some organizations don’t try, they don’t see the value of “listening to employees’ voices”