Team leadership works best when it is informal and natural, and leaders can develop the requisite skills on the job with practice. Some people come by them naturally, so all they need is the opportunity to apply what they know — which is good, because during a period of disruption, there may not be enough time to formally train candidates before their action is required.

Solving Problems and Making Decisions

Problem-solving and decision-making can be challenging for teams, because each process requires an examination from differing points of view. For example, a problem exists when an undesirable deviation from a past expectation has occurred, while a decision is called for when a future expectation needs to be modified, changed or canceled. Often, the two functions are interconnected and, thus, need to be performed simultaneously. Understanding where to start this exploration of causality and rectification can be frustrating for a team, unless it first establishes a common purpose.

Problem Solving: Looking At History

Start with a quick assessment of the situation. Ask participants to indicate whether they are looking back at what has happened or looking ahead at what needs to happen. Some may not know yet, so ask them to stay neutral for now. Then, ask participants looking ahead to “mute” themselves and listen while the ones looking back share their perspectives.

Using the key words shown in the “history” column, form a list of questions relevant to the situation. Keep the questions short and simple, like these questions for a customer satisfaction problem:

• • Who filed the complaint?
  • What do they want?
  • Why are they upset?
  • When do they expect a response?

Once the focus questions are compiled, the data collection and confirmation can begin. It will not take long before the team’s memory of the past is reinvented. At this point, armed with a pool of historical knowledge, it is time to shift focus to the future. It’s a good time to break and let participants realign for the next round.

Decision Makiing: Looking At The Future

Typically, there will be a lot more discussion on what went wrong than there will be about what needs to be done differently. The history of the situation is familiar and, therefore, easier to recount. The future is another story — one that has not yet happened and is, therefore, difficult to talk about in specific terms. For those reasons, a facilitator may need to take a more active role in this part of the process.

As a rule of thumb, a high-performance team should invest between 60% and 70% of its time looking ahead. Spending too much time rehashing issues from the past can be wasteful and unproductive.

Working the “future” side also starts with the formation of a set of questions, but this time, each question is prefaced by “Now,” followed by “how.” For example:

• • Now that we know who filed the complaint, how do we communicate with him?
  • Now that we know what he wants, how do we provide a replacement?
  • Now that we know why he is upset, how do we restore his trust?
  • Now that we know when he expects a response, how do we meet that timeline?

This two-pronged data-gathering process may take some time to get used to, especially the awkward use of the “now, how?” format. It works best if you let it unfold naturally. Before you begin, determine how much time you want to spend on each side of the model. Remember to encourage team members to take a new position as their thinking shifts.