Fix Your Team

Chapter 11 NO CLARITY, NO ACCOUNTABILITY: The path to Complete Chaos

SYMPTOMS

• The team’s critical work is usually completed, but at the very last minute and often with undue stress. Other tasks are forgotten altogether.
• Some members of the team seem to be permanently underutilised or are busy with tasks that don’t contribute to achievement of the team’s goals.
• Plans change halfway through projects, and deadlines are often extended out of necessity.
• Some colleagues are trying to implement improvements, while others happily remain responsible to no one and accountable for nothing. Manipulative or malicious employees exploit the confusion to their own ends, creating power plays and undermining the manager.
• There is growing cynicism towards particular managers.

WHAT’S GOING ON

From an outsider’s point of view, teams that operate in chaos may not appear to be dysfunctional. Some teams with no clarity of structure, KPIs, accountabilities or reporting lines can simply muddle along, seemingly on cruise control. These teams often do achieve an acceptable level of output. After all, the bar has been set quite low for them. The problem is they won’t have time or inclination for tasks that are important but less urgent, or for value adding, for example through innovation. They are achieving far less than they could if they were operating efficiently and with clarity of focus.

The primary symptoms of Complete Chaos are inefficiency and confusion. Deadlines are missed or pushed back. ...