Topic Teasers Vol. 61: Taming Team Testiness

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  Communications Management  

With more teams (some agile and some waterfall), more customer and management involvement, and younger workers who are not as subservient to position power, the team landscape in my department has become a minefield. It’s not just the project manager or ScrumMaster who needs to know how to tame the conflicts--it’s each and every one of us. Short of major psychotherapy sessions, how do we start?

A. Complaining and unhappiness are a necessary part of working with other people. If it happens to you, just back down and you can vent your frustration at home tonight. Addressing conflict at work is unhealthy and will derail your career.

B. There are some simple techniques and verbal steps you can learn so that you are prepared to soothe troubled relationships regardless of whether it’s colleague to colleague, team member to customer or manager to employee. Study them.

C. Ask the Human Resources department to arrange for a counselor to come into the department and work with all the employees. The ones that really need it won’t realize it’s for them, and the rest of the people who don’t need it may find something they can use at home.

D. Go online and download a series of positive posters, sayings and cartoons to post in your workspace to lighten the atmosphere. If people can identify with one of the printouts, they may realize how …

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