Ghost Teams: no clarity, no direction and no end in sight.
Organisational priorities and goals can change in a heartbeat. Once, while I was on leave, one of my teams heard about the plug being pulled on a project. It was communicated in the form of a throwaway line from a midlevel leader in a team meeting. They had been working on it for the better part of a year. The project had been widely communicated, involved lots of employee engagement and training had commenced. They were understandably devastated. But not every change of focus is this badly handled - thankfully. Being told to stop that and now do this happens. And while these "pivots" create uncertainty, sometimes it isn't due to changing goals but having none to begin with.
Now not many conversations with coaching clients or colleagues still have the capacity to leave me speechless. But when I hear someone has started a new role or a new team has been formed, and four, six, nine months later, they still don't know what they're meant to be doing, or their project isn't ready for them to commence, that will absolutely do it. And this is not a conversation I have had only once.
We are all aware of - if not always joyfully managing - the vicissitudes of the workplace. But those stranded goalless folk - or ghost teams - I hear from are lost in limbo, doing their compliance eLearning and setting up the odd meeting with stakeholders they aren't quite sure how to engage.
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.”
They are often told to hold off, wait, don't do anything yet. Their enthusiasm wanes as the gap between what they were told they would be doing and what they are actually doing widens to a yawning chasm. And this type of 'overwhelm' is probably better thought of as total and debilitating underwhelm. Leading through these periods and keeping a great team in place can be challenging. So what can we do?
Clarity not certainty
Be as transparent as possible about what you know and what you don't know. Encourage people to ask questions and express concerns. Giving a statement about what we know won't be as useful as having people frame and ask their own questions. As well as helping your team members feel heard, there is a better chance they are hearing the message when we are answering their questions.
Manage emotions
Discussions and questions are necessary, but don't dwell in the negative. Set up specific times and places - like the first fifteen minutes of this meeting - that allow for frustrations to be aired. But then, get on with working. And this is not a time [if there ever is one] to avoid one-on-ones. Keep a close eye on how you can support - or find support for - your people and yourself.
Get prepping
Get clear on what you do know and do some prepping and scenario-building. What is most likely to be needed? What can we usefully get ready for? Even if what is worked on is not used in that form, it can be useful learning that saves time when things get going - and that's worthwhile.
Keep learning
And are there opportunities for development? It may be worth investing in future skills for your areas of expertise while people have the time. But always link learning back to immediate workplace activity to avoid losing its value. And you can also fruitfully work on team dynamics. Support your team to identify and experiment with how they like to work together, make decisions, solve problems, or communicate.
Create some urgency
Set up small sprints for the team to work on. Create your own goals. You could use this for your prepping, scenario building and team dynamics experiments. That way, you can celebrate success, better manage performance and find novel ways to keep up morale.
Communicate up
Keep leaders and decision makers informed of the steps you are taking, how the team is feeling and what they are doing and learning. Ask them for any specific directions or opportunities you could be missing. And who knows, it may be what leaders need to hear to overcome barriers and get things moving.
Hopefully, you and your team are not in this situation - ghosts in the organisation with no clarity, no direction and no end in sight. Still, in our uncertain working world, looking at how we help our people feel heard, stay focused and supported is a lesson we all need to heed, especially if we want to keep our best people engaged and wanting to stay.