Self-Sabotaging Teams

Is your team set to ‘self-destruct’?

It makes your heart pound and your mouth dry. You shuffle uncomfortably from one foot to the other, trying to find a natural way to stand.

It takes courage to stand on your own, facing a group who do things differently.

We all want to belong, to be accepted – it’s a strong, primal instinct, honed for survival. And in spite of boardrooms and business suits, when we stand apart from the crowd, we take a risk.

But sometimes, in workshops and presentations, our facilitators ask people to do just that.

It’s a simple but powerful exercise. We pin the nine Team Role icons up around the room and ask people to stand beneath their top Team Role – their strongest contribution to the team. 

Identifying self-sabotaging coping mechanisms

When teams are under pressure, pack mentality prevails. When collective anxiety becomes intolerable, teams try to counter it with dysfunctional coping mechanisms.

This might entail making scapegoats, infighting, or ‘othering’ people, teams and departments, to put distance between the team and the threat.

These strategies might offer short-term relief, but they ultimately sabotage group dynamics and performance.

So what happens when this damaging behaviour flies under the radar? How do we identify and address self-sabotage in our teams?

N.Anand and Jean-Louis Barsoux identify a number of common unhealthy coping mechanisms which can be entrenched – and well hidden – in teams.

Fight mode

The team might become fixated on a common enemy, whether this be another team or department, head office or a competitor.

Instead of working to solve its own problems, the team places blame on this external force and expends energy fighting the wrong battles.

Flight mode

Whilst ‘fight mode’ teams are engaged in combat with a perceived enemy, teams in flight mode are avoidant – withdrawing to ward off anxiety.

Important decisions or tasks might be deferred or ignored, especially if the team is suffering from inconsistent or volatile leadership.

There is no quick fix.

These cultural problems are complex to address, and doing so is often challenging, uncomfortable work.

We need a tool that unearths real problems, but also offers practical and workable solutions.

We need a common language with which to check the team’s pulse, to identify and discuss problems arising, and to bring about sustainable behaviour change.

Belbin is different.

The Team Role framework was developed in response to the research question, ‘What makes teams succeed or fail?’

It is, intrinsically, a holistic, practical tool, which situates individual contributions in relation to the most tangible element of team dynamics – behaviours.

Rather than relying on the say-so of individuals and the internal workings of personality, Belbin measures behaviour. And it corroborates findings through Observer Assessments – feedback from within the team.

This builds an evidence base the team can use to uncover, diagnose and address dysfunctional dynamics.

A holistic approach

Addressing self-sabotage within a team requires a strategic, holistic approach which engages and empowers the team as a whole.

Through its unique inception, evidence base and unerring focus on the team, the Belbin framework is an invaluable tool for addressing and remedying dysfunctional team dynamics.

By using this methodology as a lens, teams can avoid hitting the ‘self-destruct’ button.

Rather than resorting to unhelpful coping mechanisms or allowing pack mentality to prevail, Belbin helps teams to do the important and often challenging work of recognising and addressing discomfort, celebrating cognitive diversity and unlocking the team’s full potential.