The Amazing Race - a great example of dysfunctional teamwork
Stuck in a foreign country with someone you at least have known for a long time doing god knows what task to get clues in order to do even more tasks that drive the otherwise loving team members to want to strangle each other. Watching this show reminds me of team members in business too. We all work in tight, stressful and fast paced environments working at tasks that take us to a common ground. In that same manner team members will sometimes want to strangle each other. One thing I have discovered is that conflict is a good thing and that wanting to strangle someone can also be a good thing. Sounds weird but once you and your team realize that conflict will bring out new ideas and different viewpoints. Only when each member agrees to face the conflict together rather than throwing around blame can the teams learn from conflict and become stronger. Try it - next time conflict happens - face it together and grow from it. We see it every Sunday night on CBS why not in your office?
