Passive Aggressive Group

[Gary_Rush]

Hello,

I have a group to facilitate who are a bit different. They are all happy on the outside and work well together. However, underneath it, they have some tough issues about each other - especially about the manager. They want a strategic plan with the senior staff and the next level staff. The senior staff haven't worked out their issues yet and the plan won't work unless they do. It may cause tears if I just open it up to venting.

Does anyone know of a safe exercise that can help open them up and deal with the issues without losing it? Their culture is pretty much passive aggressive and they always play nice on the surface. We need to get below the surface.

Thanks.

[Andi_Roberts]

Hi Gary,

I am not sure there is a definitive solution to this as I think it is a pretty tough cookie to crack.

An idea that I might use is the following or a variation on it:

1) Get team members to write for each person on a form:
A) What I really admire in this person
B) What top 3 strengths this person brings to the team
C) What personal baggage do I hold about this person stops us working together even better.
NOTE : I would really set this well and ahead of time so people have time to think and to make notes

2) Create a rotation system so that each team member sees another and get them to gro through their points from a "feedback" stand point i.e. no justification what so ever!
NOTE - Minimum of 30 minutes per rotation

3) Create some space for reflection and allow (insist almost) that people who have "issues" go to the people and deal with it.

4) Pull the team back together and get a one phrase feedback from all on the experience.

I think the set up for this is key and I see Appreciative Enquiry as the anchor for an intervention like this. I also think "Ladders of Inference" might help a great deal in the set up.

I see the issue as a team coaching thing rather than a facilitation issue.

Not sure if this helps or not but it is just my "quick" 2 Euro Cent worth.

Regards and good luck from a sunny Spain, Andi

[Gary_Rush]

Hi Andi,

Thanks. That sounds interesting. I think that I'll try it - or something like it - and let you know how it goes. The workshop is in a couple of weeks so I've got time to plan and get them ready.

You are right - this part is more coaching than facilitating, but needed before we can get into a strategic plan.

Thanks again.

[Tony Osime]

I am having problems contributing to this group so I hope this gets through.

I suggest an exercise in which participants practice "seeing" from the other person's perspective.

Develop some typical controversial workplace scenarios. In groups of two, each person has to write down the perspective and approach of their partner.
They share results. They coach each other on what was right and wrong and why. They then share insights and agree how to modify their individual behavior to achieve the best results when they work together. This is to be repeated with all other members of the team.

Then working in groups of four, each group of two presents their findings to the other group of two.
This process is repeated until all pairs have presented to all other pairs.

With the mass of data collected, each person should reflect individually on the whole exercise and draw personal conclusions.
Individually, they share their conclusions with the whole group.

The facilitator can now help the group to draw the strands together towards general conclusions for the group.

Hope this helps...

Tony Osime