Dysfunctional Teams

Dear HBR:

Harvard Business Review

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4.6 • 782 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2018

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is your teamwork not working? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School. They talk through what to do when your team isn’t communicating, doesn’t respect its leader, or has one employee who’s causing problems.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Dear HBR from Harvard Business Review.
0:03.9	I'm Dan McGinn.
0:04.9	And I'm Alison Beard.
0:12.3	Work can be frustrating, but it doesn't have to be.
0:15.3	We don't need to let the conflicts get us down.
0:17.8	That's where Dear HBR comes in.
0:19.9	We take your questions, look at the research, talk to the experts, and help you move forward.
0:32.7	Today, we're answering your questions about dysfunctional teams with the help of Amy Edminson.
0:37.6	She's a professor at Harvard Business School, and her new book is The Fearless Organization,
0:42.2	creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth.
0:46.9	Amy, thanks for coming on the show.
0:48.2	I am delighted to be here.
0:50.2	Amy, this concept of psychological safety, how did you get interested in it?
0:54.2	By accident, I was studying medical errors. It looked at first like the better teams,
1:02.5	according to the survey, were making more mistakes, not fewer. And I just couldn't believe
1:07.8	that that was the case. And it suddenly occurred to me that maybe the better teams were more able and willing to talk about the mistakes that occurred so that they could catch and prevent them from causing harm.
1:20.8	And is that one of the main reasons that so many teams are dysfunctional?
1:24.9	I think that is one of the main reasons because people have to feel safe to bring their brains to work.
1:31.3	And that's not normal. Fear is really quite widespread.
1:34.3	Okay, first question.
1:38.3	Dear HBR, I've been in my current company for a little over four years, and a change in our teamwork has me frustrated.
1:46.8	I work in a small strategy office. There's a vice president, one corporate director, two senior
	...

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