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Them and us – Team working in workplaces

Updated: Nov 3, 2020

Leadership, teamwork, tasks, focus, communication


When you are speaking with individuals about work and teams in organisations, sometimes you can start to see the frustration about task completion, the effects of the work other teams are having on YOUR team. This is especially true in large organisations. There might be sometimes questions around; are they for real? They are doing it on purpose to make our life difficult by not giving us the information on time, or not getting the parts to us on time, we are going to miss shipping, we can't complete the report on time.


Sometimes there is also some sort of arrogance surfacing as well, MY team is better, in some sense more superior, more important than YOUR team. The THEM and US divide can be a frustrating one to deal with, but perhaps the way individuals are looking at situations is the main point that has to change. In organisations, where individuals are working towards the common goal, there shouldn’t be the THEM and US divide, but of course, it is easier said than done, in reality, the picture can be very different. The THEM and US divide is damaging as it is creating this competing mindset rather than collaboration, resources and energy is often wasted on unnecessary stress when departments and teams don’t understand or see the bigger organisational picture and they only focus on task completion. Get the job done, but not thinking about the consequences of their actions on the other teams, those who have to carry on work processes once Team A already finish their tasks.




The absence of communication and collaboration between departments can be one of the biggest financial, resource and time-waster in organisations. When people are working in silos, tasks will get done, but the disjointed approach to achieve the overall organisational goal will waste so many resources, both physical and people resources, which can increase the stress levels for individuals and true high performance won’t manifest.


This workplace phenomenon is not new, and not necessarily the easiest to overcome either due to multiple factors; hierarchical structures, time constraints, individuals’ personalities, competing needs but it is something to monitor constantly as the long-term effect of THEM and US can have a detrimental effect on organisational performance and individuals’ wellbeing.


So, options to overcome the THEM and US issue, perhaps the most important and easiest solution is Communication, Communication, Communication. Start talking with the other teams, start to have a real interest in their work processes, practices, competing needs and deadlines and put aside your needs, your team’s needs for a moment. Try to understand what is actually going on! When teams are participating in meaningful conversations with each other and entering a collaborative mindset, the THEM and US divide should reduce. People are not making your life purposely difficult in your firms, they are just trying to complete their work, but sometimes due to a lack of communication and real understanding, disjointed processes, these can feel that others are working against your team. Break the silos, start talking and collaborate.


The collaboration and breaking down silos can be difficult as individuals working in teams develop their own social categories (belonging to a certain team) which might pose complications when trying to collaborate with others especially when there are competing tasks and deadlines. Team members in teams are belonging in social categories (Gerben van der Vegt and Bunderson, 2005), individuals from the same categories are more motivated to interact with the people from the same group and perhaps emphasise the positive aspects of their social categories above others. This can be easy to understand as people like to belong to a group where they feel valued and understood, they have an emotional attachment, response to that group (Gerben van der Vegt and Bunderson, 2005).


When there is the opportunity in organisations so people can move between departments as part of secondments, job shadowing, individuals might be able to develop emotional attachments to different groups at the same time (if these opportunities are long enough to create meaningful relationships), have a better understanding of work processes. This can be a way of breaking down silos in organisations and promote better collaboration. Managers’ role here is also important, they need to role model the openness, the approach of we are not superiors in the organisation, we are open to collaborate and learn from each other. They need to enable individuals to learn and share knowledge, they need to create a positive learning environment in their teams which is promoting continuous process improvements and communication.



Reference:

Prof G. S. Gerben van der Vegt and J Stuart Bunderson (2005) ‘Learning and performance in multidisciplinary teams: the importance of collective team identification, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 48, No. 3


Photo by ‘cottonbro’ from Pexels and Pixabay

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