Transition Meeting -- Details

TRANSITION PROBLEMS

The effects of a poorly managed transition can be devastating. Without a plan, you and your newly formed team will not start up fast, and here is why:

• People don't trust you, or each other, and you don't know who to trust.
• Team members are concerned about being accepted and respected for who they are and what they do.
• No one wants to risk being creative or innovative for fear of making mistakes and being punished.
• Your direct reports are unwilling to use you or each other as resources to discuss or solve problems.
• There is no cross-functional communication. In fact, there are forms of unproductive competition because everyone is jockeying for the best/safest relationship with the boss.
• Roles, responsibilities and decision making authority have not been defined, causing fears about stepping into someone else's territory and being disliked.

As a leader of a new team, you have specific problems:

• You are unaware of the strengths and limitations of your direct reports, and you don't know their chemistry.
• You don't know the interpersonal issues between group members or how they operate together.
• You don't know the culture and unwritten norms that your people live by.
• You don't know what erroneous assumptions your people have made about you.

Your subordinates have some concerns and questions as well:

• What do you expect of them?
• What is your management style?
• What are your hot buttons, and how do you respond to bad news?
• Will you like and respect them for their technical competence?
• How will you reward and punish them?

Under these chaotic conditions, how can you be most productive, effective and efficient? The answer is simple. By having a neutral facilitator conduct a Transition Meeting for you.