I’m sure this has happened to you: you were working on a project in a team.  You were tasked by a teammate to do some specific work, and you were raring to go.  You spent all day working and refining your task.  At seven, you were so hungry from skipping lunch that you took a break to eat, but continued working on it well into the night.  You repeated this process for several days.  You tweaked, you struggled, and finally, on Thursday at 1 am, you completed your master work.

Then you went to the team meeting.  The person who assigned you the task was indifferent.  Six people outright hated what you did.  And everyone on the team wanted you to redo it in a completely different way than you were originally assigned.

I call this “Decision-Making Hot Potato” because it shows that no one is in charge, not even the person doing the work.  Although Decision-Making Hot Potato can happen in self-managed teams, it happens more often than you think even in companies that have clear bosses and managers.  Why?  Because when you work with others on a project, lines get blurred, and responsibility can be muddled.

But don’t despair!  There are ways you can avoid frustration and needless re-work:

Get Team Feedback Early and Often

Instead of taking a task and hiding behind your desk, make sure you’re constantly getting ideas and feedback from all stakeholders on your task.  Getting this feedback will not only help identify problem areas with your work, but also create buy-in for what you’re creating.

Make Sure No one Else is Working on the Task

Even in small teams, you’d be surprised how much double work happens when two team members think they’re doing the same task.  Make sure you always know what everyone is working on with collaboration tools and avoid re-work frustration.

Put Yourself in Charge

A lot of people believe that someone else gives you authority to make decisions, but reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. Your attitude does more to establish authority than anyone else’s say-so.  Be a person who is used to taking charge and be good at meeting your deadlines, and suddenly, people will look to you to make decisions.

And if all the above fails, consider a Team Intervention.

Although this is a drastic last step, dysfunctional teams may need a Team Intervention to help them more clearly define roles and responsibilities.  People should come out of a Team Intervention knowing exactly their areas of expertise and where they can make final calls and decisions.  And every member of the team should have an area to make decisions.  This last resort method may take away time from working on a project, but may be necessary to make sure work is actually moving forward.  Otherwise, your team may be stuck playing hot potato indefinitely.

-Deborah Fike

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