Ep215: What Great Teams Do great Issue #13 The team disagrees with the organizational direction

David shares more from our What Great Teams Do Great series, based on the book of the same name.  This time, what to do when your team disagrees with the organizational direction

Transcript

David Wheatley (00:04)
Welcome to this episode. This is another part of our What Great Teams Do Great Issues Series. I'm David Wheatley. All of these issues use our What Great Teams Do Great model, which is available at humanergy.com or in the book of the same name. Each issue is presented with suggested actions to get on the path to team greatness.

This issue: The team isn't bought into the goals the organization wants them to adopt. Several team members have voiced concerns about whether the goals are realistic.

We hear this all the time—an organization sets a direction, and it becomes apparent that there's a lack of buy-in. Often, that’s because the team doesn’t believe the goals are even feasible.

So, the first step is to engage the team in an open conversation about the organization's targets. Once more, we're going to be in a caring, honest, and direct conversation. We’ll engage to understand—on both sides—why the organization is pushing this, exactly what they’re pushing, and what obstacles the team sees. Let’s get all that out on the table.

The second step is to be realistic and transparent. Don’t try to sugarcoat the situation. Be honest about what is real—what’s fact—and what is supposition or opinion. Quite often, this sense of “we can’t do that” or “we don’t have the resources” is just a feeling. With the right people, we can say, “Okay, how could we do this?” What would it look like if we really tackled this? And it’s not just a matter of adding more resources—let’s get creative and see how far we can get.

The third step is to think CIMA. If you're familiar with Humanergy, you’ve heard CIMA before. It helps realign the team to focus on where they have:

• Control – usually over their actions and attitudes.
• Influence – often in key relationships. Can we influence the people involved? Can we better understand their concerns and have some conversations?
• Mitigate – are there aspects we can plan for to reduce a negative impact?
• And finally, the Accept bucket – this is everything else. These are the realities we cannot change.

In some cases, it may feel like what the organization is asking for belongs in the “accept” bucket. But then the question becomes: Is the obstacle in us? Or is it real? Have we had the opportunity to really talk about it? Let’s figure out how to move forward, together.

If you think about the green path from What Great Teams Do Great, it starts with caring, honest, and direct communication. It’s about listening to understand—not just hearing, but deeply understanding. Then we can engage, align, learn, and coordinate—those are the heavy lifts. Share perspectives. Get forward-focused. And align around success.