What do you do if you’ve got a team doing something and you’ve got a mix of abilities in there, and some people are switching off because they’re bored?
I had that happen to a particularly bad extent in a recent classroom (team based research, ending in a report back and a discussion). There were a couple of people in each of the teams that understood the subject a lot better than the rest of the team and were bored with the rest of the team’s discussion. There were other things happening to them that were completely out of my control, which would have magnified the effects.
My typical approaches of nudging participation from the “bored contingent” weren’t having as much of an effect as usual. Having deep dive conversations as part of the report backs were also only partially successful, as we couldn’t explore a topic in too much “academic detail” as we’d lose part of the room.
Thinking back, perhaps one thing that could have helped was asking this open question, for individual contemplation:
“Do you think your report backs were the best you could have made them? If yes then cool. Great stuff. Learn more and improve. If no then tough, it’s not about you and what you could do, it’s what your team actually does. So how do you help your team be the best team it could be?”
Might also need a more positive line, for example “Teamwork isn’t about individual recognition, it’s about collective glory. You’re measured as a team not a set of individuals. And the whole team needs to be part of the work to feel like they’ve deserved the win.”
I’ll try this the next time it happens and see how it goes. Hopefully it’ll encourage some of them to adopt a more coaching/mentoring style to the work, which should help. Who knows, they might even enjoy the experience.
Amateur Coach 