A head of department has transfered an older, experienced person to a new position because the person had difficulty keeping up with the digitised tasks. The catch: now the person reports to two separate team leaders. Although the transition looked good at the beginning, now some problems start to show. The person complains. The team leaders don’t really feel accountable and blame each other. No-one takes the problem into their hands. 

 

During the peer coaching the following statements have been selected in Peerview and contextualised: 

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“The question they think you should ask them” – What do they want you to ask them? Moreover: what accusation hides behind their complaints? The deparment head’s response: That it was me who got them into the situation. 

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“Their ownership through your leadership” – Whatever you do: it is they that must feel ownership for both problem and solution. All three of them. 

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“You are part of the problem. Your solution starts here.” – If you intervene out of a feeling of bad conscience, the ohers will never regard the solution as their own. (That turns out to be the key moment in the whole session.)

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“Reasons for past success” – Why did it work at the beginning? What is there that was more than a honeymoon effect? How can you (re-)create more of these conditions?

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“Correct it vs. make sure it does not matter” – How can you create a situation where the distribution of work is organised in such a way that bad co-ordination between the team leads does not have an impact? 

 

“Avoid dependencies” – How can you reduce the interdependence between the two team leads in managing this person?