One mark of a very healthy team is that there isn’t anything that can’t be discussed because someone would ‘take it badly.’
We don’t have conversations about our relationships – our relationships are our conversations. So if there are areas of conversation that are taboo, it’s like a part of that relationship has withered and become dead. Once there’s deadness, disease sets in and depending on how serious it is, those relationships can become unhealthy or even toxic.
When I get to know a team and find that there are issues that no one will talk about, I know that discussing these things is a big part of bringing them to greater health.
Ask yourself, “What are the elephants in the room, the sacred cows that everyone knows we can’t talk about?”
Initiate a discussion without blame around those things and see what comes out.
I have found that 70% of the battle is just exposing the elephant in the first place. And talking about it openly is a big part of the other 30%.
