More flexible and more personalized, based on autonomy, trust and dialogue… Post-COVID management is evolving to recreate team cohesion. Step by step, managers design the company of tomorrow by exploring the keys to collective performance. How do they do it? We take stock with Solange Hémery, HEC certified coach and practitioner in appreciative inquiry.
Two years of pandemic have shaken up team cohesion. Managers and employees initially remained united, experiencing the period as a challenge, with a form of adrenaline. Then, faced with uncertainty mixed with pressure, the feeling of belonging disintegrated in favor of a feeling of division. So, how can we collectively face the challenges of tomorrow? How can we recreate this feeling of belonging to a team, so essential to the smooth running of the company? To recreate team cohesion, managers have two priority areas of action: reestablishing communication and bringing employees together around a common project.
Communication, a lever for team cohesion
The key to team cohesion remains communication. Of course, the ideal is to have maintained it throughout this period. The most resilient companies are therefore those that have been able to maintain communication, particularly on two points. On the one hand, their internal communication affirmed the commitment of the hierarchical line and carried a reassuring message about the usefulness of each person, the prospects for the future and the means to move forward together. On the other hand, managers have succeeded in establishing spaces for dialogue.
Kindness, empathy and resilience in the service of team cohesion
Recreating team cohesion requires management based on kindness, empathy and resilience.
Each employee has experienced a different situation. Some are very affected by partial unemployment (my position is therefore not fundamental for the company…). Others find it difficult to return to site or, on the contrary, to stay at home. There are also those who no longer recognize themselves in the company and resign in waves. Finally, those who are deeply afraid of this virus…
The manager welcomes these feelings, supports and helps the team grow.
Adopt the posture of the manager coach to open spaces for dialogue
As speech proves central, the manager changes in the post-COVID period to manager coach. To best understand this change in posture, training and/or coaching is most often necessary. Thanks to them, the manager develops new skills. In particular, that of supporting the team, at the level of its collective and its individuals, to overcome its obstacles and emotional states in the face of changes. Focused on employees, the manager coach allows them to explain their situation or even their difficulties after this troubled period. These spaces for dialogue offer regular meeting times, during which speech is free while remaining focused on the business.
Codev at the service of team cohesion
The workshop of codevelopment (codev) is particularly relevant to make listening and (re)action possible. Trained in codev, the manager guarantees the methodological framework and respect for the rules of the game. He facilitates everyone's expression.
Concretely, for one to three hours depending on the codev format chosen, the manager advances the professional practices of a group of 6 to 8 employees, each learning from the experiences of the others. One of the employees, called a client, presents a problem he is facing. The other collaborators – the consultants – listen to him, challenge him then express their feelings and/or experiences with regard to what he expects (ideas, experimentation, courses of action, etc.). Then, in turn, the employees exchange places. Everyone thus learns that some are the resources of others. This structured consultation exercise recreates cohesion among workshop participants.
More united, employees can engage in a new organizational dynamic that is more positive and focused on the future.
Team cohesion: from a place to a common project
Rather than switching to fully teleworking or completely returning to site, the majority of companies have opted for two to three days of teleworking per week. “Every man for himself” is reinforced by “every man for himself”. Between face-to-face and remote, managers are experimenting with hybrid management with the focus of attention being on the risks of divisions and fractures within the teams.
We no longer come (back) to the office to work on individual tasks. Indeed, according to the annual teleworking barometer 2021 by Malakoff Humanis, “in the company, employees want to find convivial spaces (46 %), spaces where we feel part of a collective (32 %)”.
Create new collective experiences
The interest of the common place is therefore to offer teams the opportunity to work together and exchange ideas. In order to promote collaboration and adapt to new ways of working, managers can, for example, define a fixed day per week during which the entire team meets in the office. Managers then become creators of new collective experiences so that everyone (re)discovers the joy of (re)finding themselves. In the program ? Friendly moments, meetings, team coaching, team building, creativity sessions, training…
Contribute to a common project
Collective, certainly. But above all a collective that makes sense. This is why managers must favor activities where everyone feels valued by their contribution to the success of a common project.
Recently, I supported the sales management of a company. The objective? Strengthen cohesion between managers in this department so that they in turn can develop it within their own teams. The method ? The appreciative approach or appreciative inquiry which invites us to rely on our strengths to co-build tomorrow.
First of all, in pairs, each manager shared a successful experience, their strengths, the key success factors and how they would like cohesion to develop. Then, based on these great experiences and the individual and collective strengths collected, the group defined the place of each manager within the collective: what does he bring to sales management? What is his role ? How is he a pillar for others? In the next step, managers revisited their ideas for cohesion to develop and focused on three of their priorities. There, they identified five actions engaging the collective to enable their ideas to come true.
Everyone came out of this workshop re-energized, feeling in their place in this management team, with projects in their heads! And above all, managers were ready to rely on their team's own strengths to recreate cohesion and commitment.
In summary, this approach frees up energy to resolve problems and grow together!
