Last night we held the final demos for the UW-Madison Computer Science Capstone course that I teach. You can find out all about how the course works here. In a nutshell, students form teams of 4-5 and work on a project for a corporate or non-profit partner all semester. Some teams gel during the semester and have an amazing time working together. More often, teams go through the Tuckman Model of forming, storming, norming, and performing before getting to a point where they work well together. Unfortunately, some teams never get to the performing stage. Let me lay out how not to handle team conflicts so you don’t end up like these teams at the end of the semester.
The Email Exposé
This time of year I almost always get a long email from someone who feels that their teammate(s) haven’t pulled their own weight this semester. Today, I got one from two students that was around 10 pages long. It contained timelines, chat screenshots, and lots of fiery language explaining how their teammates failed to deliver, broke the main branch, and didn’t reply to text messages. My God, this must have taken them hours to write.
I give the students lots of chances to give discreet feedback throughout the semester. I have office hours and two surveys that go out specifically asking about teammate performance. Still, many students find it hard to address the issues they’re having or assume that things will naturally get better, so they say nothing until the very end.
The End of a Project Is Too Late
The problem is, it’s simply too late at the end of your project to address teammate issues. No one — not your professor or your manager or the CEO of the company — can do anything to turn that project around at the end. If you’re having trouble with your team members, it needs to be addressed early and preferably in-person / via video chat. Here’s what I recommend you actually do.
Talk to Your Teammates First
Any time one of my direct reports comes to me with a complaint, one of my first questions is, “Did you talk to [that person] already?” It’s not that I don’t want to help them with the problem, it’s that people deserve the chance to understand and fix interpersonal issues themselves. It is one of my biggest pet peeves if someone goes and complains about something I’m doing to someone else without coming to me first. It’s worse when the person they’re complaining to is my manager.
Talk to the person. Try to understand their side of things. If you can agree that there’s a problem, see if you can agree on a plan to fix the issue. Have a plan with a deadline so that you know whether they’re making progress. Give your teammate a chance to pleasantly surprise you.
Make Your Manager Aware
If that doesn’t work, then you can come talk to your manager. Show up with data. Don’t complain. Ask whether you’re being reasonable and ask for help. Do this as soon as they fail to meet your first deadline or are unreceptive to your conversation(s). The earlier the better. Your manager wants to help you and the easiest time to fix something is early on, before a project has gone too far. Your manager will dig in and try to understand the situation, then come up with a plan to make changes, if needed.
Document Everything
Your manager will do the same thing you did — try to address the issue with the person by creating a concrete plan. If a couple of attempts don’t work, your manager will likely start documenting the situation. After coaching and a couple of chances, if the person is not performing, a good manager will start the process of either managing them out or putting them on an official performance improvement plan (which will result in termination if no progress is made). At this point, you’ve done your part and need to do everything you can to continue to make the project a success in spite of this person.
What If You Find Out You’re Part of the Problem?
Problems are rarely one-sided. Sometimes, you may go in with issues and find out that you may be contributing to the problem. Try to keep an open mind. Try a few of the suggestions you get from your manager. If you can change your behavior and the issue still exists, that helps your manager take appropriate next actions.
I hate getting emails like the 10-page email I got today. It’s such a waste of everyone’s time. I’m happy to have the info, but I’d much rather address the issue with the student earlier so they have a chance to make changes. It’s unfair to them and it just looks unprofessional to me. So, next time you’re having an issue with your teammates, address it now.