Recognizable?
You come home, sighing. “Another one of those meetings where no one really said what they thought.”
And yet you nodded in agreement, smiled politely at your colleague, pretended everything was going fine.
Welcome to the gray area between collaboration and acting. Teams in the Netherlands encounter these kinds of situations surprisingly often. The atmosphere is "friendly," communication seems smooth, but beneath the surface, frustrations, misunderstandings, and reluctance simmer.
Why Artificial Harmony Is Killing Team Success
What happens when no one speaks their mind? Trust evaporates. Team members hold back, afraid to deviate or lose ground. Conflicts are carefully avoided. Better to swallow than to make a big deal about something. And decisions? They're dutifully accepted, but no one feels truly responsible for them.
What you are left with is stagnation, loss of energy and sometimes the departure of precisely that colleague who could have made the difference.
The solution? Have a real conversation
What do I see as a trainer in Dutch organizations? The teams that truly progress are those where people have the courage to have honest conversations. Without judgment. With curiosity. And with clear agreements.
Lencioni's pyramid provides guidance in this regard:
- confidence
- constructive conflicts
- involvement
- responsibility and ultimately: results.
When people feel safe to express their doubts and frustrations, something beautiful happens. Trust grows. Ownership emerges. And collaboration becomes energizing again, instead of draining.
How is it with you?
Are there truly honest conversations in your team? Or is there such a cautious peace that no one dares to poke any more? Are you, as a manager or colleague, stuck in patterns of avoidance, agreement, and grumbling afterward? Perhaps it's time to break that pattern. And perhaps you'll be the one to have the first conversation.
Kenneth Smit helps teams get that movement going. Curious how? Contact us.
Not listened yet?
In my video podcast I talk about hidden opportunities in teams. In this episode of The Best Sales Podcast I'm talking with Cesar van der Linden about something I often see in practice: teams with enormous potential, stalled by unspoken tensions. Think of simmering irritations, vague expectations, or that one team member everyone is annoyed by... but no one ever says anything about.
