Guidance adapted from hrmorning.com.
Teams are more likely to meet their goals when they have clear plans, adequate support and shared responsibility. HRMorning’s guidance, drawing on findings attributed to researcher Eunice Parisi-Carew of The Ken Blanchard Companies, outlines nine common obstacles and ways managers can address them.
Set teams up to succeed
- Plan before work begins. Use the first meeting to agree why the team exists, what it must achieve, who is responsible for each role and what is expected of each member.
- Back the team’s authority. Clarify its decision-making power early. Avoid requiring approval for every step, and consider whether members can realistically manage their existing duties alongside the project.
- Check resources. Assess the time, budget and training needed. If these cannot be provided, reconsider the goal and set realistic expectations.
- Agree working norms. Establish practical expectations for communication, meetings, workflow, response times and taking action.
- Share leadership. A coordinator may be useful, but let members lead parts of the work that match their strengths. Parisi-Carew describes the leader’s role as guiding and supporting the group rather than acting as its sole decision-maker.
- Make accountability clear. Set individual expectations as well as shared goals, and agree how the team will recognise achievement and address shortfalls.
- Make room for quality and creativity. Do not let efficiency become the only priority; allocate time and resources for creative thinking and strong execution.
- Handle disagreement constructively. Invite opposing views, give people ways to raise concerns before meetings and, where appropriate, offer an anonymous channel. Conflict can support creativity when it is managed well, the article notes.
- Use a team only when needed. Consider whether one person has the authority, ability and resources to complete the task. Teams are most useful when the work calls for multiple skills or perspectives.
The article also cites LeadershipIQ research on teams’ difficulty delivering commitments on time. A separate linked LeadershipIQ study describes a survey of 6,821 leaders and employees conducted in August and September 2025; it reports that 23.2% said nearly all commitments made in team meetings were delivered on time. That finding is specific to respondents’ answers about their teams, rather than a measure of all workplace teams.
Original Source: https://www.hrmorning.com/articles/reasons-teams-fail/
