Explore Your Team’s Toxic Behaviours And Learn More Effective Communication Patterns

A do-it-yourself workshop to create awareness of toxic conflict behavior as a necessary first step to eliminate and replace it with healthy, productive communication patterns

In May 2023, Christian Hofstetter and I facilitated a two-hour public “Team Toxins Workshop” in Amsterdam. With 25 participants, we explored toxic team behaviors and learned more effective communication patterns.

The workshop aims to help teams and organizations identify and address the toxic behaviors and communication patterns that can damage relationships and hinder productivity. ❌

During the workshop, we learned about the various types of toxic behavior that can arise in a team setting, such as defensiveness, blaming, contempt, and stonewalling ✋. We also identified strategies for recognizing and addressing these behaviors and techniques for improving communication and building more robust, productive relationships.

Christian designed the workshop to help teams and organizations foster a culture of respect, openness, and collaboration and minimize toxic behavior’s harmful effects on team dynamics and overall performance. By addressing these issues proactively, teams can improve their ability to work together effectively, communicate clearly, and achieve their goals 🎯.

The concept of “team toxins” is based on the work of Dr. John Gottman, a psychologist and researcher who has spent decades studying relationships and communication patterns. This workshop is inspired by Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC).

We made the workshop even more engaging and impactful by using Liberating Structures. I think we succeeded. 😇

Steps to facilitate

Here’s a rough overview of the workshop. It gives you an impression of what to expect and how to run the session. For more details, check the workshop template.

Step 1: Hello Round

The “Hello Round” aims to set a positive tone for the workshop and create a safe space for the participants. If the workshop is conducted with a small number of participants (3–6 people), it is also possible to skip the splitting up into pairs and invite everyone to share their story with the whole team.

Step 2: Introducing Team Toxins

Introducing the concept of team toxins aims to help team members recognize negative behaviors and communication patterns that can harm team performance and provide them with tools to address and reduce these toxic behaviors to improve team collaboration and productivity.

In this step, you educate the participants about the four team toxins and their symptoms, which help you spot and identify them.

Step 3: Getting Familiar With Team Toxins

After the short teaching block, you want the participants to move into action. Invite them to explore the four team toxins by reflecting on the visible behavior from a team they have been on in the past.

“Think of a team you have been a member of.​ Step into the toxin quadrant you think is mainly occupied by the team.”

Step 4: How Are Team Toxins Trying to Be Helpful?

In the previous step, we examined the downsides of team toxins. This step aims to normalize this toxic behavior, understand how it is helpful, and identify which vulnerabilities it tries to protect.

“Think about how your team toxin is trying to be helpful.”

Step 5: Replacing Ineffective Behaviour

Understanding how small behavior shifts (known as antidotes) can help your team stop harmful behavior and take one small step to let go of your unhealthy behavior.

“Pick an antidote that you are willing to practice in the next few weeks. What is your next step to letting go of the ineffective behavior? Something you do not need any additional resources, permission, or authority to do right now.”

Step 6: Crafting Our Team Conflict Protocol

A team conflict protocol aims to provide a framework for managing conflicts constructively and productively to improve team dynamics and performance. It can create a more harmonious and productive team environment where conflicts are managed effectively and positively.

Think about your ideal team: how would that team handle conflict and disagreements?

What are some behaviours you want to have to happen when conflict occurs?

What are some behaviours you do not want to have to happen when conflict occurs?

Step 7: Closing

Before closing this workshop, it is beneficial to pause briefly and let the team reflect on what happened. Debriefing a team workshop using the following four questions effectively promotes learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement within a team.

“What did we do great as a team today?”

“What could we have done better as a team?”

“What did we learn about each other?”

“What will we do about it?”

Interested in learning more?

You can download this workshop as a free DIY template! It offers a step-by-step explanation of how to run it yourself. If you need help, feel free to contact Christian Hofstetter.

Enjoy using it! 😃