Toxic team environments always remind me of the Jumanji movie – you’re stuck in a dangerous jungle, you just know something threatening will happen but you don’t know what or when, and you don’t know if you’ll survive.
You exist in survival mode. It’s exhausting. The dice keeps rolling so the ‘game’ goes on, with more fear, destruction, everyone drowning in their own cortisol. Everyone knows it’s happening, but no-one acts to save anyone else, just themselves.
So how do you end this game of jungle hell? How do you decontaminate the environment? How do you ween yourselves off the cortisol? Because, as toxic as it is, let’s face it, the drama can become addictive and habitual.
We can point to the leader and say it’s up to them to sort out the toxic mess, but if they’ve been complicit or felt powerless in the toxicity, then what?
What does it take for one brave (and utterly exhausted) person to break the cycle to end the game? A stroke? A resignation? A nervous breakdown? What is the trigger point to declare to the rest of the players “Enough is enough! Look at us! We need help!”
It requires bravery, yes, but it also requires everyone else to stop and listen to that plea. To lay down their ‘weapons’. To stop and notice the swamp they’ve all created, and to ask themselves one simple question: “Is this the game I want to be playing?”
To address team toxicity, you have to:
💡recognise it’s toxic
💡WANT to address the toxicity
💡WANT to learn from the past to create new behaviours
💡WANT to understand what part you’ve played, the impact you’ve had
💡WANT to create something new and healthy
💡WANT to leave the jungle
💡REALLY want change, because it takes hard work and commitment to unlearn your toxic survival tactics.
It helps to have a neutral Swiss-like facilitator (aka team coach)
👍 to help draw out all the issues
👍 to ensure every voice is heard
👍 to hold up a mirror of truth and honesty to the team
👍 to create understanding and awareness
👍 to lead the negotiations of the peace treaty
👍 to coach the team to imagine and create a new game.
The New Game: one that doesn’t allow toxicity to invade, prosper and destroy. One that they all feel safe to play wholeheartedly. For anyone not game for the New Game…time to go.
Work relationships and interactions can get messy, that’s a reality. But we don’t have to be held captive by a toxic environment. We all have the power to say “Stop! We’re in a game of Jumanji! We need to change the game!”
We just have to be prepared to reinvent the rules of the game, throw a different dice, and play to a different beat. And spend our days having fun, being positively creative, to challenge safely, not just surviving but thriving in an environment of support, honesty and trust.
That’s the game I’m looking to play.
❓Who’s with me?
