ABSTRACT
People can appear to get on well at a personal level but without shared purpose and ambition the quality of working relationships can suffer. Stuck in an early phase of team development, individual performance can be high but at the expense of team performance. Professional relationships can be fractious or avoidant and these are mirrored in the team's relationships with others. People default to comfort zones and find meaning with people they relate to easily. This is likely to result in cliques and may include people outside of the formal team. Individuals give precedence to their own performance over the team performance. Energy is going in different directions in line with individual effort. A lack of focus around a team 'task' can result in aimless and meaningless discussions. The lack of clarity and certainty can lead people to be overeager to please others outside of the team a kind of compensating behaviour.
