The Team That Cannot Agree on Priorities
You lead a team of five in a municipal service centre. On Monday morning three urgent tasks arrive at once: a citizen whose disability payment has been wrongly suspended and who is in financial distress; a deadline to submit a report to the regional administration by 17:00 the same day; and a request from your director to prepare briefing notes for a meeting tomorrow. Two team members are on leave, leaving three people. One team member, who is skilled at reports, insists the report must come first because it is a legal deadline. Another wants to help the citizen immediately. A third says the briefing notes are the director's priority. The centre is also open to walk-in citizens all day.
1. Set out a prioritisation plan for the day and justify it.
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Criteria: legal deadlines, irreversibility of harm, and the director's needs.
Priority 1 - the citizen's suspended payment. This is the only task where delay causes immediate harm to a vulnerable person. It is also legally sensitive: an unlawful suspension may breach the right to social protection. Assign one person to verify the file and restore the payment or issue an interim measure. Target: resolution or a clear written response by midday.
Priority 2 - the report due at 17:00. This is a hard external deadline. Assign the skilled team member to it, but protect the morning for the citizen task. The report can be drafted in the afternoon if the data are already available. Check whether any input is missing and request it immediately.
Priority 3 - the briefing notes for tomorrow. These are important but not due today. They can be prepared late in the day or early tomorrow morning. If they are needed for the director's meeting, ask the director whether a short summary by 16:00 would suffice.
Walk-in service. Keep one person on the front desk at all times. Use a queue ticket system so waiting citizens see progress.
Communication. Tell the director the plan in one short message: citizen first, report by 17:00, briefing notes by end of day. This prevents the appearance of ignoring instructions.
2. The team member assigned to the report says the citizen case is "not our problem" and refuses to switch. How do you handle the conflict?
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The disagreement is about priorities, not competence, so handle it as a coordination problem rather than a discipline problem.
1. Hear the concern. The team member is right that the report has a legal deadline. Acknowledging that reduces defensiveness.
2. Reframe the choice. The issue is not "citizen versus report" but sequencing. The citizen task needs about two hours; the report needs the rest of the day. Both can be done if the morning is protected.
3. Make the decision explicit. As team leader, you decide priorities and take responsibility for the consequences. Say clearly: "I am asking you to start the report at 13:00. If the deadline is at risk, I will escalate to the director myself."
4. Remove the obstacle. Check whether the report depends on data the team member is waiting for. If so, obtain it now so the afternoon is productive.
5. Set a checkpoint. Agree a 15:00 review so the team member sees the plan is being managed, not imposed.
6. If refusal persists. Record the instruction and the refusal, and escalate to the director. Persistent refusal to follow a lawful instruction is a conduct issue, but it should be the last step, not the first.
7. Protect the team climate. After the day ends, discuss how to handle simultaneous urgent tasks in future, for example a simple triage rule agreed in advance.