I think we all know that “toxicity” is bad, but when you are in the middle of a toxic situation it’s difficult to think beyond the immediate moment. It’s very much like sitting through days of rain, or hours of a hurricane without power. You know there is sunshine and rainbows somewhere beyond it, but it changes nothing about the current situation.

These types of situations happen in implementation projects as well. I don’t want to spend any time on the sources of toxicity, but more importantly, what happens after you are able to successfully remove it. Below are 3 key positive outcomes that can arise.

The entire tone of the project changes

Once you have been able to remove the toxicity, the tone of the entire project can change. It doesn’t happen overnight. You usually need to spend a bit of time retooling the project plan, realigning resources and level setting expectations. The project team can grow closer together for going through the shared trauma of the experience.

Improved efficiency

Toxicity encourages bad behavior. It makes team members less likely to speak up, share ideas and innovate. Why would/should you bother if those ideas will just get shut down. Once the toxic environment has been cleared, those previously silenced lines of communication are re-opened and those creative ideas start flowing again. Team members find and implement innovation and process efficiency. The biggest challenge here is ensuring that the questions raised are done so in a constructive way. You don’t want to risk putting these opportunities at risk because people are reacting to where you came from as a project team rather than seeing it for the positive impact.

Improved communication

It can be truly refreshing to see the lines of communication open after the shared experience. As the project manager, it can be incredibly frustrating to find out all the things that hadn’t been communicated previously. Take a moment to acknowledge your frustration, but then let it go. This speaks more to the situation than you it does for you as a project leader. Everyone was feeling the negative impact and people didn’t feel comfortable sharing. The power that the toxicity had over the project is very legitimate. Be understanding and positive – the other team members now feel comfortable sharing with you. This will make the remainder of the project much more successful.

Conclusion

Toxicity sucks just as much in project management as it does anywhere else. The goal as the project manager is to diagnose it early and do what you can to minimize it, or even better remove it. Once you do that, plan a conscious project reset – schedule, team members, expectations, etc.