The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five dysfunctions of a team, as remarkably intriguing the name sounds, the book is as result driven and growth oriented! If you do not know how this marvelous book has helped corporates grow and minimize their shortcomings, then you are in for a thrilling discovery.
You do not have to be a religious reader to unravel this time-tested research oriented theory to change the dynamics of your organization, we have got your back with a short blog on the fundamentals of this book:
In 2002, Patrick Lencioni wrote The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – the most popular book about imaginary company Decision Tech as to how a new CEO turned the entire company around! The CEO of the company molded her management positions by transforming them into an effective team by addressing five dysfunctions that she identified by adopting to this practice.
The book revolves around a series of senior leadership retreats where Kathryn helps her entire team learn and address these dysfunctions through strategic interventions. Let’s look deeper into each of these dysfunctions and how we can overcome them through the recommended solutions:
1st Dysfunction – Absence of Trust
The success of the organization is dependent on the level of trust that is reposed within the members of the organization. Forming the cornerstone of any partnership or team, high performance of an organization is built on trust wherein the members must be willing to share, collaborate, and able to show their vulnerability to each other without fearing reprisal.
How to Overcome Lack of Trust?
Individual team members must be engaged in team building activities so that they can communication about their skill deficiencies, open up about their problems or shortcomings, it takes time for members to work with one another and build positive balances. Some of the recommended tips:
Analyzing personality profiles of team members as a part of an off-site retreat. Through active exploration, individuals can start to learn about the strengths and blind spots associated with typical personality/behavior styles, which enables the members to build best practices for effectively communicating and collaborating by developing their team spirit.
Build team cohesiveness by engaging the members in a facilitated strategic planning exercise such as the SWOT analysis or other corporate team building games that assess their skills as well as addresses organizational vulnerabilities as a prelude to addressing individual vulnerabilities.
Help the team develop their competence by completing an improvement project and activities that work on their skills and build their confidence by establishing strong foundations of trust.
2nd Dysfunction: Avoidance of Accountability
Teams are known to offer much more value due effective synergy than individual members alone. Great decisions are made more quickly when there is productive conflict or brainstorming involved in the discussion. Many teams avoid confrontation only to end up with poor decisions. This fear of conflict is built on the foundation of a poor trust.
How to Overcome Fear of Conflict?
You can try and use the famous Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode that has instruments that help leaders and teams identify and recognize their typical conflict response by adapting to how it influences others. This is a time-tested and proven tool that can be shared with the team in a half-day workshop or as part of a larger leadership development initiative.
3rd Dysfunction: Avoidance of Accountability
When your team lacks commitment, they start delivering half-hearted efforts which will eventually prove to be a doom for your organization’s growth. It is important to address their issues, doubts and convictions regarding the work flow of the organization. Since no one would dare to counter question due to lack of trust, fear of conflict, this will make them alienated from the company’s goals and visions.
How to Overcome Lack of Commitment:
Begin by addressing the first two dysfunctions that has led to the 3rdand then working on a personalized feedback mechanism for leaders and staff in the company! You can follow the recommended setting of effect goals through the S.M.A.R.T. goals setting that supports the overall strategic goals.
4thDysfunction: Avoidance of Accountability
High performance organizations hold themselves accountable to achieving their goals. They must not fear productive conflict and difficult conversations when results don’t meet expectation.
Overcoming Avoidance of Accountability:
An effective feedback and review requires a two-way communication that has to be honest between the leader and the employee to ensure that clear understanding, establishing commitment and clarifying the role of accountability. S.M.A.R.T goals fixed by assigning the roles of accountability and clearing the structure helps in better team management.
5th Dysfunction - Fear of Conflict Results
Meeting individual and department goals are not enough, the organization must achieve success in its overall outcome-based performance. None of the solutions to overcome these dysfunctions would matter much if the company goes out of the business and these recommendations will also go out of the window if Inattention to results manifests. When teams start to think about their individual status is when they stop thinking about the collective success of the team.
Overcoming Inattention to Results:
To overcome this, it is important to measure results that customer’s value, by ensuring that they reward behaviors and actions that contribute to yielding better results. An organization is recommended to share its goals and results to open a room of improvement and work on it religiously so that the team feels responsible for yielding results. In a way, this also promotes healthy internal competition by making it easier to see where the teams are struggling or might need help.
