The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Last week I mentioned Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and received several inquiries for more information. Here is an outline of the main points. Great teams embrace these challenges and work to resolve issues. Dysfunctional teams lack these qualities.

1. Absence of Trust

2. Fear of Conflict

3. Lack of Commitment

4. Avoidance of Accountability

5. Inattention to Results

Absence of Trust — the fear of being vulnerable with team members prevents the building of trust within the team.

Members of teams with an absence of trust:

Conceal weaknesses and mistakes from one another.
Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback.
Hesitate to help outside their own areas of responsibility.
Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to clarify them.
Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills and experiences.
Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect.
Hold grudges.
Dread meetings and avoid spending time together.

Members of trusting teams:

Admit weaknesses and mistakes.
Ask for help.
Accept questions and input about their area of responsibility.
Give one another the benefit of the doubt before arriving at a negative conclusion.
Take risks in offering feedback and assistance.
Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences.
Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics.
Offer and accept apologies without hesitation.
Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group.

Fear of Conflict — the desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of productive, ideological conflict.

Teams that fear conflict:

Conceal weaknesses and mistakes from one another.
Have boring meetings.
Create an environment where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive.
Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success.
Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members.
Waste time with interpersonal posturing and interpersonal risk management.

Teams that engage in conflict:

Have lively, interesting meetings.
Extract and exploit the ideas of all team members.
Solve real problems quickly.
Minimize politics.
Put critical topics on the table for discussion.

Lack of Commitment — the lack of clarity and/or the fear of being wrong prevents team members from making decisions in a timely definitive way.

A team that fails to commit:

Creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities.
Watches windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis and unnecessary delay.
Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure.
Revisits discussions again and again.
Encourages second guessing among team members.

A team that commits:

Creates clarity around direction and priorities.
Aligns the entire team around common objectives.
Develops an ability to learn from mistakes.
Takes advantage of opportunities before competitors do.
Moves forward without hesitation.
Changes direction without hesitation or guilt.

Avoidance of Accountability — the need to avoid personal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable for their behaviors.

A team that avoids accountability:

Creates resentment among team members who have different standards of performance.
Encourages mediocrity.
Misses deadlines and key deliverables.
Places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of discipline.

A team that holds one another accountable:

Ensures that poor performers feel the pressure to improve.
Identifies potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches without hesitation.
Establishes respect among team members who are held to the same high standard.
Avoids excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action.

Inattention to Results — the desire for individual credit erodes the focus on collective results.

A team that is not focused on results:

Stagnates/fails to grow.
Rarely defeats competitors.
Loses achievement-oriented employees.
Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals.
Is easily distracted.

A team that focuses on collective results:

Retains achievement oriented employees.
Minimizes individualistic behavior.
Enjoys success and suffers failure acutely.
Benefits from individuals who subjugate their goals/interests for the good of the team.