Summary ofThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Lessons From The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team

Imagine that you have received funding to launch a new business and hired four highly-skilled, hardworking, intelligent people to help bring your vision to reality. Your team has produced little results and is resisting every decision that you make. You know they are talking behind your back. What went wrong? Why is your team so dysfunctional?

Five reasons why you should consider this.

1. Selfishness

It's likely that, over the course the year, you and your team members put their egos before the goals of the team.

If your team members stopped sharing their work because they wanted to be recognized, such as a selfish basketball player who takes the final shot in a match with two defenders around them, instead of passing the football to a wide open player, your team has put its ego before the team.

2. No peer-to-peer accountability

Your teammates did not hold each other responsible for the team's performance. This is the main reason why people in your team want to look good. They do what's best for themselves and not your team.

You, as a leader, may have confronted your teammates when they failed to follow through on what they had promised. Top-down accountability alone is not enough to make a team successful. Team members who perform well and function efficiently are those who will be most effective for the team. They'll also follow through with what they promise to do, because they are aware that they will be held accountable by the entire team.

Patrick Lencioni says:

Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a colleague will motivate a team player more than any fear of authoritative punishment or rebuke.

Why didn't you and your teammates speak up to hold each other accountable for failing to execute the team plan?

3. Lack of commitment

They weren't involved with the decisions that led up to the plan, so they couldn't defend it. Why weren't they part of your team's decision making process?

4. Fear of conflict

They feared that if you challenged their ideas, or those of your team members, it would cause a nasty conflict between them and you. Why did they think this?

5. Absence of Trust

They couldn't be honest and open without you or your team getting angry and defensive.

Building Trust: The Foundation of a Strong Team

You can tell your friend that he is doing something stupid because he knows you are not trying to manipulate or take advantage of him. Most teams are dysfunctional for these five reasons. The next time you lead your team, you can avoid these dysfunctions by first building a trusting foundation.

This trust is the confidence that any member of your team will be able to express their opinion honestly without fear of punishment or judgment. The more you know your teammates and get to understand them, the more this vulnerability-based confidence will grow. But it can take time.

Establishing Trust Quickly

Discussing your strengths and weakness in an open way can help you build trust within the team. You can hold a meeting in which you admit to one weakness that you need help with and another that makes you an asset to the team. You could start off by saying, "My technical abilities aren't strong and I ask stupid questions a lot, but my ability to sell products and find new customers will help the team succeed."

Once you've shown your teammates it's okay for them to be vulnerable, it will make them more willing to accept one of their weaknesses and realize that being honest and open is okay. This also helps the team realize that they must work together in order to balance each other's weaknesses and strengths if they want to be successful. It also encourages team members to speak up more often when they feel they can fix a mistake.

How to overcome fear of conflict

Your teammates may be afraid of conflict and hold back on speaking out.

Patrick Lencioni says:

If team members are not making one another uncomfortable at times, if they're not pushing one another outside their emotional comfort zones during discussions, then it's extremely likely they're not making the best decisions for the team.

Establish new team norms to help your teammates gain the courage needed to engage in healthy conflicts. Lencioni’s team created a team charter which stated:

We will address conflict-laden issues, put them on the table, and get to the heart of the issues. When discussing these issues, we will not withhold commentary.

The team charter was signed by all team members, and they brought it to each meeting.

Commitment: Getting everyone on board

You, as the leader, must decide the best choice for your team, even if some of your teammates disagree.

Even if your team disagrees with your decision, they'll still support it if they feel heard and valued. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google says:

The fact that you allowed your teammate to participate in the decision, feel heard, and see the decision being made allows them to overcome their embarrassment, envy, or unhappiness that they lost an argument and go back to fight for the team.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says:

When you can't get agreement, it's helpful to say, 'Look, I know we disagree on this, but will you gamble with me on it? That offer often gets a quick yes.

Peer to peer accountability: Key to success

When you make your teammates feel included and heard in your decision-making, they are more likely to support your plan if their teammates fail to perform their duties. Peer-to-peer accountability helps teams achieve their goals. Your team may not want to be held accountable for poor performance, because they do not feel that they have the authority or permission to do so.

You can show your team that they are capable of calling each other out on their poor performance by giving them the authority to commit to the action plan you have created. This will make them feel as though they deserve to be held responsible for their mistakes.

The Power of Lightning round Status Meetings

Give each team member the chance to conduct lightning round status meetings. In a Lightning Round Status Meeting, each person reports on their top priority and the status of their last week's prioritization. The person who is running the meeting will ask what went wrong if someone did not complete their priority from last week. The team learns quickly that, since everyone hosts these meetings alternately, people with lower status can question those of higher status to see if they are doing what they promised to do.

Focus on team results

If you have a team that is rich in peer accountability, then your team will be constantly focused on the results of the team. To ensure your team remains focused on the team's results and not individual results, you can tie individual rewards to team performance. You could, for example, all receive an extra day of vacation at the end if your team meets its monthly goal. Team rewards are a way to remind members that no one wins if they don't achieve their monthly goal.

Lencioni says:

On strong teams, no one is happy until everyone is succeeding because that's the only way to achieve the collective results of the group.

Conclusion: Building an High-Performance Team

If you want to create a team that is high-performing and well-functioning, then start by building trust, so your teammates can freely share their opinions and ideas without fear of being judged. This will encourage more teammates to feel heard, and to be willing to commit to team plans. They'll also be more willing to hold each other accountable.