Vikram RamakrishnanI’ve now become a fan of Lencioni’s books and love the way he lays out the plot and introduces the concept with clear guidance.
In this book, Lencioni talks about the 5 dysfunctions of a team – how to identify them, and what can be done to fix them. It also calls out the role of a leader in fixing these dysfunctions.
- Trust is the foundation of great teams
- If there’s no trust, there’s not going to be any open constructive idealogical debate. There’ll just be a sense of artificial harmony
- Because there weren’t any debate, there’s a lot of ambiguity and the team won’t buy into the decisions – resulting with no commitment.
- Because there’s no clarity/commitment, we wouldn’t hold each other accountable and call out when things aren’t progressing towards our goal.
- Since there’s no accountable, members only focus on their own results and not the team’s.
Indictors of the dysfunctions and it’s absence
|
Teams with Lack of Trust * Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another * Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback * Hesitate to offer 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 find reasons to avoid spending time together |
Teams with Trust * Admit weaknesses and mistakes * Ask for help * Accept questions and input about their areas 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. |
|
Teams that Fear Conflict * Have boring meetings * Create environments 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 and energy with 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 |
|
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 and decisions again and again * Encourages second-guessing among team members |
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 |
|
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 |
Team that Holds One Another Accountable * Ensures that poor performers feel 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 standards * Avoids excessive bureaucracy around performance management |
|
Team that is not Focused on Results * Stagnates/fails to grow * Rarely defeats competitor * Loses achievement-oriented employees * Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals * Is easily distracted |
How to fix the dysfunctions
| Dysfunction | How to Overcome | Role of a Leader |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of Trust |
Personal Histories exercise Share details about themselves focussed on their life stories. This can encourage empathy and aid in behavioral attributions. Team effectiveness exercise Involves risk Have members identify single most important contrib each of their peers makes and one area they must improve / eliminate. Personality Profiles MBTI/ DiSC, 360 degree Feedback and Experiential Team exercises |
Display their own vulnerability in a genuine way and create an environment that does not punish vulnerability |
| Fear of Conflict |
Conflict Miners Someone who extracts buried disagreements Realtime permission Ack when there’s a conflict debate happening and interrupt to let them know that it’s healthy and necessary. |
Don’t interrupt conflicts/ disagreement with the intent of protecting the team members Demonstrate restraint when their people engage in conflict, and allow resolution to occur naturally, as messy as it can sometimes be. Model conflict behaviour – Don’t avoid conflict when it’s necessary and productive, by doing so you are encouraging the behaviour in your team |
| Lack of Commitment |
Cascading Messaging Review key decisions and agree what needs to be communicated and what is confidential. Communicate to teams. Deadlines Commit to deadlines for all intermediate decisions and milestones. Identify and address misalignment before it’s too late Contingency & Worst case analysis Plan for worst case scenarios and setup mitigation plans. This will reduce anxiety. Low Risk exposure therapy In low risk situations, force the team to make decision with just little research and analysis. |
Be comfortable in making a decision that can ultimately go wrong. Constantly push the group for closure around issues Make the group adhere to Schedules that team has set Don’t place a high premium on certainty or consensus |
| Avoidance of Accountability |
Publication of Goals & Standards Clarify publicly exactly what the team needs to achieve, who needs to deliver what, and how everyone must behave in order to succeed. Regular Progress reviews Regular feedback on progress within the team – create a structure Team Rewards Shift rewards to be team based rather than individual performance |
Encourage and allow the team to serve as the first and primary accountability mechanism Don’t be the only source of discipline Be an ultimate arbiter of discipline and let the team know that you’ll step in when it’s necessary |
| Inattention to Results |
Public declaration of results Have the team publicly commit to certain results Results based rewards Tie rewards to specific results or outcomes. |
Set a tone for focus on results Reserve rewards and recognition for those who make real contributions |
Quotes & References
- everyone likes to learn about—and talk about—themselves. Until the criticism comes, that is.
- Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.
- if there is nothing worth debating, then we won’t have a meeting.
- the most effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards of performance on a team is peer pressure