The Five Dysfunctions
of a Team
A Leadership Fable
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
What’s this mean to Sponsored
Research?
Performance
“If you could get all the people in an
organization rowing in the same direction, you
could dominate any industry, in any market,
against any competition, at any time.”
Lencioni, Patrick, “The five dysfunctions of a
team”, John Wiley & Sons - 2002
Team Alignment
Finding good players is easy.
Getting them to play as a
team is another story.
- Casey Stengel
True Team
The true measure of a team is that it
accomplishes the results that it sets out to
achieve.
5 Dysfunctions
Inattention to Results
Avoidance of Accountability
Lack of Commitment
Fear of Conflict
Absence of Trust
Absence of Trust
Trust is all about vulnerability.
Video One: Absence of Trust
• Jenny is a sponsored programs specialist in the
Office of Sponsored Programs for a large
public research university who is facing an
impending deadline …
Dysfunction #I:
“Remember teamwork begins by building trust.
And the only way to do that is to overcome our
need for invulnerability.”
― Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a
Team: A Leadership Fable
Dysfunction #I:
• Absence of Trust: Members of great teams
trust one another on a fundamental,
emotional level, and they are comfortable
being vulnerable with each other about their
weaknesses, mistakes, fears, and behaviors.
Dysfunction #I:
• They must get to a point where they can be
completely open with one another, without
filters.
Dysfunction #I:
• The key to overcoming a lack of trust is shared
experiences, multiple follow – through and
integrity.
Dysfunction #I: Role of the leader
• The primary role of the
leader is to lead my
example, be the first
one to be vulnerable,
and create an
environment where it’s
safe to be vulnerable.
• Building trust makes
conflict possible!
Video Two: Fear of Conflict
• OSP as a political and
unpleasant place to
work
• Daniel is the leader of a
team of federal grant
accountants in the OSP
office of an academic
medical center. Daniel’s
weekly team meetings
are a low-point on
everyone’s calendar for
good reason …
Dysfunction #2:
• Fear of Conflict:... teams that trust one
another are not afraid to engage in passionate
dialogue around issues and decisions that are
key to the organization's success.
Dysfunction #2:
• Trust is the foundation
of great teams and it’s
trust that makes team
conflict possible.
• “Harmony itself is good,
I suppose, if it comes as
a result of working
through issues
constantly and cycling
through conflict. But if
it comes only as a result
of people holding back
their opinions and
honest concerns, then
it’s a bad thing.”
Dysfunction #2:
• We wear masks and focus on being nice to
everyone. however, productive conflict is
required for teams to become functional. This
allows for meaningful dialogue where people
are open to share, without feeling fearful of
reprisal or criticism. One of the worst team
dysfunctions is when you have a team of “yes
men”.
Dysfunction #2:
• On one end, there is artificial harmony with
no conflict at all, and on the other there are
mean-spirited, personal attacks. In the exact
middle of that continuum there is a line where
conflict goes from constructive to destructive
or vice versa, depending on which direction
you're going.
Dysfunction #2: Role of the leader
• Mine For Conflict
• Conflict Profiling
• Someone's conflict profile is determined by
– Temperament & Personality
– Cultural background and family norms
• Great teams don’t hold back their opinions.
– But team members must understand one
another's conflict profiles.
Video Three: Lack of
Commitment
• Implementation of
something as large as a
new University policy
requires commitment
from the whole
university
Dysfunction #3:
• Lack of Commitment ... teams that engage in
unfiltered conflict are able to achieve genuine
buy-in around important decisions, even when
various members of the team initially
disagree. That's because they ensure that all
opinions and ideas are put on the table and
considered, giving confidence to team
members that no stone has been left
unturned.
Dysfunction #3:
• When teams engage in productive conflict they can
confidently commit and buy-in to decisions.
Commitment is a function of clarity and buy-in.
Productive teams make clear decisions and are
confident that they have the support from every team
member. A lack of commitment usually arises from not
hearing all the teams concerns before making a
decision.
• At the end of the day everyone needs to get to the
point where they can say, “I may not agree with your
ideas but I understand them and can support them.”
Dysfunction #3: Role of the leader
• Force Clarity and Closure
• “The point here is that most reasonable
people don’t have to get their way in a
discussion. They just need to be heard, and to
know that their input was considered and
responded to.”
• “When people don’t unload their opinions
and feel like they’ve been listened to, they
won’t really get on board.”
Video Four: Avoidance of
Accountability
• Accountability is an overused word in today’s
culture and as a result it
has lost much of its
meaning. Brian is a
department
administration in a midsized land-grant university
who is getting a different
answer from each person
he talks to in the OSP
Dysfunction #4:
• Avoidance of Accountability:... teams that
commit to decisions and standards of
performance do not hesitate to hold one
another accountable for adhering to those
decisions and standards. What is more, they
don't rely on the team leader as the primary
source of accountability, they go directly to
their peers.
Dysfunction #4:
• Without team
commitment you
cannot have
accountability. If the
team is to be
accountable, everyone
must have a clear
understanding of what
is expected of them.
• “People aren’t going to
hold each other
accountable if they
haven’t clearly bought
in to the same plan.”
Dysfunction #4: Role of the leader
• Confront Difficult Issues
• It’s important to make clear what the team’s
standards are, what needs to get done, by
who and by when. Ambiguity is the enemy of
accountability.
Video Five: Inattention
to Results
• Who is your First Team?
• How to put your OSP team and
Institute First
• Being help accountable to Goals
• The story of how she got fired
from a previous job because she
promoted an employee who
everyone hated, like Mikey, when
she probably should have fired
him because his negative
behavior was bringing down the
performance of the entire
department.
• Don is the director of the OSP of a
mid-sized academic medical
center plagued with financial
concerns and the impending
sequestration.
Dysfunction #5:
• Inattention to Results: ... teams that trust one
another, engage in conflict, commit to
decisions, and hold one another accountable
are very likely to set aside their individual
needs and agendas and focus almost
exclusively on what is best for the team.
Dysfunction #5: Role of the leader
Focus on Collective Outcomes
“Our job is to make the results that we need to
achieve so clear to everyone in this room that
no one would even consider doing something
purely to enhance his or her individual status or
ego. Because that would diminish our ability to
achieve our collective goals. We would all lose.”
Page
Role of the Leader
Inattention
to
Results
Focus on Collective Outcomes
Avoidance of
Accountability
Confront Difficult Issues
Lack of Commitment
Force Clarity and Closure
Fear of Conflict
Mine For
Conflict
Absence of Trust
Go
First
Cohesive Teams
“…and imagine how members of truly cohesive
teams behave:
• 1. They trust one another.
2. They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.
3. They commit to decisions and plans of action.
4. They hold one another accountable for
delivering against those plans
5. They focus on the achievement of collective
results.”
Questions you need to ask…
#1: Are we really a team?
#2: Are we ready for heavy
lifting?
Conclusion
• Over the course of the next year our team
implemented decision and review roles and
responsibilities and collective goals.
• The Five Dysfunctions Model can be viewed in a more
positive way by thinking of what good teams do
instead of what hurts teams. Good teams trust each
other, engage in constructive ideological conflict and
do not hold back, commit to the decisions and plans
they make, hold each other accountable for working to
make plans happen, and they are focused on collective
results.
• Patrick Lencioni. Overcoming the Five
Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for
Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators (J-B
Lencioni Series) (Kindle Locations 55-56).
Kindle Edition.