The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
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The Five Temptations of a CEO
Death by Meeting
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive
The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family
Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
Presented by Leon Britz
Tonight…
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What are the 5 dysfunctions?
What does each dysfunction cause?
How do they connect to each other?
How do we overcome them?
• Tools & activities
• The leader’s role
My team…
The team I’m in…
1.
2.
3.
4.
Trust each other
Engages in unfiltered conflict around ideas
Commits to decisions and plans of action
Hold one another accountable for delivering
against those plans
5. Focuses on the achievement of collective results
Inattention to RESULTS
Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY
Lack of COMMITMENT
Fear of CONFLICT
Absence of TRUST
1. Absence of TRUST
Members of a team with an absence of trust…
• Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from each other
• Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
• Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
• Jump to conclusions
• Fail to recognise or tap into each others’ skills
• Waste time and energy on behaviours
• Hold grudges
• Dread meetings and avoid spending time together
• Usually have a low morale
1. Absence of TRUST
Members of a trusting team…
• Admit weaknesses and mistakes
• Ask for help
• Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility
• Give one another the benefits of the doubt
• Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
• Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills
• 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
Building trust makes conflict possible
Absence of TRUST
2. Fear of CONFLICT
Teams that fear conflict…
• Have boring meetings
• Create environments where politics and personal attacks thrive
• Ignore controversial topic
• Fail to tap into all the opinions/perspectives of team members
• Waste time and energy with posturing & interpersonal risk management
2. Fear of CONFLICT
Teams that engage in conflict…
• Have lively, interesting meetings
• Extract and exploit everyone’s ideas
• Solve real problems quickly
• Minimise politics
• Put critical topics on the table
Lack of COMMITMENT
By engaging in productive conflict (understanding each
others’ perspectives & opinions) a team can confidently commit
Fear of CONFLICT
Building trust makes conflict possible
Absence of TRUST
3. Lack of COMMITMENT
Teams that fails to commit…
• Creates ambiguity about direction and priorities
• Let opportunities slip by due to excessive analysis or unnecessary delay
• Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure
• Revisits discussions and decisions again and again
• Encourages second-guessing
3. Lack of COMMITMENT
A teams that commits…
• Creates clarity around direction and purpose
• 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
You cannot hold someone accountable for something
that was never bought into or made clear in the first place
Lack of COMMITMENT
By engaging in productive conflict (understanding each
others’ perspectives & opinions) a team can confidently commit
Fear of CONFLICT
Building trust makes conflict possible
Absence of TRUST
4. Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY
A teams that avoids accountability…
• Creates resentment towards members who have different standards of
performance
• Encourages mediocrity
• Misses deadlines and key deliverables
• Places an undue burden on the team leader (or Scrum Master)
as the sole source of discipline
4. Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY
A teams 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 bureaucracy around performance management
Inattention to RESULTS
If teammates are not being held accountable for their contributions,
they will focus on their own needs, and not collective results
Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY
You cannot hold someone accountable for something
that was never bought into or made clear in the first place
Lack of COMMITMENT
By engaging in productive conflict (understanding each
others’ perspectives & opinions) a team can confidently commit
Fear of CONFLICT
Building trust makes conflict possible
Absence of TRUST
5. Inattention to RESULTS
A team that is not focused on collective results…
• Fails to grow
• Rarely defeats competitors
• Loses achievement-oriented employees
• Encourages team members to focus on their own careers
• Is easily distracted
5. Inattention to RESULTS
A team that focuses on collective results…
• Retains good employees
• Minimises individualistic behaviour
• Enjoys success
• Benefits from individuals who subjugate their own goals/interests
for the good of the team
• Avoids distractions
How do we overcome them?
1. Absence of TRUST
How to overcome
• Vulnerability-based trust cannot be achieved overnight
• It takes shared experiences over time and
• a deep understanding of your team members
• Take a focused approach
Activities
• Personal histories exercise (30 min.)
• Team effectiveness exercise (60 min.)
• Personality/behavioural profiling, i.e. Myers-Briggs (4 hr)
• 360 degree feedback
• Experiential team exercises
Role of leader
• Be vulnerable
• Risk losing face
• Don’t fake it
2. Fear of CONFLICT
How to overcome
• Acknowledge that conflict is productive
• Many teams try to avoid it
Activities
• Conflict mining
• Real-time permission
• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)
Role of leader
• Guard against your desire to protect members from harm
• Allow resolution to occur naturally, even if it’s messy
• Let (necessary/productive) conflict happen
3. Lack of COMMITMENT
How to overcome
• Take specific steps to maximize clarity
• Achieve buy-in
• Resist the lures of consensus or certainty
Tools and principles
• Cascading messaging
• Deadlines
• Contingency and worst-case scenario analysis
• Low-risk exposure therapy
Role of leader
• Be comfortable with the prospect of making a decision that might be wrong
• Push group for closure around issues
• Enforce team to stick to their own schedules
• Stress certainty and consensus
4. Avoidance of ACCOUNTABILITY
How to overcome
• Adhere to classic management tools
Tools
• Publication of goals and standards
• Simple and regular progress reviews
• Team rewards
Role of leader
• Strong leaders can naturally create an accountability vacuum in the team
leaving themselves as the only source of discipline
• Be willing to serve as the ultimate arbiter of discipline
when the team itself fails (should be a rare occurrence)
5. Inattention to RESULTS
How to overcome
• Make results clear
• Only award actions that contribute to those results
Tools
• Public declaration of results
• Results-based rewards
Role of leader
• Leader must set a tone for a focus on results
• Stay objective by giving rewards/recognition to those
who make real contributions to the achievement of group goals
The 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
Demand debate
Absence of TRUST
Be vulnerable
The opposite approach…
Imagine how members of truly cohesive teams behave…
1. They trust each other
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
Q&A
Resources
Activities & games
• www.americanjourney.net/5_dysfunctions.pdf
• www.fundoing.com