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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

    The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
    by Patrick Lencioni

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    Book Summary

    Overview

    In the course of my experience working with CEOs and their teams, two critical truths have become clear to me. First, genuine teamwork in most organizations remains as elusive as it has ever been. Second, organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they unknowingly fall prey to five natural but dangerous pitfalls, which I call the five dysfunctions of a team.

    1. Absence of trust. The first dysfunction is an absence of trust among team members. Essentially, this stems from their unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group. Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation for trust.
    2. Fear of conflict. This failure to build trust is damaging because it sets the tone for the second dysfunction: fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas. Instead, they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.
    3. Lack of commitment. A lack of healthy conflict is a problem because it ensures the third dysfunction of a team: lack of commitment. Without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement during meetings.
    4. Avoidance of accountability. Because of this lack of real commitment and buy-in, team members develop an avoidance of accountability, the fourth dysfunction. Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.
    5. Inattention to results. Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career development, or recognition) or even the needs of their divisions above the collective goals of the team.

    In other words, 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.

    Dysfunction 1: Absence of trust

    In the context of building a team, trust is the confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. In essence, teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another.

    It requires team members to make themselves vulnerable to one another, and be confident that their respective vulnerabilities will not be used against them. The vulnerabilities I’m referring to include weaknesses, skill deficiencies, interpersonal shortcomings, mistakes, and requests for help.

    It is only when team members are truly comfortable being exposed to one another that they begin to act without concern for protecting themselves. As a result, they can focus their energy and attention completely on the job at hand, rather than on being strategically disingenuous or political with one another.

    Achieving vulnerability-based trust is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of a team, but that is exactly what is required.

    Members of Teams with an Absence 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

    Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 1

    Unfortunately, vulnerability-based trust cannot be achieved overnight. It requires shared experiences over time, multiple instances of follow-through and credibility, and an in-depth understanding of the unique attributes of team members.

    Personal Histories Exercise: This low-risk exercise requires nothing more than going around the table during a meeting and having team members answer a short list of questions about themselves. Questions need not be overly sensitive in nature and might include the following: number of siblings, hometown, unique challenges of childhood, favorite hobbies, first job, and worst job. Simply by describing these relatively innocuous attributes or experiences, team members begin to relate to one another on a more personal basis, and see one another as human beings with life stories and interesting backgrounds. This encourages greater empathy and understanding, and discourages unfair and inaccurate behavioral attributions. It is amazing how little some team members know about one another, and how just a small amount of information begins to break down barriers.

    Team Effectiveness Exercise: It requires team members to identify the single most important contribution that each of their peers makes to the team, as well as the one area that they must either improve upon or eliminate for the good of the team.

    Personality and Behavioral Preference Profiles: Profiles of team members’ behavioral preferences and personality styles help break down barriers by allowing people to better understand and empathize with one another. E.g. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

    360-Degree Feedback: The key to making a 360-degree program work, in my opinion, is divorcing it entirely from compensation and formal performance evaluation. Rather, it should be used as a developmental tool, one that allows employees to identify strengths and weaknesses without any repercussions.

    Experiential Team Exercises: Rope courses and other experiential team exercises can be valuable tools for enhancing teamwork as long as they are layered upon more fundamental and relevant processes.

    While each of these tools and exercises can have a significant short-term impact on a team’s ability to build trust, they must be accompanied by regular follow-up in the course of daily work.

    The Role of the Leader

    • The most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first. This requires that a leader risk losing face in front of the team, so that subordinates will take the same risk themselves.
    • What is more, team leaders must create an environment that does not punish vulnerability. Even well-intentioned teams can subtly discourage trust by chastising one another for admissions of weakness or failure.
    • Finally, displays of vulnerability on the part of a team leader must be genuine; they cannot be staged. One of the best ways to lose the trust of a team is to feign vulnerability in order to manipulate the emotions of others.

    Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

    Unfortunately, conflict is considered taboo in many situations, especially at work. And the higher you go up the management chain, the more you find people spending inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to avoid the kind of passionate debates that are essential to any great team.

    When team members do not openly debate and disagree about important ideas, they often turn to back-channel personal attacks, which are far nastier and more harmful than any heated argument over issues.

    It is also ironic that so many people avoid conflict in the name of efficiency, because healthy conflict is actually a time saver. Contrary to the notion that teams waste time and energy arguing, those that avoid conflict actually doom themselves to revisiting issues again and again without resolution. They often ask team members to take their issues “off-line,” which seems to be a euphemism for avoiding dealing with an important topic, only to have it raised again at the next meeting.

    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

    Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 2

    Mining: Assume the role of a “miner of conflict”—someone who extracts buried disagreements within the team and sheds the light of day on them.

    Reminders: Recognize when the people engaged in conflict are becoming uncomfortable with the level of discord, and then interrupt to remind them that what they are doing is necessary.

    The Role of the Leader

    It is key that leaders demonstrate restraint when their people engage in conflict, and allow resolution to occur naturally, as messy as it can sometimes be. This can be a challenge because many leaders feel that they are somehow failing in their jobs by losing control of their teams during conflict.

    Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment

    In the context of a team, commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in. Great teams make clear and timely decisions and move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who voted against the decision.

    The two greatest causes of the lack of commitment are the desire for consensus and the need for certainty:

    • Consensus. Great teams understand the danger of seeking consensus, and find ways to achieve buy-in even when complete agreement is impossible. They understand that reasonable human beings do not need to get their way in order to support a decision, but only need to know that their opinions have been heard and considered.
    • Certainty. Great teams also pride themselves on being able to unite behind decisions and commit to clear courses of action even when there is little assurance about whether the decision is correct. That’s because they understand the old military axiom that a decision is better than no decision.

    It is important to remember that conflict underlies the willingness to commit without perfect information.

    When an executive team fails to achieve buy-in from all team members, even if the disparities that exist seem relatively small, employees who report to those executives will inevitably clash when they try to interpret marching orders that are not clearly aligned with those of colleagues in other departments.

    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 and decisions again and again
    • Encourages second-guessing among team members

    Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 3

    Cascading Messaging: At the end of a staff meeting or off-site, a team should explicitly review the key decisions made during the meeting, and agree on what needs to be communicated to employees or other constituencies about those decisions.

    Deadlines: The worst enemy of a team that is susceptible to this dysfunction is ambiguity, and timing is one of the most critical factors that must be made clear.

    Contingency and Worst-Case Scenario Analysis: This usually allows them to reduce their fears by helping them realize that the costs of an incorrect decision are survivable, and far less damaging than they had imagined.

    Low-Risk Exposure Therapy: Act decisively in relatively low-risk situations. They learn that the decision would not have been much different had the team engaged in lengthy, time-consuming study.

    The Role of the Leader

    The leader must be comfortable with the prospect of making a decision that ultimately turns out to be wrong. And the leader must be constantly pushing the group for closure around issues, as well as adherence to schedules that the team has set.

    Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability

    In the context of teamwork, however, it refers to the willingness of team members to call their peers on performance or behaviors that might hurt the team. The most effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards of performance on a team is peer pressure. More than any policy or system, there is nothing like the fear of letting down respected teammates that motivates people to improve their performance.

    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

    Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 4

    Publication of Goals and Standards: A good way to make it easier for team members to hold one another accountable is to clarify publicly exactly what the team needs to achieve, who needs to deliver what, and how everyone must behave in order to succeed.

    Simple and Regular Progress Reviews: Team members should regularly communicate with one another, either verbally or in written form, about how they feel their teammates are doing against stated objectives and standards.

    Team Rewards: By shifting rewards away from individual performance to team achievement, the team can create a culture of accountability.

    The Role of the Leader

    One of the most difficult challenges for a leader who wants to instill accountability on a team is to encourage and allow the team to serve as the first and primary accountability mechanism. Once a leader has created a culture of accountability on a team, however, he or she must be willing to serve as the ultimate arbiter of discipline when the team itself fails.

    Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results

    The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of members to care about something other than the collective goals of the group.

    A 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

    Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 5

    Make results clear, and reward only those behaviors and actions that contribute to those results.

    Public Declaration of Results: Teams that are willing to commit publicly to specific results are more likely to work with a passionate, even desperate desire to achieve those results.

    Results-Based Rewards: An effective way to ensure that team members focus their attention on results is to tie their rewards, especially compensation, to the achievement of specific outcomes.

    The Role of the Leader

    The leader must set the tone for a focus on results. If team members sense that the leader values anything other than results, they will take that as permission to do the same for themselves.