The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Top 100 Business Book Summaries)

This book begins with a leadership fable that introduces us to the five dysfunctions of a team. The book's premise is that teamwork is the most fundamental and crucial part of any business. The five dysfunctions identified by the author are summarised in this diagram:

Dysfunction 1: The Absence of Trust

In this context, the word trust is not used in its traditional meaning – that is, the ability to predict a person's behaviour based on their past action. In a team environment, 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. When trust is present, teammates are comfortable being vulnerable with each other.

Common vulnerabilities shared in effective teams are:

-???????weakness

-???????skill deficiency

-???????interpersonal shortcomings

-???????mistakes, and

-???????requests for help.

This is difficult for most people because we are taught to be protective of our reputations and competitive with our peers.

How To Develop Trust

Trust doesn't spring up overnight. It requires:

-???????shared experiences over time

-???????multiple instances of follow-through, and

-???????in-depth understanding of the unique attributes of team members.

These five tactics offered by the author can expediate the process:

1. Personal Histories Exercise – Ask each team member to tell their story. A list of questions will help this process. Where did you grow up? Highlights and lowlights to date etc.

2. Team Effectiveness Exercise – Ask team members to identify the single most important contribution that each person makes to the team, as well as the one area that they must either improve upon or eliminate for the good of the team. It is suggested that the team leader goes first.

3. Personality and Behavioural Preference Profiles – Conduct these assessments for everyone to facilitate greater understanding of each other. A popular tool is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

4. 360-degree Feedback – This involves a self-evaluation, peer, subordinate, and leader appraisal for each team member. Trust is built when results are shared with the team. ?

5. Experiential Team Exercises – Your traditional 'team building' exercise. Although the author notes these are only beneficial when layered with more fundamental and relevant processes.

The Role of the Leader

The leader must go first in showing vulnerability. It must be genuine and pure – any attempt to emotionally manipulate the team or take short-cuts will eliminate trust and, worse, respect. ?

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

The author makes a distinction between 'ideological conflict', which is constrained to concepts and ideas, and 'destructive fighting', which includes personality focused, mean-spirited attacks. The purpose of productive conflict in functional teams is to produce the best possible solution. It will often be passionate, emotional and frustrating but the issues get resolved quickly without any residual negative feelings.

How To Overcome a Fear of Conflict

The first step is to acknowledge that appropriate conflict is an important team function. The following three tactics may further assist:

1. Mining – Actively seek out those buried disagreements or topics that need to be resolved and ensure they are addressed.

2. Real-Time Permission – Agree with all members that when someone appears uncomfortable with the conflict, other members are permitted to interrupt and remind them that the conflict they are engaging in is important.

3. Other Tools – In addition to the Myers-Briggs tools, consider using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) to understand how people process conflict.

The Role of the Leader

The leader must, by their actions, deal with conflict as they want their team to. They need to be aware of any desire to stem conflict in order to 'keep the peace' or to protect team members from the process. Any intervention to stop healthy conflict will rob the team of the satisfaction of having issues resolved.

Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment

The author explains that commitment is a function of two things – clarity and buy-in. The two greatest causes of a lack of commitment are:

1. The desire for consensus.

2. The need for certainty.

Consensus – Looking to appease everyone is a like plugging holes in a leaky boat. You will be too busy plugging holes to focus on where you are going. Functional teams ensure that everyone's opinion is both heard and considered. This practice facilitates buy-in from the team for the ultimate decision.

Certainty – Great teams realise that a decision is better than no decision. After canvassing for thoughts and opinions, decisions need to be made and supported. Dysfunctional teams delay decisions often under the premise of seeking further information or aiming for the unachievable and undesirable need for a consensus. ?

How To Overcome a Lack of Commitment ?

There are four suggested tactics:

1. Cascading Messaging – Review key decisions and decide on what needs to be communicated about those decisions and to whom it needs to be communicated to. Make sure it happens.

2. Deadlines – Set deadlines for when final and milestone decisions will be made.

3. Contingency and worst-case scenario analysis – Decisions and action can be delayed because of a perceived downside to the decision. The process of reviewing worst-case scenarios is likely to be less than imagined, thereby encouraging action. A contingency plan provides a layer of comfort that there is a plan should the worst case eventuate.

4. Low-Risk Exposure Therapy – Ask the team to make a decision on a low-risk topic. Get them used to the process of making decisions to improve their skill in the area.

The Role of the Leader

Be comfortable and prepared for decisions to be wrong. Ensure that timelines are met and manage any issues with the process promptly.

Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability

In the context of teamwork, accountability refers to the willingness of team members to call out their peers on performance and behaviours that might hurt the team.

How To Overcome Avoidance of Accountability

1. Publication of Goals and Standards – The enemy of accountability is ambiguity. Everyone on the team should know what needs to be achieved, by who, by when and how they are expected to behave.

2. Simple and Regular Progress Reviews – Team members should provide feedback to each other verbally or in writing on how they are progressing against objectives at regular intervals.

3. Team Rewards – Rewards that are team based rather than individually based will increase accountability. This is based on the author’s assumption that people are unlikely to stand by quietly and fail because a peer is not pulling his or her weight.

The Role of the Leader

Leaders need to encourage and allow the team to serve as the first and primary accountability mechanism. They should rarely need to intervene if the team is operating functionally, only when the team fails.

Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results

This occurs when members care more about something other than the team's results. There is often one of two more essential priorities in dysfunctional teams.

Team status – This occurs when people are satisfied with purely being a team member and not overly concerned with results. Prestigious organisations, academic departments and political groups are more susceptible to this.

Individual status – Team members in dysfunctional teams will be more concerned with their individual performance and career progression than the team's results.

How To Overcome Inattention To Results

1. Public Declaration of Results – Publicly committing to a goal will increase the chances of achieving it. Teams that say 'we’ll do our best’ are subconsciously preparing themselves for failure.

2. Results-Based Rewards – Link rewards to the achievement of stated objectives.

The Role of the Leader

The author asserts that the role of the leader is most crucial in this dysfunction. This is because the team will take cues from the leader and ‘what I do’ is more valuable than ‘what I say’.

Summary

Effective teamwork takes commitment and perseverance. Once built, a functional team is able to achieve great things.?

Favourite quotes

“Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.”

?“Consensus is horrible. I mean, if everyone really agrees on something and consensus comes about quickly and naturally, well that’s terrific. But that isn’t how it usually works, and so consensus becomes an attempt to please everyone.”

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

?“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict.”

?“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.”

“If you really think about it, meetings should be at least as interesting as movies.”

“It’s as simple as this. When people don’t unload their opinions and feel like they’ve been listened to, they won’t really get on board.”

Glossary

Politics – When people choose their words and actions based how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.

Trust – 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. Teammates are comfortable being vulnerable with each other.?