Is Your Team Dysfunctional?
Spoiler alert!
This blog post is a book review - "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni and contains references about the contents of the book.
This book was recommended to me by my husband, as we spent hours in the last few months talking about effective teams, how can we improve the way our teams are working and understand what's not working and why.
The book presents a real-life scenario from a tech company experiencing ongoing disappointments. Nothing unusual, many of us might be in such companies or such environments. It's like having a dysfunctional family, but worse, because we spend more than 8 hours per day at work. And we want to fix a dysfunctional family, don't we? Well, that's what we usually want to do with our teams too. But before being able to fix it, we must identify which are the dysfunctions.
Why are teams dysfunctional?
Because usually they are made up of individuals having different visions, different interests, opinions, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses and even if the individuals are great professionals in their areas of expertise they might end up in conflict. Add to this recipe another ingredient, a manager unable to build relationships between these individuals, and there you go, you have the perfect dysfunctional team.
We might love watching the intrigue or power battles in House of Cards, but we want peace in our workplace.
So, what do you think the tech company mentioned above did to solve their problems?
Yes, funny though but you correctly guessed, they hired a new CEO.
Changing a person didn't solve their issues, but working on identifying and addressing the dysfunctions in the management team. So, during days and months of talking, exposing issues they're facing in the day to day work, debating, they got to the following five dysfunctions which used to jeopardise the relationships inside their team.
The 5 dysfunctions
1️⃣ Absence of Trust
It's in human nature to not being comfortable of showing ourselves vulnerable, at least when we're dealing with our teammates. But exactly the lack of vulnerability stops the teammates from gaining trust in each other. Being vulnerable and showing our weaknesses and limitations having no fear of being judged or rejected helps to build that confidence between the team members.
“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.” - Patrick Lencioni
2️⃣ Fear of Conflict
In a team where there is no trust between the team members, it is hard to have conflicts because people tend to keep their true opinions for themselves just to avoid entering in long argumentative discussions.
But conflict is good when it is a constructive one. Debating on different subjects, putting on the table all the pros and cons of an idea can help building a good relationship between the team members.
If the team members are trusting each other, they will know that the words are spoken with good intentions and no hard feelings should be developed.
3️⃣ Lack of Commitment
Image the following - you're part of a team, you don't have much trust in your teammates as you're not sure of how well-intended they are and you feel that your voice is not heard. Which are the chances you get committed to what they're proposing?
Few.
You can overcome this dysfunction by maximizing the clarity, by ensuring the ideas are well communicated and that all the team members expressed their opinions.
“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.” - Patrick Lencioni
4️⃣ Avoidance of Accountability
This dysfunction appears when the teammates are unwilling to take the risk of calling a peer on his or her behavior and trying to avoid difficult conversations. And this might happen when you're feeling close to someone so you hesitate in giving him or her honest feedback.
When inside the team there is already a culture of trust and commitment built, the team members tend to confront difficult issues to hold each other accountable. Also, clear deadlines and standards, periodically review and continuously motivate people to improve their performance can help in reducing the avoidance of accountability.
5️⃣ Inattention to Results
It's in human nature to put their interests, objectives, goals first ahead of the collective goals of the team.
A team that focuses on collective results minimizes the individualistic behavior and enjoys success and suffers failure as a group. The leader of the team should make the team goals very clear so that the team members can commit to these, make them measurable and reward those who are working towards them.
Conclusion
You might recognize one of many of the above dysfunctions as causing problems in your team too. You now know that you're not alone and there are plenty of people dealing with the same issues, at least in the tech industry.
Give this book a try and you'll find several exercises in there on how you can deal and solve all these dysfunctions.
And don't forget, it's a team effort not an individual one!👍