Dysfunctional teams

I finally read "The five dysfunctions of a team" by Patrick Lencioni.   I took it to read on the airplane going to and from Vancouver, but it's such an easy reading book I now have to find something to read on the airplane on the way home.  Then again maybe that's a good opportunity to catch up on my sleep.  Linda Rising pointed out at the conference that true greatness requires sleep!  Ha!  If only it were that simple!

In his book Patrick has illustrated a five tier model for the dysfunctions of a team, and once you understand them you have a chance of starting to correct them.

The book is written as an account of how the new CEO of a company worked through the process of making the executive group a team (rather than a group of individuals).   In it's own way the process narrated in the book reminded me of stories I've heard from a friend regarding his experiences in the USAF basic training camp.   In basic training they work to break down the individuals, and they go through a very difficult time of realization.   This removes numerous barriers allowing the USAF to start building a strong team.  Although they do lose some people along the way, the result they are working to achieve is to build a world class team. This isn't too far off the story line for the book.

The model Patrick has built for us makes a lot of sense.   The way to read the triangle is from the bottom up, and here's my summary:

5) Absence of Trust - team work begins with trust, as without trust it is not possible for effective conflict to occur.   In otherwords, we have artificial harmony resulting from a fear of conflict.

4) Fear of Conflict - conflict can be a good thing if it's used as a means for reaching good decisions the whole team can buy into.  Conflict must be constructive, and be used as a tool to reach great decisions.   The root of this dysfunction is ... you do not have good/clear decisions you will have ambiguity leading to a lack of commitment.

3) Lack of Commitment - Commitment is a function of Clarity and buy-in.   You need to ensure everyone on the team is committed to decisions, even if they voted against it.  If you lack commitment from the team it is very difficult for them to call each other on commitments, and so you lack accountability:

2) Avoidance of Accountability - Accountability is the willingness to call a peer on their behaviours which can be damaging to the team. The dysfunction stems from an unwillingness to deal with the personal discomfort associated with having these conversations. In the absence of accountability team members are more likely to turn their focus to their personal needs leading to Inattention of results.

1) Inattention to results - This is where people are more interested in their personal status and ego than they are with the team results.  Truly great teams do not have a group of individuals concerned about their individual status, rather they have a group whose primary focus is on the end result at the team level.

I highly recommend reading this book!