Â
In 2002, noted speaker and business consult Patrick Lencioni dispensed a bracing bit of wisdom to the world of corporate management through the release of his groundbreaking book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (published by Jossey–Bass). The sad, painful truth that Lencioni exposes is that genuine, fulfilling, collaborative teamwork is the exception rather than the rule in most organizations.
Driven as we are these days to "move at the speed of business," the pressure to simply "get it done now" often undermines the need to pursue processes that could strengthen and enhance an organization’s ability to affirm its people and preserve their relationships. By emphasizing productivity over the needs and relationships of team members, corporations are actually sowing the seeds for destruction of the long-term viability of their teams and risking critical breakdowns in productivity and profitability, as good team members quit trying or – simply quit altogether.
Lencioni identifies five stages that teams pass through on the way to becoming seriously dysfunctional:
1. Absence of Trust
Trust itself has a rather ephemeral quality? it is hard to build and easy to break. At the beginning of a team relationship, trust must be carefully created. A team member may not have a reason to distrust the other members, but he doesn’t have any reason to trust them either. Trust and respect are earned over time as people work together. Conflicting behavioral styles and emotional issues of team members may complicate the trust-building process. Trust, once established, can be easily broken through failures to communicate, unrealistic expectations, stress, conflicting values, etc.
2. Fear of Conflict
Lack of trust – or broken trust -- often leads to fear of conflict. Disagreement within a team is inevitable, as team members with different values, needs, and behavioral styles come together under pressure to perform at a high level. Conflict is not a problem in itself, because it is often the result of strong personalities competing for their vision to receive a fair hearing. However, when a team lacks trust, the ability to resolve conflict in constructive, creative ways is lost. Instead of freely airing issues and concerns and finding solutions, team members bottle up their feelings, gossip behind each other’s backs, find fault with each other in petty, passive-aggressive ways, and undermine others’ positions, eroding the effectiveness of the team.
3. Lack of Commitment
As team members store up unresolved conflict, the next level of dysfunction is manifested in a lack of commitment. People lose their passion for the project, which they now begin to perceive as busy work or irrelevant; they may even cease to care whether it is successful at all. Their work is half-hearted and of poor quality. The bigger problem is that many team members see no problem with this attitude. "I tried my best and no one supported me or heard me, so why should I keep busting my rear for them now?"
4. Avoidance of Accountability
Once a team or organization has developed a pattern in which trust is low, conflicts go unresolved, and commitment is wavering, the ability to maintain accountability is lost. The operative word is confusion; people lose their clarity of purpose, and become unsure about how or when to require accountability from other team members in terms of scheduling or the quality of their work. They also become sloppy about adhering to their own standards. The group begins to work at cross-purposes, and everyone feels that they have to "walk on eggshells."
5. Inattention to Results
At this point, the team has reached the apex of a dysfunctional pyramid; people are now focused primarily on protecting their own backs ? and the backs of those on their "side." At this level, the stated goals of the team are sacrificed to protect individual needs or the needs of various subgroups within the team. It is likely that the assigned functions of the team will now grind to a halt, to be replaced by scapegoating, name-calling and appeals for changes in personnel or revisions to the team’s goals and mission.
Of course, this is not a pretty picture. It is, unfortunately, a pattern that is repeated over and over again in business and corporate settings. In fact, unless a team is properly trained, motivated and managed, the odds of team-based projects deteriorating into a dysfunctional mish-mash are disturbingly high, given the pressure that most groups work under in today’s hyper-competitive business environment.
Once a team begins to develop any of the telltale symptoms above, it is not practical or effective to address only an individual layer or dysfunction category, as many managers try to do. These five stages form an interrelated, self-perpetuating whole which must be systematically dismantled through the cooperation and full participation of the entire team. There is hope for teams suffering from the five dysfunctions, but the process of healing and recommissioning represents a very difficult, if ultimately rewarding, challenge.
Â
Re-Print Permission
This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if the following
conditions are met:
June Management Quick Tip of the Month – Are You Making Them Better Than You Were?
Being a manager is a very challenging assignment. Often a manager is someone who was a very successful team member who demonstrated excellence at some important task. Many companies like to reward excellence by promoting such high achievers into management positions. However, this is not always good news for the new manager. Just because someone is good at sales or telephone customer relations or software design, that doesn’t mean that person is gifted at managing sales reps or CSRs or software engineers. Your focus as a manager is completely different; your job is now to take a whole team of people with diverse needs, attitudes, skills, talents and issues, and make them better than you were when you were doing their job. If that is not your goal, you are not ready to be a manager. Instead of trying to excel as a manager, concentrate on helping each of them surpass your achievements and everything will work out just fine.
