What are the 5 dysfunctions of a team and how can we overcome them?

How to conquer team dysfunction All teams can experience dysfunction, because they are made up of fallible human beings. But tackling this is solvable and worthwhile. Patrick Lencini identifies 5 basic sources of dysfunction which teams experience. Absence of Trust Fear of Conflict Lack of Commitment Avoidance of Accountability Inattention to Results He also shows how we can establish the problem within a particular team by asking 5 simple questions

5 questions to help identify and tackle dysfunction in teams Lencini’s 5 questions for clarifying whether there is a problem: – –do team members openly and readily disclose their opinions? – –are team meetings compelling and productive? – – does the team come to decisions quickly and avoid getting bogged down by consensus? – – do team members confront one another about their shortcomings? – –do team members sacrifice their own interests for the good of the team. He suggests the best way to create an effective environment for teamwork is to try and ensure team members say yes to these questions

Absence of Trust Lencini suggests that – –trust is an indicator of the confidence of the team members that their peers’ intentions are good. – –Indicators of an absence of trust include team members being reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses or needs. – –building trust within a team is a lengthy process. The best way to achieve it is to help team members to understand and value each other’s working styles and personalities. Kiersey’s work showsי that people with people with diametrically opposed approaches to reaching decisions ( delaying decisions to make them better at one end, making a decision quickly and making it work at the other) can have difficulty trusting each other’s motives. י see separate bite/ taster and tool on this line

Fear of Conflict Teams need to be able to openly discuss their opinions, including their disagreements, for team work to be effective. Avoiding conflict is often considered more important in the workplace than airing criticisms and concerns, and this tendency increases the higher one goes up the management chain. People with an introverted temperament are particularly likely to struggle with engaging with conflict, as they are generally less inclined to get involved in a lively debate with other people.

Lack of Commitment Lack of direction and commitment for teams, says Lencini, can make employees (particularly “star” employees) disgruntled. Lencini suggests that lack of commitment is usually caused by the desire for consensus and the need for clarity. Even when not everyone in a team agrees with the majority opinion, it is important to find ways everyone can buy-in to that opinion. This obviously links with Kiersey’s work, in particular with the difference between people who want to try hard to reach a decision quickly and get on with making it work and people who prefer to leave further options open to reach a better decision, and may appear to judgers to lack commitment. It is important to remember this clash and find ways to work to reduce it.

Avoidance of Accountability When teams don’t commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals hesitate to question their peers on actions which are counterproductive. This can be a particular problem with teams who are close, as they may fear damaging their relationships by holding each other accountable. In fact, teams who hold each other accountable can grow closer than they would otherwise, by demonstrating mutual respect..Teams are strengthened by having members with different perspectives and temperaments and accountability helps reveal the need for a range of contributions. But avoiding accountability risks surfacing differences without clarity about their purpose and thus increases conflict.

Inattention to Results When team members put their own needs (such as their careers, egos etc) ahead of the collective goals of the team it is hard for teams to succeed. This can grow out of a lack of accountability, or simply when the divisions between team members are particularly problematic. Lencini says that the only way to conquer this dysfunction is to make the team’s goals and desired results as clear as possible. This makes it possible to reinforce and even reward actions which contribute to the team’s goal and establish positive feedback cycles. It is possible that those who prefer to work intuitively from a big picture will have particular difficulty agreeing with team members who prefer to work from carefully measured data will have difficulty building a shared orientation to results, as hey often see goals differently.

Implications Lencini identifies 5 questions which can help teams clarify whether there is a problem (as set out in slide three above). Ask each team member to reflect on their responses to the questions; at first people may want to contribute their response anonymously on printed notes. Exploring the collective responses could help you identify a priority area for development. Once you have identified a priority area can you discuss as a team the strategies for strengthening it? For example, if you need to further develop trust you might want to explore each other’s working styles and preferences.

Find out more Study reference – Lencioni, P. (2002) The five dysfunctions of a team. England: Jossey-Bass. Further reading – Using the Myers-Briggs instrument with Lencioni’s 5 dysfunctions of a team model: