The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Reading this fable was like dejavu for me. It truly made me feel like I was sitting in one of our weekly staff meetings at work. Our meetings are quiet, boring, the supervisors have a fear of failure and nothing ever seems to get accomplished. The supervisors are given assignments from management because that’s the “hot topic of the week.” And then they either do nothing with the information or they take credit for the “good” ideas. Unfortunately, this happens quite frequently and I’m hoping that there will be some way for me to change our meetings and relationships to become more of a leadership “team” instead of leadership “individuals”. When I first read the title of the book I would have never guessed the trust would be the number one cause of dysfunctions in a team. However, after reading just a couple pages it made complete sense. Trust is the foundation for real teamwork to take place. If team members cannot be learn to be vulnerable and open with each other trust will never take place. All team members have to learn to be open about their success and failures in order to operate as a high performing team. If some team members withhold information or keep it to themselves to make themselves look productive that will destroy the trust with other members of the group. If everyone can be vulnerable with each other instead of trying to guard or protect themselves they will be more productive as a group and get the projects completed. Once trust is achieved within the group it’s easier to move on and conquer the next dysfunction which is fear of conflict. The team members must learn how to disagree with each other constructively and respectfully. Each team member must be able to express themselves and know they have been heard without feeling dismissed. Their ideas need to be heard but they also need to know they don’t always get their way. Sometimes their ideas will be used and other times they will not, but each person needs to be heard and provide their insight. These conversations will teach them how to engage in conflict in a positive manner. It is important for others to trust the leader because they should be the one that surfaces the items that need to be discussed. Without trust in the leader nothing will get accomplished. Therefore the leader needs to be positive and provide constructive feedback to all ideas in order to gain trust. It is also important for the leader to make timely decisions that all team members will support. If the leader doesn’t agree with the ideas presented, they should bring it back to the table for further discussion until a buy-in happens that includes all team members. When you have a team that doesn’t trust each or have constructive conflict then you also will have a team that fails to commit. This is the next dysfunction that is associated with trust. By building trust in the beginning the team can focus on problems during their discussions and not on personal agendas to take someone down. A team that fosters trust has the ability to commit to each other, can make decisions without animosity and get buy-in from the team. Even those that don’t agree are able to provide their feedback and give their buy-in of the final decision. Teams that show commitment are able to start with the trust factor and build from that. They are able to engage in constructive conversations that focus on problems and not personal issues. The egos are left at the door. Once the leadership team gets buy-in they are able to assign action items to the team. However, it is important that they provide the reason why the action items are important and the expected outcome in order to have full commitment from the team. The fourth reason teams are dysfunctional is because they avoid accountability. By avoiding accountability they create resentment among the team. This can also lead to mediocrity in the projects they are working on. Holding each other accountable isn’t just about the management team, but it’s also about holding peers responsible for their commitments and making sure they follow through. There needs to be trust within the peer group and the confidence to speak up when something is or appears to be going wrong. Team members should show respect toward each other and hold everyone to the same high standard. Once trust is built at the beginning the team should easily be able to identify problems quickly and challenge one another about their plans and ideas. If something does go wrong, the team should not hold the team leader responsible for disciplinary action if any is required. The team should be able to hold their own ground and have productive discussions without getting the team lead involved. They will be able to do this because they now have trust among the group. The last dysfunction of teams is that they do now show attention to results. This is because status’ and egos get in the way of being productive. People focus on individual results instead of focusing on team results and making the project or company better. Another reason for lack of attention to results is because there is not a clear understanding of the expected outcome. This starts with having no trust at the leadership level. So with trust being built at stage one of the process a team can trust that the leader will provide what the expected outcome is and the team will be able to provide the expected results. It is the responsibility of the leader will provide clear metrics from the beginning so there is no guess work. A team attentive to results will retain great staff and be willing to make sacrifices for the good of the team. They do not focus on themselves but focus as one unit. Everyone feels the pain when the team fails to achieve its goals. And when a goal is achieved the team celebrates together not as individuals. When teams build trust at the beginning and are able to engage in conversations that include respectful conflict they will be able to show commitment and accountability and be attentive to the required results during all meetings, projects and everyday conversations. It’s always easier to point fingers and point out errors of someone else instead of communicating to get results. As I stated in the beginning I felt as if this book was written about our weekly staff meetings at my place of employment. Unfortunately I see meetings and projects like this on a normal basis. Most recently our management team was not happy with several practices being possibly abused in the call center. The leader brought the concern to a weekly staff meeting and assigned a project to the supervisors to find out what was going on and why. There were many concerns that were mentioned including; lack of urgency on the floor, phone status, goals and moral. She explained we could meet as a supervisor team and come up with reasons for lack of commitment and ideas on how to fix the issue. The supervisor team met several times and discussed ideas and ways to improve the concerns that we thought was communicated. We came up with several examples that we are currently doing and more examples of what needs to be done and possible ideas on how to fix the issue. This document ended up being over 6 pages long. We forwarded the completed document to the management team to review prior to the next weekly staff meeting. We believed we had come up with several great ideas and were very positive in the information we provided. Unfortunately the outcome was not as we expected. At the next staff meeting the supervisors felt we were reprimanded for not giving what they had asked for. However, in our eyes we gave them exactly what they asked for. So back to the drawing board we went and this time they wanted individual reports from each supervisor on what we are currently doing to improve stats and what we will begin doing. This time however, the expectation was focused on stats only and not on building moral. We all provided our information via email to the leadership team within a week. After that we heard nothing. The weekly staff meetings were not attended by the leader who assigned the project and none of the supervisor staff asked about the outcome or progress of the information we all provided. This continued for several weeks and months until it was forgotten about. Which was no surprise. After several weeks with no response to our findings, the supervisor staff knew what had happened. Once again we were expected to find a solution to a problem and once we provided our feedback it went out the door. It’s always like that’s the “flavor of the month” and once the month is over so is that problem. This happens over and over. The supervisors take time away from their own teams to work on the project and then nothing gets done with the end result. The supervisor team feels they have wasted time away from their teams and in general just time wasted working on a project that has no results. In order for our leadership team to have more productive meetings and successful projects several things need to change. Let’s start with trust. In order for us to trust each other and the management staff we all need to learn how to accept questions and challenges from the group, take risks, appreciate each other’s skills and experiences, focus our time on important issues only, be able to admit our mistakes and not be afraid to help. We can do this by spending more time together as a group and not being afraid to call people out on behaviors that demonstrate a lack of trust. In the example above the supervisor team should have felt comfortable with the leader and ask questions about what is expected for the end result. Once questions started flowing we all should have been able to accept the questions and challenges from the other members in a respectful manner. Next we would have been able to focus on the fear of conflict. We would be able to minimize politics and be able to constructively and respectfully engage in conflict. Once we no longer fear conflict the leader would have been able to surface the situation in a more positive manner, instead of having it be the “flavor of the month”. The supervisor team would have more trust in the leader and definitely more trust in the outcome. After we have our open conversation about the issue we will be able to commit to one goal. We would have clarity about what is wanted and needed and know what each person is working on and how they will contribute to the project. At the end of the meeting there would be a summary of what was expected and taking key action items and explaining why they are important. Next we have to hold each other accountable. We can no longer accept mediocrity and there cannot be resentment among team members just because we all have different performance standards. We need to identify potential problems quickly and not wait until they become the topic of the month. As we progress we will become aware of the bonus in store for treating each other as a team instead of as individuals. We will regularly give progress reports and allow open publication of goals and metrics. Nothing will be withheld from the group as a whole and this includes the management team and leader. And last but not least we will all be attentive until we reach the end result. We will not let personal issues and egos stand in the way of progression. We will not be distracted and when something goes awry in the process we will not point fingers, we will undertake it as a group. Once we are able to attack all five dysfunctions that are destroying our group; staff meetings and projects will be much more productive. We will be able to treat each other as adults, engage in constructive conflict, show commitment to each other and our company, accept accountability and be attentive to the end result.