Final Paper
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
Members of teams with an
absence of trust….
• Conceal their weaknesses and
mistakes from one another
• Hesitate to ask for help or
provide constructive feedback
• Jump to conclusions Hesitate to
offer help outside their own areas
of responsibility about the
intentions and aptitudes of others
without attempting to clarify
them
Members of trusting teams...
• Admit weaknesses and mistakes
• Ask for help
• Accept questions and input about
their areas of responsibility
• Give one another the benefit of
the doubt before arriving at a
negative conclusion
• Take risks in offering feedback
and assistance
DYSFUNCTION 1: Absence of Trust
Get to know one another (lunch, activities, etc.)
• Personal histories exercise
• Team effectiveness exercises
• Personality and Behavioral Preferences Profiles
• 360 Degree Feedback Exercises
• Experiential Team Exercises
• Ground Rules
Overcoming Dysfunction 1: Absence of
Trust
Teams that fear conflict…
• Have boring meetings
• Create environments where back-
channel politics and personal attacks
thrive
• Ignore controversial topics that are
critical to team success
• Fail to tap into all the opinions and
perspectives of team members
• Waste time and energy with posturing
and interpersonal risk management
Teams that engage in conflict…
• Have lively, interesting
meetings
• Extract and exploit the ideas of
all team members
• Solve real problems quickly
• Minimize politics
• Put critical topics on the table
for discussion
DYSFUNCTION 2: Fear of Conflict
Mine for conflict, perhaps have even a person designated to
mine for conflict
Give real time permission for conflict—when debate starts
and things get uncomfortable, stop and tell the debaters
how important it is what they are doing
If you are the leader, do not jump in too quickly to protect
As a leader model healthy conflict
Overcoming Dysfunction 2: Fear of
Conflict
A team that fails to commit…
• Creates ambiguity among the
team about direction and priorities
• Watches windows of opportunity
close due to excessive analysis
and unnecessary delay
• Breeds lack of confidence and fear
of failure
• Revisits discussions and decisions
again and again
• Encourages second-guessing
among team members
A team that commits… • Creates clarity around direction
and priorities
• Aligns the entire team around
common objectives
• Develops an ability to learn from
mistakes
• Takes advantage of opportunities
before competitors do
• Moves forward without hesitation
• Changes direction without
hesitation or guilt
DYSFUNCTION 3: Lack of
Commitment
Cascading Messages
Deadlines
Contingency and Worst Case Scenario Planning
Low Risk Exposure Therapy
Create a “FIRST TEAM” mentality at the top
Overcoming Dysfunction 3: Lack of
Commitment
A team that avoids
accountability…
• Creates resentment among
team members who have
different standards of
performance
• Encourages mediocrity
• Misses deadlines and key
deliverables
• Places an undue burden on the
team leader as the sole source
of discipline
A team that holds one another
accountable…
• Ensures that poor performers feel
pressure to improve
• Identifies potential problems quickly
by questioning one another’s
approaches without hesitation
• Establishes respect among team
members who are held to the same
high standards
• Avoids excessive bureaucracy around
performance management and
corrective action
DYSFUNCTION 4: Avoidance of
Accountability
Publication of Goals and Standards
Simple and Regular Progress Reviews
Team Rewards
“Enter the Danger” with one another
Leader must still accept and carry out the role of
final arbiter of discipline
Overcoming Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of
Accountability
A team that is not focused on
results…
• Stagnates/fails to grow
• Rarely defeats competitors
• Loses achievement-oriented
employees
• Encourages team members to
focus on their own careers
and individual goals
• Is easily distracted
A team that focuses on collective
results…
• Retains achievement-oriented
employees
• Minimizes individualistic behavior
• Enjoys success and suffers failure
acutely
• Benefits from individuals who
subjugate their own goals/interest for
the good of the team
• Avoid distractions
DYSFUNCTION 5: Inattention to
Results
Public Declaration of Results
Measurable and Specific, when possible
Results Based Rewards
Leader must value Results and get the Board to
value Results
Leader allows anything else, excuses, gives
permission for everyone to walk away from
results!
Overcoming Dysfunction 5: Inattention
to Results
The Five Languages of
Appreciation in the Workplace By Dr. Gary Chapman & Dr. Paul White
49
Tangible Gifts
The key to an effective gift in the workplace is the “thought,” not the
amount of money spent. Taking time to notice what your colleagues
enjoy (chocolate, coffee, cashews), observing their hobbies and
interests (sports, books, crafts) and buying them a small related gift
shows that you are getting to know them as a person and understand
what is important to them.
Tangible Gifts, cont.
A clique network is closed, dense, and self-
contained; a boundary-spanning network is less
dense, more unique, and more varied.
One advantage of a clique network is high cohesion;
one advantage of a boundary-spanning network is
greater innovation and diversity.
Managers and team members can increase their
social capital by determining the brokers in their
networks, identifying structural holes in their
organization, and diversifying their networks.
51
Recap: Hitting the Highlights
People in teams’ bond along three specific types of
ties: friendship, trust, and advice. Trust-ties involve )
an emotional and cognitive component; advice-ties
involve instrumental relationships.
One method for most effectively increasing a team's
social capital is by expanding the size of that team's
network which does not mean increasing the size of
the team, but rather increasing the number and
diversity of people with whom the team comes into
contact.
52
Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.
Managers with more social capital get higher returns
on their human capital because they are in a position
to identify and develop more rewarding opportunities.
People are their most cooperative when
communicating face-to-face.
Face-to-face meeting with clients is a communication
situations that has the highest message "richness," or
potential information-carrying capacity.
Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.
People primarily rely on nonverbal signals to help
them conduct social interaction. One estimate is 93%
of the meaning of messages is contained in the
nonverbal part of communication.
Face-to-face interaction allows people to have the
feeling of being "in sync" with another person. The
degree of rapport between people determines the
efficiency and the quality of progress toward goal
achievement, and whether the goal is ever achieved.
Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.
Geographically distributed teams experience more
relationship and task conflict than do co-located
teams.
An investigation of performance appraisals revealed
that people receiving feedback were most negative
about electronic feedback versus feedback received
on paper or via face-to-face.
Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.
Recap, cont.
Week Six is the
Columbia Mission.
Complete reading assignments Read Chapter 6 “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the
Workplace”
Read The Five Dysfunctions of Teams
Read 2 Corinthians 9:10-14
Review all web links provided
Complete writing assignments Discuss dysfunctions at your workplace.
Answer discussion questions
Complete unit quiz
57
What’s Next?
Chapman, G. D., & White, P. E. (2012). The 5 languages of appreciation in the
workplace: Empowering organizations by encouraging people.
Chicago: Northfield Pub.
Lencioni, P. M. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: a leadership fable(1st
ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lencioni, P. M. (2003, Summer). The trouble with teamwork. Leader to Leader,
(29), 35-40.
Thompson, L. L. (2016). Making the team: a guide for managers (5th ed.). NY,
NY: Pearson.
Weinberg, R. S. & Gould, D. (2012). Foundations of sport and exercise
psychology (5th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
58
References
Image References
Hamburger photo [Digital image]. Retrieved from
https://denver.eater.com/2017/11/30/16720732/in-n-out-burger-
colorado-springs-Denver
Harvard Business Publishing Education. (2018). Retrieved from
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/library
Garrett, E. [Digital images].
Google Images (2018). Retrieved from
https://images.google.com/
Lencioni, P. M. (2003, Summer). The trouble with teamwork. Leader to
Leader, (29), 35-40.