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.