Today in my Project Management class, we discussed what we learned from the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.
The five dysfunctions as detailed by the book are:
- Inattention to Results (status and ego become priorities)
- Avoidance of Accountability (letting low standards slide)
- Lack of Commitment (allowing ambiguity)
- Fear of Conflict (promoting artificial harmony)
- Absence of Trust (maintaining a sense of invulnerability)
The model works in reverse; the idea is that a perfectly non-dysfunctional team is built from a base of trust upwards, like so:
- Members of the group learn to trust each other in the sense that they believe everyone’s actions are solely for the benefit of the team. This reduces the likelihood of office politics (“when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think”).
- When the members of a team trust each other, they are more willing and able to engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas. Not personal conflict, just open debate about decisions that need to be made.
- When everyone feels that they are free and encouraged to raise their issues and air their grievances, they are more likely to go along with a team decision even if it is not their preference. They are more willing to “disagree and commit” as they say. The key is that even if they aren’t fully in agreement with the decision, they are willing to back it with their efforts because they had the chance to raise and work out all their issues already.
- Once each team member is publicly committed to their work towards the goal, they can be held accountable by their team members. No one on the team should be afraid to call another team member out on an issue of accountability because they all trust that they hold each other to high standards.
- The knowledge that the team is enforcing accountability on each other creates a natural tendency for every member to live up to their commitments. They will pay attention to their results because they know the team is depending on them and will call them out if they fall short of their commitments. Personal egos are put aside and the team works efficiently towards their goal.
A good manager fixes dysfunctional teams by identifying where the problem lies and working up or down the model from there.
In class, we also learned the basic three reasons why someone might not have followed through with their commitments:
- Their assignment was vague, unclear, ambiguous, etc. Or they misunderstood their assignment. The solution is to ensure that the goal is clear and that person does not have any lingering issues or confusion about their task.
- They simply did not have the resources or ability to perform the assignment. The solution is to provide the resources for them, or find a way to train them to a point where they can perform the assignment.
- They ran out of time. Clearly, there was a problem in the schedule and it should be reviewed.
An important point here is that one should never simply ask the failed person, “WHY?” – a better way to figure out what went wrong is, “How can I help you meet that goal we set?” or “What can I do to facilitate your meeting your requirements?”
