Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Book Author:

01 Feb 2023

Two parts:

illustrative novel
description of the model

This was a fun way to relay the information by simulating a real world situation and the emotional aspects of teamwork.

The Model

There is a pyramid to teamwork. The five dysfunctions of a team:

lack of trust leads to…
fear of conflict which leads to…
lack of commitment which leads to…
avoidance of accountability which leads to…
inattention to results

Lack of Trust

What is trust? The confidence that your peers have good intentions and that they are interested in working towards good solutions and not in blaming or attacking. There is no need to be protective, defensive, or careful when expressing opinions.

Areas of vulnerability include:

mistakes
weaknesses
skill deficiencies
interpersonal shortcomings

When this is all okay to share then all of our energy gets funneled into the work and not into politics.

Politics is choosing your words to have a reaction rather than honestly and candidly speaking your mind.

You build trust by not judging people only the merits of ideas against your stated goals. You must be vulnerable and expose your mistakes and weaknesses. If you aren’t able to do this it’s a sign that you don’t have trust with your team.

Ideas to build trust:

share personal histories will bring understanding
starting with the team leader each team member identifies the contribution area of their team member as most important and the one area where they need to improve the most or eliminate
personality profiles can help a team understand each other and how to work with each other
360 feedback
experiential team exercises where you go and do something significant together

Most importantly leadership needs to set the tone by showing vulnerability.

Fear of Conflict

What is productive conflict vs. unproductive conflict? Conflict that has no collateral damage, personal attacks, and is focused on idea darwinism is good conflict. Conflict that devolves to insults, criticism, attacks, and politics is poor conflict.

How much energy is lost to heat energy rather than converted to polished ideas? Is the conversation focused on finding the best solution? Or is it full of eye rolls, sarcasm, insults, etc.

Back channeled attacks that aren’t aired out in the open build up a latent tension that simmers in the background.

Ideas to have good conflict:

mine for disagreement and extract them out into the open
real-time permission means coaching each other not to run away from debate, when someone is uncomfortable sharing let them know that’s why we are here

Leadership needs to be careful to let resolution happen even if messy and fight the urge to over control conversation or stifle it. Then the leader needs to model appropriate behavior.

Lack of Commitment

How does fear of conflict lead to a lack of commitment?

Because commitment is a funciton of buy-in and clarity. You can’t have either if you don’t have great discussion and are unafraid to have those discussons.

Notes on commitment:

consensus – you don’t need consensus that a decision is right but you need everyone rowing in the same direction
certainty – make a decision and know that it might not be the right one, a decision is better than waffling, we can always course correct later

How do we maximize buy-in and clarity?

cascade messaging means that at the end of a meeting you clarify what needs to be shared out with consitutents – this forces you to consolidate/crystallize the takeaways and resolutions from the meeting
deadlines – create a deadline for the decision
contingency plans – create a contingency or pre-mortem upfront so you know what audibles are likely ahead of you
low risk exposure therapy – practice decisiveness in low impact areas first and level up if the team struggles with commitment

You must be okay with making the wrong decision.

Avoidance of Accountability

Accountability is about team members calling each other out when they have behavior that impacts the teams productivity.

People who get along and trust each other often have trouble calling each other out for fear of jeapordizing the relationship. But calling each other out shows ultimate respect knowing that the peer wants to be the best they can. Touching the nerve is uncomfortable but necessary.

Peer pressure is vital to maintaining high outcomes. If you don’t call people out don’t lie to yourself – you value your own comfort over the growth of those around you.

Ideas to improve:

publication of goals and standards – when you publish them you create a commitment device and makes it clear what you are promising to do, it also gives permissions to those around you to call you out
simple and regular progress reviews – folks should regular communicate with each other about their performance and goals
team rewards – by shifting rewards away from individual performance to achievement the team can create a sense of accountability which makes the team less likely to fall apart when someone is not pulling their weight

A leader should encourage and support the team itself to serve as the first and primary accountability mechanism. Strong leaders can create an accountability vacumn by serving as the accountability support for the team.

Inattention to Results

If a team cares something other than collective goals that means the team is not being optimal for the simple reason that all the energy is not focused in the same direction.

Common examples:

team status – being part of the team is enough for this person so they rest on their laurels and just get by
personal status – they care about their own achievement more than team achievement
public declaration of results – share your results, good or bad, publicly and loudly
results based rewards – only give rewards when results are achieved