The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

In large organizations employees can be members of more than one team at any one time and many of those teams are geographically dispersed and may only be temporary in nature. Working in different and/or distant teams, the team members need to be all the more conscious of the team dynamics in order to make sure that the teamwork is a success. Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls to effective teamwork which can derail the performance or the potential of the team.

A very succinct overview of common pitfalls which hinder effective teamwork is given by Lencioni in his 2002 book “The five dysfunctions of a team”, Jossey-Bass. He warns however that the five dysfunctions cannot be treated as five distinct issues that can be addressed in isolation of the others: “in reality, they form an interrelated model making susceptibility to even one of them potentially lethal for the success of a team”.

Here’s a summary of the five dysfunctions followed by further implications (“et alors”)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Absence of Trust

Stemming from an unwillingness to be “vulnerable” within the group, team members who are not genuinely open with one another “about their mistakes and weaknesses” make it impossible to build a foundation of trust.

Fear of Conflict

If conflict is feared (usually as a consequence of a lack of trust) then the team is “incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas.” Instead the team resorts to veiled discussions and comments are “guarded”.

Lack of Commitment

Without having stated their opinions in the course of passionate debate, team members “rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions”. Agreement may only be superficial and decisions taken in plenary may not be adhered to.

Avoidance of accountability

Building on the previous dysfunctions, accountability becomes unlikely. Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people “often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviours that seem counterproductive.”

Inattention to results

Inattention to results can easily occur when there are conflicting agendas (personal or otherwise). When individual needs are put above those of the collective goals of the team, collective focus is lost.

Et alors?

So what to do if there are dysfunctions in a team? Apart from “attacking” each dysfunction “head-on”, the other approach would be to consider the “essential” for a team to function well. In a nutshell, this might be considered to be communication. Underlying all the possible dysfunctions is effective communication. Without trust (the first “dysfunction”), communication becomes difficult but without communication, trust becomes difficult. The best performing teams are those who communicate effectively and regularly, but that level of communication has to be built on trust.

Communication becomes even more essential and yet at the same time more of a challenge in a multicultural setting. Communication challenges are exacerbated by (for example) the notion of explicit and implicit communication. Explicit cultures where direct, frank and open communication is the norm might not initially trust more implicit communication from other cultures (and vice-versa). Once this “barrier” is erected, trust also becomes difficult. Trust does not always mean the same thing in different cultures, so in order for different cultures to trust each other both parties in the dialogue have to understand the other. To understand, we are back to communication again – it’s essential!