The Cure for the Common Dysfunctional Team

Team Effectiveness | Innovation

The Cure for the Common Dysfunctional Team
By Bob Moore, CMC, MCC, The Effectiveness Coach®

Word Count: 507 Words
Reading time: Approximately 3 minutes

The High Performing Teams chapter of my book, Turning Good People Into Top Talent, includes a quote from The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenback and Smith, "A team remains the most flexible and most powerful unit of performance, learning and change in any organization." This is especially true today as organizations are either struggling for survival or preparing for growth on the other side of the recovery. Both strategies require a winning team with the right players in the right positions with the right skills.

Is this the description of the teams in your organization . . .

a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for they hold themselves mutually accountable, and deeply committed to one another's personal success and growth?

Since most are not, this may account for the popularity of Patrick Lencioni's best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He comments on the importance of teamwork in the first sentence, "Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare." Here is a summary the five dysfunctions:

Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust
His definition of trust is the ability of group members to show their weaknesses, to be vulnerable and open with one another. High levels of trust reduce the fear of conflict, the next dysfunction.

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict
All meaningful relationships require productive conflict for them to grow. Dysfunctional teams tend to avoid conflict by wearing masks and attempting to be nice to each other-artificial harmony resulting in a group of "yes-men" instead of a high performance team. By addressing conflict in a positive manner, teams can break through the next dysfunction, lack of commitment.

Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment
Commitment requires clarity and buy-in. For people to buy into something, their opinions and thoughts must be heard and discussed. Commitment leads to high levels of accountability characteristic of high performance teams and minimizes the next dysfunction.

Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability
Mutual accountability requires clarity about what is expected and how progress is measured. There must also be clear standards about who needs to do what, by when. Mutual accountability leads to the cure for the next dysfunction, Inattention to Results.

Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results
Members of a healthy, high performance team place team results ahead of their own interests. This requires the leader to keep the team focused on results by making them clear for all to see and reward the behaviors that contribute to those results.

Imagine...The positive impact on your bottom line by having a fully engaged team of top talent executing your strategy everyday. . . with the following five characteristics:

1. Consistently demonstrating high levels of trust for each another.
2. Effectively addressing conflict when discussing ideas.
3. Assuring commitment to decisions and plans of action.
4. Holding one another accountable for appropriate actions as planned.
5. Always focusing on the achievement of collective, mutually established results.

To learn how the Effectiveness Coach Approach can assess the level of team functioning and enhance trust building behaviors, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 888-669-3923. Never an obligation or fee for a phone consultation to discuss solutions to your team challenges.

Enthusiastically,

Bob

Bob Moore, CMC®, President
Effectiveness, Inc/The Effectiveness Coach®
Aligning Human Capital with Strategic Objectives

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