Below are The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and what needs to happen to make a team functional where all team members are purposely rowing
in the same direction:
1. Absence of trust. Trust, not in the context that you'll trust someone would do his work, but rather confidence among your peers that their intentions are good so there is no reason to be careful on what you say or do around them. In simpler terms, team members should be able to openly share their weaknesses, skill deficiencies, interpersonal shortcomings, mistakes and requests for help without worrying that these would be used against them. But this isn’t easy to achieve because in the course of career advancement, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers and protective of their reputations, shared Lencioni.
2. Fear of conflict. This is the tendency of people to hold back their honest opinions because they don’t want to hurt other’s feelings. When team members do not openly debate and disagree about important ideas, they often turn to backbiting or end up revisiting unresolved issues again and again. What needs to be done? Team members should discuss and resolve issues quickly and completely. And even if discussions become heated debates, there should not be any residual feeling or collateral damage.
3. Lack of commitment. According to Lencioni, commitment is a function of 2 things - clarity and buy in. When a great team makes a decision, team members should move forward with complete buy in from every member of the team - even those who voted against the decision. How do you get buy in? Most reasonable people don't have to get their way on a discussion, they just need to be heard and that their inputs were genuinely considered. When people speak up and are listened to, they would be more willing to support whatever decision is made.
4. Avoidance of accountability. Each team member should hold each other accountable for what they signed up to do for high standards of performance and behavior. If they see someone not holding up to it, they should call each other's attention. Unfortunately, most people are afraid to call someone's attention to avoid interpersonal discomfort.
5. Inattention to results. Most individuals have the tendency to enhance their positions or career prospects at the expense of their team and they do not set meaningful objectives but rather just work to exist or survive. A great team must put the collective goal of the group more important than each individual members’ goals and the collective goal should be outcome-based performance.
