Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of Teams explores how teams fail to work together through a dynamic, five-part model. The five dysfunctions are:
- absence of trust,
- fear of conflict,
- lack of commitment,
- avoidance of accountability, and
- Inattention to results.
By identifying these root causes of poor teamwork, teams can develop specific strategies to overcome each problem. By doing so, they will get along better with each other, be willing to engage in constructive debate, clarify and agree on team priorities, maintain high standards for each other, and focus on team outcomes rather than personal ambitions.
So, why does a team not succeed? The five dysfunctions form a pyramid – where each one builds on the next. And to address all dysfunctions, you need to start with at lowest and most fundamental level.
Lack of trust
Trust is feeling safe around your peers, knowing they have good intentions and are not out to harm or judge you. Teams with trust are comfortable being vulnerable with each other, can admit when mistakes are made and where their weaknesses are. If you lack trust, then the team members will feel uncomfortable being vulnerable and insecure in admitting their weaknesses; because they are afraid that their vulnerabilities will be used against them. As a result, trustless teams hesitate to seek help, spend a lot of time managing behaviour and appearance, and hide their mistakes from each other.
To overcome this dysfunction, teams should become comfortable in exchanging feedback in a safe and structured environment. In these safe environments, they can identify strengths and weaknesses without repercussions. Leading to a more open and honest team who work together and trust each other.
Fear of conflict
Passionate, ideological conflict is necessary for teams to learn from past mistakes, take decisive action, and tap into the full team’s talent and experience. This requires healthy conflict, but dysfunctional teams have a fear of conflict.
Fear of conflict comes directly from not fixing the first dysfunction, absence of trust. Without the safety that trust provides, teams will be fearful that any conflict will devolve into personal comments and unproductive arguments—so they avoid getting into conflict altogether. Trustful teams don’t have this problem, because their conflicts are about substantive issues, not personal feelings. Conflict can be productive when the team is confident the conflict won’t end up harming them.
Lack of commitment
Teams need to be committed and work together in order to succeed. There can be no ambiguity around what they are working towards, and everyone must fully buy in to the plan. Most importantly, they must decide to do this.
Dysfunctional teams, however, fail to achieve this commitment and move from one non-decision to the next.
This problem stems from the dysfunction below: a fear of conflict. If an idea hasn’t been looked at and agreed on by everyone there can be teammates who are not fully committed to the outcome because they didn’t feel part of the decision. It is also harder to back any decision when different view points have not been considered, because it feels there might be better options that they haven’t come up with yet. The result is a lack of commitment: ambiguity around goals, confusion regarding individual responsibilities, and, ultimately, indecision.
So to overcome this, the team needs to be happy to throw an idea around, get everyones opinion and feel included in the ultimate decision.
Avoidance of accountability
Effective teams hold other accountable. This means they can correct problematic or counterproductive behaviours and keep on track to achieve their goals.
Dysfunctional teams, however, are unable to give effective feedback to their peers fit they fall below standards.
This avoidance of accountability stems from the first three dysfunctions;
lack of trust means teammates won’t feel comfortable giving feedback, fear of conflict will lead to shying away from any controversial topics and lack of commitment means teams won’t have the ability to hold their teammates to account because they don’t know what the standard should be.
To over come this there needs to be clarity on what the standards are and the team needs to understand that if they are not living up to these they can be held accountable.
Inattention to results
Functioning teams are focused on achieving results. They have a mission and clear, defined objectives to help them achieve this to guid them along the way.
Dysfunctional teams, however, don’t define their goals or establish clear, universal benchmarks for success.
Without knowing where you are going and how you are going to get there then you will not be able to achieve the correct results. And even if you have corrected the first four dysfunctions you can still fall at this hurdle. Without a team goal that everyone is bought into, both personally and for the company, teammates will pursue their own goals which they know see them do better than the rest.
By committing to a team goal, in which everyone plays a part, and monitoring how close to achieving this the team is, it allows for a sense of bonding which helps the team emerge stronger.
So, by following these steps, after starting at the lowest level of the pyramid you can help alleviate the dysfunctions of a team and, in the end, you will work better together.