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About this lesson
Lencioni’s book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Leadership Fable” tells the story of how to build a business team. During the lifecycle of the team, it is common to face dysfunctional behaviour that must be overcome.
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Quick reference
Five Team Dysfunctions
Lencioni’s book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Leadership Fable” tells the story of how to build a business team. During the lifecycle of the team, it is common to face dysfunctional behaviour that must be overcome.
When to use
This book illustrates the five team dysfunctions. Whenever you recognize one of these dysfunctions on your team; you should apply the recommendations to overcome it.
Instructions
Lencioni uses a fictional business fable to describe the team dysfunctions and how to address them. If you prefer to read fiction, you will find the fable interesting and enlightening. If you prefer non-fiction, the book also contains an analysis of the behavior of team members in the fable and the method for addressing the dysfunction that was used by the fable’s heroine, Kathryn.
Kathryn is the newly appointed CEO of a high tech start-up in Silicon Valley that has fallen on hard times. Through a series of executive retreats and team meetings, she addresses and overcomes the five team dysfunctions.
Five Dysfunctions
The five dysfunctions and typical behaviour that indicate the presence of that dysfunction are shown in the table below. These dysfunctions will each be discussed in more detail in other sessions of this program.
- 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
- 00:06 Just as people will sometimes engage in dysfunctional behavior,
- 00:09 teams can do the same.
- 00:11 Let's explore this concept.
- 00:15 Okay, what do I mean by leadership fable?
- 00:18 Well, this module and the next few are based upon Lencioni's book,
- 00:21 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable.
- 00:25 It's called a fable because the book illustrates the dysfunctions through
- 00:29 a fictional story about Kathryn, who was the newly appointed CEO of DecisionTech.
- 00:34 DecisionTech is a Silicon Valley start-up.
- 00:36 It was going great for a while, and then fell on hard times.
- 00:39 Lencioni uses the fictional fable to illustrate his points.
- 00:43 You may be asking, why doesn't he use real examples?
- 00:47 Well, I didn't have any trouble filling in some real examples from my experience
- 00:50 as I read through the fable and
- 00:52 most of the book is actually the analysis of the fable.
- 00:56 In Lencioni's fable, Kathryn diagnoses and addresses the five dysfunctions
- 01:00 as she rebuilds the business leadership team and the company.
- 01:04 In the fable, she first listens to how the team interacts, and
- 01:07 then begins to coach them into new patterns of behavior
- 01:10 through a series of executive retreats and team meetings.
- 01:13 Essentially, Lencioni provides a recipe for how to take your dysfunctional team
- 01:18 through the process of correcting these issues.
- 01:22 So let me introduce the five dysfunctions.
- 01:24 We will spend a full session in this course on each of these.
- 01:28 Lencioni shows this in a pyramid form, implying that you must get the lower
- 01:32 levels of the pyramid fixed before you can begin to work on the upper levels.
- 01:37 The first one is absence of trust.
- 01:39 This dysfunction will undermine the ability of the team to communicate and
- 01:43 nothing else can be addressed until trust is built.
- 01:46 The second is fear of conflict.
- 01:48 Addressing issues will involve some conflict.
- 01:50 This conflict can be positive and productive rather than destructive.
- 01:55 The fear of conflict will suppress the needed discussion.
- 01:58 Third is lack of commitment.
- 02:00 Lencioni doesn't mean that people are overcommited or overworked, rather this is
- 02:05 lack of commitment to the success of the team in reaching the team goals and
- 02:09 objectives.
- 02:11 Fourth is the avoidance of accountability.
- 02:13 We've talked already about responsibility and accountability.
- 02:17 In this case, team members are unwilling to acknowledge their accountability for
- 02:20 team results, and the rest of the team allows them to do this.
- 02:25 The fifth dysfunction is inattention to results.
- 02:28 At the end of the day, the team is measured on team results.
- 02:31 Using a sports metaphor,
- 02:33 getting the win is more important than padding your personal statistics.
- 02:37 It is the team win that allows the team to continue to play in the tournament.
- 02:41 Lencioni provides some clues based upon team behavior
- 02:45 to help you recognize when your team's experiencing one of these dysfunctions.
- 02:49 Absence of trust is characterized by team members not being willing
- 02:53 to be vulnerable to each other.
- 02:54 They won't share what is happening or what type of help and support they need.
- 02:59 Fear of conflict is characterized by artificial harmony.
- 03:02 Everyone in the team knows something isn't right but no one will talk about it.
- 03:06 Instead, the team pretends that there are no problems.
- 03:10 Lack of commitment is characterized by ambiguity.
- 03:13 It's difficult or impossible to nail down what a team member is doing or
- 03:17 when they will complete their activities.
- 03:20 Avoidance of accountability is shown by the acceptance of low standards
- 03:24 of performance, that virtually anything is good enough that the team members don't
- 03:29 need to worry about accountability for the results of what they did.
- 03:33 Inattention to results is characterized by a focus by team members on status and ego.
- 03:37 They're not concerned about the team performance, they're concerned about how
- 03:41 others perceive them in light of the team performance.
- 03:45 Teams are vulnerable to each of these five dysfunctions.
- 03:49 Recognizing them is the first step on the part of the team and
- 03:53 team leader to addressing them
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