1. The Five
Dysfunctions of a Team
Iulian Antonovici
Head of Development
Endava Iasi

2. What is the biggest
problem of your team ?
My guess is :
…
Communication
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3. The 5
Dysfunctions
Model
Absence of Trust
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4. Absence of Trust
Members of teams with Members of trusting
an absence of trust teams
conceal their weaknesses and
admit weaknesses and mistakes
mistakes
ask for help and provide
hesitate to ask for help
constructive feedback
hesitate to offer help outside Accept questions and input about
their own areas of responsibility their areas of responsibility
jump to conclusions without give the benefit of the doubt before
attempting to clarify them arriving at a negative conclusion
fail to recognize and use another’s appreciate and use another's
skills and experiences skills and experiences
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5. Absence of Trust
Members of teams with Members of trusting
an absence of trust teams
waste time and energy
focus time and energy on important
managing their behaviors and issues, not politics
being politically correct
offer and accept apologies without
are too proud to apologies hesitation
Avoid meetings and find reasons look forward to meetings and
not to spend time together other opportunities to work as a
group
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6. Absence of Trust
Role of a leader
encourage trust by demonstrating vulnerability first
show patience, vulnerability trust cannot be achieved over night
should not punish vulnerability or manipulate team members
in depth understanding of the unique attributes of each team member
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7. The 5
Dysfunctions
Model
Fear of Conflict
Absence of Trust
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8. Workplace Conflict
• Task Conflict on a • Routine Task Conflict: • Relationship Conflict:
Complex Problem: • Conflicts that crop up • Interpersonal conflict and
• Thrashing out issues of between one or more team personality clashes.
strategic consequence, member during the course of Animosity and open
Divergent viewpoints, carrying out an everyday hostilities
Disagreements on the right routine task
course of action
Positive Outcome:
Negative Outcome:
Good business
solutions and good Unfavorable Strained relationships;
decisions can emerge. Outcome: Tense atmosphere;
High potential for Disruption in the Commitment to the
team. The company work, hinders team team gets eroded.
can reap the benefits performance.
Long-term fall-out;
in the short-term as Temporary setback
well as over the long- Possible decline in
term team performance.
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9. Fear of Conflict
Teams that fear Teams that engage in
conflict conflict
have boring meetings have interesting meetings
encourage back-channel politics
face to face confrontations
and personal attacks
fail to take in consideration all extract and exploit the ideas of
opinions all members
ignore or avoid controversial
put critical topics on the table
topics
waste time and energy with minimize politics and solve real
interpersonal risk management problems quickly
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10. Fear of conflict
The Team Leader
Teams should…
should…
engage in in productive conflict
because will produce the best mine for conflict
possible solution in the shortest
period of time
should not protect other
not avoid ideological conflict members from harm
just because they don’t want to
hurt team members’ feelings.
They will end up encouraging
dangerous tension allow resolution to occur
naturally
not avoid conflict in the name of
efficiency , they will revisit this to personally apply appropriate
issue again and again conflict behavior
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11. Workplace Conflict Management
High
Competition Collaboration
Assertiveness
Compromise
Negotiation
Avoidance Accommodation
Low
Low Cooperativeness High
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Diagram
Classify the above scenarios in Lose-Lose, Win-Lose, Lose-Win and Win-Win categories
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12. Conflict Styles
Conflict Style Constructive Destructive
Avoidance : Individuals are indifferent to Lack of information or Expertise; If Habitual or Represents Unexpressed
each other's needs, and issues are No pressing need to resolve differences Dissatisfaction;
evaded or ignored completely. Lose - now or in the future. Not a useful long term conflict
Win management strategy.
Accommodation: is allowing the other If you don't care about the issue, or if Being too accommodating too often can
person's needs to be met, usually at the you have little power in the relationship weaken your position to the point where
expense of your own. Lose - Win or situation; your voice is never heard
Good to build a relationship by letting
the other person have their way
Compromise it's about giving up some Useful if time is tight, small issues or if Destructive if is forced
ground in order to gain other ground it's not worth exploring things more fully; May reduce later cooperation &
elsewhere. Lose- Lose Useful when one party can't force their agreement
solution on the other.
Negotiating is trying to reach agreement Impartial mediator helps the process; If you have a conflict with another party
with another party when the two parties Mutual concessions for satisfactory and do not share any objectives with
share an objective, but have a conflict resolution; them, the correct strategy is avoidance.
about other matters. Provides important benefits to each side
Competition it's about making sure your Useful if there is an important deadline, Bad for a long term relationship
own needs are met, no matter the cost. or if the relationship with the other party
Win - Lose is not important.
Collaboration means assuming positive Useful strategy when the issues are
intent and seeing things from all sides, in important to everyone, and all sides
detail. It's about acknowledging , need to be committed to the solution
accepting differences, and exploring
alternative solutions that meet
everyone's needs and concerns.Win-Win
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13. The 5
Dysfunctions
Model
Lack of
Commitment
Fear of
Conflict
Absence of
Trust
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14. Lack of Commitment
For a team, commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in.
Commitments should have closure
Commitment is about setting the right expectations
The two greatest causes of the lack of commitment are:
Consensus: Great teams understand the danger of seeking consensus, and find ways to
achieve buy-in even when complete agreement is impossible.
Certainty: Great teams also pride themselves on being able to unite behind decisions and
commit to clear courses of action even when there is little assurance about whether the
decision is correct
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15. Lack of commitment
A team that fails to A team that commits
commit . . . ...
creates ambiguity among the team creates clarity around direction and
about direction and priorities priorities
watches windows of opportunity aligns the entire team around
close due to excessive analysis and common objectives
unnecessary delay
develops an ability to learn from
breeds lack of confidence and mistakes
fear of failure
takes advantage of opportunities
revisits discussions and decisions before competitors do
again and again
moves forward without hesitation or
encourages second-guessing among changes direction without hesitation
team members or guilt
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16. Lack of commitment
Role of a leader
He must be comfortable with the prospect of making a
decision that ultimately turns out to be wrong
force clarity and closure
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17. The 5
Dysfunctions
Model
Avoidance of
Accountability
Lack of
Commitment
Fear of
Conflict
Absence of
Trust
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18. Avoidance of accountability
A team that avoids A team that holds one
accountability . . . another accountable
creates resentment among team ensures that poor performers feel
members who have different pressure to improve
standards of performance
establishes respect among team
members who are held to the same
encourages mediocrity high standards
misses deadlines and key develops an ability to learn from
deliverables mistakes
places an undue burden on the avoids excessive bureaucracy
team leader as the sole source of around performance
discipline management
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19. Avoidance of accountability
Role of a leader
to encourage and allow the team to serve as the first and primary
accountability mechanism.
(Sometimes strong leaders naturally create an accountability vacuum within
the team, leaving themselves as the only source of discipline)
ultimate arbiter of discipline when the team itself fails
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20. The 5
Dysfunctions
Model
Avoidance of
Accountability
Lack of
Commitment
Fear of
Conflict
Absence of
Trust
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21. Inattentions to results
The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of members to
care about something other than the collective goals of the group.
People have a familiar tendency to focus on enhancing their own positions or
career prospects at the expense of their team.
“The Best for the Group comes when everyone in the group does what's best for
himself AND the group.”
John Nash - American mathematician that won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1994. He is the subject of
the “A beautiful mind” ,Oscar awarded, movie.
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22. Inattentions to results
A team that is not focused A team that focuses on
on results . . . collective results…
stagnates or fails to grow has a high probability to reach its
goal
rarely defeats competitors enjoys success and suffers failure
acutely
loses achievement-oriented retains achievement-oriented
employees employees and minimizes
individualistic behavior
encourages team members to
focus on their own careers and Benefits from individuals who
individual goals subjugate their own goals/interests
for the good of the team
gets easily distracted Avoids distractions
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23. Inattentions to results
Role of a leader
Perhaps more than with any of the other dysfunctions, the leader
must set the tone for a focus on results
(If the leader values anything other but results the whole team will do the same)
He must be selfless and objective and reserve rewards
for those who make a real contribution to the achievement
of the group goals
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24. Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 1:
Absence of Trust
Personal Histories Exercise
have the team members answer a short list of questions about themselves
Team Effectiveness Exercise
It requires team members to identify the single most important contribution
that each of their peers makes to the team, as well as the one area that they
must either improve upon or eliminate for the good of the team
Personality and Behavioral Preference Profiles
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
360-Degree Feedback
Recommended for experienced teams, can cause problems to young teams
Team Exercise, Team Buildings
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25. Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 2:
Fear of Conflict
Mining
Someone should have the role of a “miner of conflict”— who extracts buried
disagreements within the team and sheds the light of day on them.
Real-Time Permission
Team members need to coach one another not to retreat from healthy
debate. One simple but effective way to do this is to recognize when the
people engaged in conflict are becoming uncomfortable with the level of
discord, and then interrupt to remind them that what they are doing is
necessary.
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
Understand each other conflict approach style
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26. Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 3 :
Lack of Commitment
Deadlines
As simple as it seems, one of the best tools for ensuring commitment is the use of clear
deadlines for when decisions will be made, and honoring those dates with discipline and
rigidity
Contingency and Worst-Case Scenario Analysis
A team that struggles with commitment can begin overcoming this tendency by briefly
discussing contingency plans up front or, better yet, clarifying the worst-case scenario for a
decision they are struggling to make. This usually allows them to reduce their fears by helping
them realize that the costs of an incorrect decision are survivable, and far less damaging than
they had imagined.
Cascading Messaging
At the end of a meeting a team should explicitly review the key decisions made during the
meeting, and agree on what needs to be communicated to interested parties. What often
happens during this exercise is that members of the team learn that they are not all on the
same page about what has been agreed upon and that they need to clarify specific outcomes
before putting them into action.
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27. Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 4 :
Avoidance of Accountability
Publication of Goals and Standards
To make it easier for team to hold each other accountable you need to clarify publicly exactly
what the team needs to achieve , who needs to deliver what and how everyone must do in
order to succeed.
Simple and Regular Progress Reviews
A continuous performance review process
Team Rewards
By shifting away the reward from individuals to the team the members will create a culture of
accountability
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28. Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 5 :
Inattention to results
Public declaration of results
Teams that are willing to commit publicly to specified results are more likely to work with a
passionate, even desperate desire to achieve those results.
Results based Rewards
To be used with caution !
Relying on this alone can be problematic because it assumes that financial motivation is the
sole driver for behavior.
Letting someone take home a bonus for “hard trying” sends a wrong message that, even in
absence of results, achieving the outcome is not important after all.
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29. The source of this presentation is Patrick Lencioni’s book:
“The five dysfunctions of a Team”
Thank you !
Iulian Antonovici | Head of Development Endava Iasi
iulian.antonovici@endava.com
Tel +40372363285| Ext 3085 |Skype en_iantonovici
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