Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team

1. Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team A Review of the Field Guide by Patrick Lencioni David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

2. Objectives Students who attend this course will obtain a general understanding of: • The five dysfunctions common in teams that fail • Techniques for overcoming the five dysfunctions • Why teams are so powerful David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

3. Agenda • What do we mean by a Team? • Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions: • Building Trust • Mastering Conflict • Achieving Commitment • Embracing Accountability • Focusing on Results • Questions and Objections David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

4. What Does “Team” Mean? We define “team” as _______________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

5. What Does “Team” Mean? • Easier said than done • Always present in a successful organization • Always lacking in organizations that fail • Leadership and Teamwork are the two most sought after qualities today • Saying you are a team does not make you a healthy, highly functioning unit David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

6. The Five Dysfunctions #1 Absence of Trust #2 Fear of Conflict #3 Lack of Commitment #4 Avoiding Accountability #5 Inattention to Results David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

7. Absence of Trust What are the problems caused by lack of trust on the team? • _____________________________ • _____________________________ • _____________________________ David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

8. Trust "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."George Macdonald David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

9. Building Trust • Starts with a vulnerable Leader • Important to understand the perspective and personal bias of others • Personal Ice-Breakers and Profiling • Trust must be established before the team can move forward David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

10. Labeling Saves Time Dave’s Label An ENTP, triangle, facilitator with a “ready, fire, aim” tendency and the attention span of a fish. David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

11. Fear of Conflict • A team must have established trust before they can handle conflict • Conflict – Trust = Argument (win/lose) • Conflict + Trust = Debate (truth) • Even on the best teams, conflict may be uncomfortable David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

12. Conflict "All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men."Hilaire Belloc "No doubt there are other important things in life besides conflict, but there are not many other things so inevitably interesting.“ Robert Lynd David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

13. Mastering Conflict Teams must get comfortable with being exposed to one another and be able to say things like: • I was wrong • I made a mistake • I need help • I’m not sure • I’m sorry David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

14. Positive Conflict Positive Conflict is based on passionate, unfiltered debate around issues of importance to the team David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

15. Lack of Commitment • Commitment is NOT consensus • Buy-in: the achievement of honest emotional support • Clarity: the removal of assumptions and ambiguity from a situation David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

16. “Commitment is… …a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying in to a decision precisely when they don’t naturally agree. In other words, it’s the ability to defy a lack of consensus.” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

17. Achieving Commitment “Most people don’t really need to have their ideas adopted in order to buy into a decision. They just want to have their ideas heard…” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

18. "Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.""--Scottie Pippen       David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

19. Steps to Build Consensus The DAVE Principle • D – Discuss with key decision makers • A – Ask stakeholders for input • V – Vet the plan • E – Evaluate input and implement David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

20. Commitment Clarification • Leader should always summarize the agreement of the team • Use Cascading Communications David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

21. Avoiding Accountability “Accountability: The willingness of team members to remind one another when they are not living up to the performance standards of the group.” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

22. Avoiding Accountability “Human beings often choose a path of slow, uncomfortable decline rather than risk a dramatic drop in morale caused by an ugly incident.” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

23. Embracing Accountability “Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a colleague will motivate a team player more than any fear of authoritative punishment or rebuke.” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

24. Leadership Modeling • Leader must model holding others accountable • Behavior issues and not results • If the team members know the leader will eventually step in, they might as well do it themselves • Natural to be hesitant about giving critical feedback David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

25. Accountability Building • Team Effectiveness Exercise (TEE) • Two Questions about each team member: • What is the single most important behavioral characteristic or quality that contributes to the team? • …that can derail the team • Leader goes first • Meetings are the best place to practice accountability David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

26. Inattention to Results “We have a strong and natural tendency to look out for ourselves before others, even when those others are part of our families and our team.” David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

27. Focusing on Results • Define Success • Teams establish their own measurement of success. • Go public with the expected results • Set up a scoreboard (visual) David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

28. Results "The man who gets the most satisfactory results is not always the man with the most brilliant single mind, but rather the man who can best coordinate the brains and talents of his associates."W. Alton Jones David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

29. Why are Teams Powerful? • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ • _________________________ David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE

30. Questions? And Objections David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE