Patrick Lencioni is founder of The Table Group, which is a management consulting firm that specializes in organizational health and executive team development. He has written a number of books that I think every business executive should read. One of my favorites is entitled “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. In it he describes what a healthy team looks like and, on the flip side, what a ‘dysfunctional’ team behaves like. The 5 characteristics of a dysfunctional team are:

  • Absence of Trust
  • Fear of Conflict
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Avoidance of Accountability
  • Inattention to Results

How does your team stack up? Lencioni’s model shows a pyramid with Trust at the bottom and emphasizes that trust is the basis for everything that happens in a team; positive or negative. The trust he is talking about is not ‘predictive trust’ (i.e. ”I trust that Roger will get that project done on time because he always does.”). The trust he is talking about is ‘vulnerability-based trust’; the kind of trust we have with people that we can be completely transparent with. It is the trust we have with people who we can say things to like, “I’m sorry, I screwed up”, or “Could you help me with this problem I am having?”, or “Can you teach me how to do such and such?”

Is your team able to interact in this manner? Or do you spend a lot of time hiding your weaknesses because of the consequences of having them exposed? Fear and pride often keep team members from interacting with each other at an intimate level and real trust is not allowed to develop.

Why is developing vulnerability-based trust so important? Because without this kind of trust a team is unable to engage in what Lencioni calls ‘productive ideological conflict’. He says that conflict is not a bad thing for a team. The right kind of conflict is “the willingness to disagree, even passionately when necessary, around important issues and decisions that must be made”. You see, when team members really trust each other at a deep level, they are not afraid of this kind of conflict; they are able to express their ideas and disagreements, knowing that they will not be criticized unjustly. When a team leader really trusts team members, he or she will be committed to making sure that everyone has a chance to chime in and will work to uncover any disagreement.

People want to be heard, even if the decision that is made is not their first choice. Lencioni says, “If people don’t weigh in, then they don’t buy in.” And if they don’t buy in, then they will have a lot of difficulty ‘committing’ to the decision.

I’ve had the opportunity to take a number of organizations through Lencioni’s material and the results have been rewarding. If your team has the dysfunctional symptoms that I’ve described above, let’s talk.

Next time we will look at Commitment, Accountability and Results.