Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions Of Teamwork

Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare. Like many aspects of life, teamwork comes down to mastering a set of behaviors that are at once theoretically uncomplicated, but extremely difficult to put into practice day after day. Lencioni focuses on the five dysfunctions that lead to team ineffectiveness; absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Kathryn performing these types of actions throughout the fable as she focuses the team on goals, coaches them through team building exercises, and managing healthy conflict. Kathryn is part of a senior leadership team for …show more content…
The two biggest causes of lack of commitment are the desire for consensus and the need for certainty. Effective teams are able to make clear and timely decisions and can move forward with a thorough decision from every team member, even though some may have voted against it. Kathryn provides the evidence of this through uncertainty over plans decisions and goals. She does point out that commitment doesn’t mean consensus, it’s a matter of having a voice and buy in rather than always being in agreement. JR would refer to this as “disagree and commit”. JR is head of sales for DecisionTech. An experienced salesperson but unfortunately rarely followed through. He always would own up to his unfulfilled commitment and apologized to whomever he let down. In spite of his flakiness, he was able to maintain respect from his peers. He wanted his members to be able to disagree over certain things of a project but still be committed to the overall goals. By taking specific steps in getting everyone to actively participate by voicing their opinions and perspectives is when the team can confidently commit tot a decision knowing it has received all the collective wisdom of the entire group. In order for teammates to call each other out on their actions and hold them accountable they must make sure they have a clear sense of what is …show more content…
Anything unrelated to work should never be brought into the office or discussed during work. Anything going on in your personal life should not affect you ability to pay attention to results, which is the fifth dysfunction of a team. Although companies measure profit, revenue or shareholder returns DecisionTech does not limit themselves to just those successes. Kathryn tries to better DecisionTech by specifying what its plans are to achieve in a given period, which make up the majority of controllable results. The goals and objectives executives like Kathryn set for them along the way constitutes a better representation of the results it strives for as a team. Overcoming the disability to pay attention to results can easily be fixed by leading by example and that comes straight from the top. The only way for Kathryn’s teammates to do this is if she leads by example. She must set the tone for a focus on results. If team members sense the leader of the organization valuing anything other than results they will take that as an opportunity to do the same for themselves. Team leaders like Kathryn must be selfless and have the company’s best interest in mind at all