Introduction
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni, identifies a pyramid of 5 factors that result in ineffective teams. Here, I summarize my learnings from the book.
Lencioni writes from the perspective of dysfunctions, I prefer to flip this logic and think in terms requirements for effectiveness instead of absences that result in ineffective teams. His method is effective, but I find the argument more coherent this way.
As the author did, I will start with the ultimate goal for an effective team: results. I will explain that a collective mindset is required to optimise these results. Once the goal has been established, I will follow in the author’s footsteps by building the pyramid from its base. Each layer being a component of the collective mindset that is required.
Results
The ultimate goal of a team is to achieve results. A team must achieve its results; otherwise, investment in the team becomes unsustainable. An effective team must therefore focus on results above all else.
Sustainability
This focus on results should not be shortsighted. A focus on results includes building mechanisms to ensure that these results can be delivered over the long term. Short term sacrifices to results might therefore need to be made to ensure long term delivery.
Short-term sacrifices may be necessary to avoid silos or bottlenecks that would hinder results in the long term.
A collective mindset
An individual contributor might be undeniably brilliant, but can they be deemed successful if their team fails to achieve its results?
A focus on team results should be more important to all team members than their individual ambitions, recognition or status. A successful team is prior to the successful individual.
This does not mean that individual team contributors should not be ambitious. Nor should needs such as recognition, rest or encouragement be disregarded. Individuals remain human and their humanness must not only be accepted, but encouraged.
From the foundation that an effective team provides, individual contributors can build their careers.
Achieving this collective mindset has the requirements discussed below:
Trust
The most foundational requirement for an effective collective mindset is trust. Trust in this case is defined specifically as knowing that your team members have the team, and then each other’s, best interests at heart.
In other words, trust means feeling safe enough with your team to fully engage in the team’s activities even when tension, discomfort or conflict arise.
This is specifically important for two reasons.
- Healthy conflict is required in a team. Note that healthy does not imply easy.
- It can be uncomfortable to hold accountable or to be held accountable. In a trusting environment, this discomfort becomes bearable.
Conflict
Different contributors in a cross functional team have different perspectives and will consider different factors in a decision. Inevitably this means that disagreements will arise. These disagreements are usually not the result of someone being wrong, but rather because contributors value trade-offs differently.
Conflict during the team decision making process is therefore the mechanism by which a team determines its holistic weights for each trade-off based on the values of each individual contributor. The team, acting as an cohesive entity in its own right, determines what it values most and then makes a decision.
If a team member does not feel safe enough to engage in this conflict, they will not be heard. Their silence will harm the team in multiple ways.
- The team might miss crucial decision drives that would otherwise have been heard
- The unheard team member will become frustrated with not being heard. This frustration might manifest as resentment of the team, or in impostor syndrome.
- The silent team member will slowly become alienated
- This results in information silos
- If the relationship degrades without intervention, the team member might even be lost.
Commitment
The book provides a valuable quote, which I paraphrase as:
People need to weigh in, before they can buy in
Reasonable professionals are usually willing to buy into a team decision even if they disagree with it, as long as they know that their input has been fairly considered and valued.
This means that open, healthy conflict results in a space where everyone is able to buy into whatever decision the team makes after everyone has been heard. Such commitment by the team is important because it allows all efforts to be focused efficiently towards a single goal. Consider how a magnet becomes stronger if all its domains are aligned.
Accountability
A committed team has the potential to be effective because it is like a team of oxen pulling in the same direction. Efforts are focused and applied where they are needed most without waste. The team can fail if even one ox pulls in the wrong direction.
Because members of a team, being human beings, are imperfect they will fail to work towards the team goal occasionally. This is expected. It should however be corrected when noticed.
In a trusting environment where colleagues feel safe with one another, it is possible for team members to hold one another accountable. Because all the members of such a team have committed to achieving the same results, a team member that is held accountable for some failure can usually be expected to correct themselves without the threat of discipline or consequences.
This is what allows for truly effective blameless cultures. In trusting, committed teams, contributors can safely take responsibility for their failures and correct them.
Conclusion
I have provided a summary of the five dysfunctions discussed in “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. The book contains further wisdom regarding how to foster trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and attention to results in a team. It also contains useful concepts like the “conflict miner” that can help a team operate effectively. The author also makes a good point regarding hierarchies and who the “first team” of a manager or other contributor at the intersection of teams should be.
I have noticed these factors in software teams that I have worked in. I have also seen each of these fall into place as a team evolved to become more effective. Although I think these concepts alone do not make a team effective, they certainly are important. I can recommend the book to anyone looking to work as part of an effective team.
If you are curious about these additional concepts or can relate to how teams grow in this way, please consider buying the book and reading it.