The Five Disfunction of a Team, Patric Lencioni model

According to Leigh Thompson , "a team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, knowledge, and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal". The main feature that differentiates a Team from a group of individuals, is that their work is based on a joint effort which creates synergy, which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Patrick Lencioni introduced a new model, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team", in which he addresses the five main causes that prevent a group work from being an effective team. These dysfunctions can cause significant barriers to a team's and project’s success, so they must be monitored and addressed by managers to achieve the desired goals. The five dysfunctions proposed by Lencioni are:

Absence of Trust: the unwillingness of team members to be vulnerable within the group. Team members are not genuinely open and honest with each other, leading to missed opportunities and ineffective problem-solving.

Fear of Conflict: Teams that lack of trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debates of ideas. Instead, they have vague discussions with restrained comments. This Dysfunction can also lead to missed deadlines and low-quality work.

Lack of Commitment: Without having aired their opinions team members rarely buy in and commit to decisions. This lack of commitment to decisions and goals leads to confusion and inconsistency in the way that they work.

Avoidance of Accountability: Without a clear plan of action, people often avoid being responsible for their actions. In addition, members do not care about actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the goal of the team. This situation can lead to missed deadlines, subpar work, and a lack of progress.

Inattention to Results: Team members put their individual needs (ego, career development, or recognition) above the collective goals of the team.

References

Thompson, Leigh (2008). Making the team : a guide for managers (3rd ed.). Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780131861350