The Five Disfunction of a Team, Patric Lencioni model

Written by Isidro Juan Grillo Malberti

Abstract

"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" is a model developed by Patrick Lencioni that uncovers the primary obstacles that prevent a group from converting into a high-performing team, which has significant implications for Project, Program, and Portfolio (PPP) Teams. This wiki article examines each of the five dysfunctions, which are Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results, providing an in-depth analysis that includes its definition, impact on team dynamics, and practical strategies for overcoming it. Additionally, the article also presents Lencioni's team assessment tool, which allows managers to assess their team's susceptibility to the five dysfunctions. By analyzing the scores in each dysfunction category, managers can determine areas of improvement and take appropriate actions to enhance their team's efficiency. Lastly, the article concludes with reflections and limitations of the model's applicability in Project, Program, and Portfolio Management contexts, offering valuable insights to consider while applying the model.

Introduction

Figure 1: Five Dysfunction of a Team

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". That being so, 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, and allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

PPP are delivered by teams, and fostering a collaborative environment among team members is critical to achieving high efficacy and efficiency in pursuing PPP goals. This viewpoint is supported by the PMBOK® Guide, which notes that a collaborative project team environment facilitates:

• Alignment with other organizational cultures and guidelines,
• Individual and team learning and development, and
• Optimal contributions to deliver desired outcomes.

Based on this necessity of creating synergy within the members of the group Patrick Lencioni introduced a new model, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" , in which he addresses the five main causes that prevent a group 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

1. Absence of trust

The lack of trust within a team refers to the unwillingness of team members to be vulnerable with one another. This lack of vulnerability results in an absence of genuine openness and honesty, leading to missed opportunities and ineffective problem-solving.

According to the Cambridge dictionary " , the definition of trust is “to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that something is safe and reliable”. This is a very accurate definition to explain what it means in the context of a team; trust is the confidence among team members that their peer´s intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group.

Trust is a crucial element in successful teamwork and is vital to creating an environment where team members feel safe to express their opinions, share ideas, and ask for help. Without trust, team members may be reluctant to collaborate, leading to a breakdown in communication and a lack of cooperation. In other words, having trust within a group requires team members to be confident that their respective vulnerabilities, weaknesses, skill deficiencies, mistakes, misunderstandings, and requests for help will not be used against them. Then, they can focus their energy and attention completely on the actual job, rather than, being wasting time and energy managing their behaviors and interactions within the group.

Trust-building is a critical component of effective PPP management, and several models highlight its importance, including the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model and the Truckman Ladder Model.

Suggestions for overcoming Dysfunction 1

Achieving team trust requires that members had shared experiences and an in-depth understanding of their attributes. This is something difficult to gain and it also requires time, however, by taking a focused approach the manager can accelerate the process. Some of the tools that can be used are:

• Personal Histories Exercise: is a simple yet powerful technique for promoting team cohesion and mutual understanding. During a meeting, team members are asked to share personal information by answering a short list of questions related to their hobbies, interests, family, former jobs, and other important aspects of their lives. This exercise can enhance empathy and prevent inaccurate behavioral attributions. It is recommended to allocate a minimum of 30 minutes for this practice.

• Team Effectiveness Exercise: is a rigorous yet valuable technique aimed at improving team dynamics. To begin, team members must choose one attribute or contribution that each of their colleagues brings to the team. Additionally, each member must identify an area in which they could improve or an aspect they should eliminate for the benefit of the team. This exercise demands a some degree of trust among team members, and as such, can be a riskier undertaking.

• 360-Degree Feedback tool: is a powerful technique for collecting feedback from multiple sources, including peers, managers, customers, or other job-related individuals. This tool aims to elicit specific judgments and constructive criticism to improve individual performance and team dynamics. It is crucial to emphasize that the feedback received through this process is distinct from formal performance evaluations.

• Experimental team exercises: such as outdoor team-building activities, aim to foster collective support and cooperation among team members. However, while these activities can have benefits, they may not always translate to the workplace. Therefore, it is essential to recognize that such activities should be supplementary to more fundamental and job-relevant processes. To maximize the effectiveness of these exercises, they should be thoughtfully integrated with more relevant processes and regularly assessed for their impact on team dynamics and job performance.

2. Fear of conflict

Teams that lack trust are often unable to engage in unfiltered and passionate debates about ideas, resulting in vague discussions with restrained comments. This dysfunction leads to missed deadlines and low-quality work. Like any relationship, productive conflict is necessary for team growth. However, conflict is often viewed negatively, and team members may try to avoid it. It is important to note that productive conflict is limited to productive ideological conflict and excludes destructive fighting and interpersonal politics. Hence, conflict should be limited to concepts, ideas, procedures, and debates related to the project's performance, with the ultimate goal of finding the best possible solution in the shortest amount of time. A key element of productive conflict is that it does not leave residual feelings or collateral damage after the decisions are made, and they lead directly to the next important issue.

When team members openly debate and disagree about important ideas, they can confidently commit to a decision and know that they have benefited from everyone's ideas. Conversely, when teams fail to engage in productive conflict, they risk revisiting the same issues repeatedly without resolution. By considering all perspectives and opinions, teams can make better decisions, promote a culture of innovation, and improve team cohesion.

Suggestions for overcoming dysfunction 2

Acknowledging that conflict can be productive is the first step towards addressing this dysfunction. Several techniques can be useful in facilitating healthy conflict resolution, including:

• Mining: In this technique, certain team members assume the role of "conflict miners," responsible for identifying buried disagreements within the team and placing them on the meeting agenda. This requires confidence to call out sensitive issues and a commitment to working through them objectively and thoroughly.

• Real-Time Permission: This technique involves Project Managers or Team Leaders interrupting when healthy but emotional conflict arises, and some team members feel uncomfortable. The purpose is to remind team members that the conflict is necessary, and to help drain tension, giving them the confidence to continue with the debate.

• Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI): This method, developed by Tomas Kilmann, allows team members to assess their conflict-handling modes. Individuals respond to the 30 items on the TKI tool, which are scored, and respondents can see which of the five conflict resolution approaches suits them best: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, or accommodating. These approaches are based on two dimensions: assertiveness and cooperativeness. Assertiveness refers to the extent to which one tries to satisfy their own concerns, while cooperativeness refers to the extent to which one tries to satisfy the team's concerns. The goal of using this tool is for team members to understand their natural inclinations towards conflict resolution so they can make better choices in different kinds of conflicts.

By utilizing these techniques, teams can effectively manage and resolve conflicts in a way that promotes growth and fosters team cohesion.

3. Lack of Commitment

In any project, team members play a crucial role as key stakeholders, with a high level of influence on the project's success and a vested interest in achieving its objectives. However, if team members do not have the opportunity to voice their opinions and provide feedback, they are unlikely to fully commit to decisions made by the team. This lack of commitment can lead to confusion and inconsistency in the way that team members work towards the project's goals.

For successful decision-making in teams, it is essential to ensure clear and timely decisions that are fully supported by all team members, even those who may have initially disagreed with the final outcome. Generally, lack of commitment to team decisions can be attributed to two major factors:

Firstly, teams often seek consensus as a means to ensure buy-in from every member, even in situations where consensus may not be possible. It is crucial to ensure that everyone's ideas are genuinely considered and that decisions are made through a collaborative effort.

Secondly, teams may delay critical decisions due to the need for certainty, often waiting for additional data or information before taking action. It is important to recognize that sometimes it may not be possible to have complete certainty and that committing to a clear course of action is necessary for progress.

Effective decision-making requires teams to strike a balance between these two factors, actively seeking input from all team members while also taking decisive action when needed, even in the absence of complete certainty.

Suggestions for overcoming Dysfunction 3

• Minutes of Meeting: technique involves taking a few minutes at the end of a team meeting to review the key decisions made and establish the next steps. This helps clarify specific outcomes before they are put into action.

• Deadlines: clear deadlines should also be established for the following steps in the project to avoid ambiguity and achieve alignment among team members.

• Contingency and Worst-Case Scenario Analysis: for medium and high-risk projects, it is important to discuss contingency plans upfront and clarify the worst-case scenario through a contingency and worst-case scenario analysis. This helps reduce fears and increase team commitment by realizing the costs of an incorrect decision.

• Low-risk exposure therapy: can be used to demonstrate the results of decisions in relatively low-risk situations. Teams sometimes have to make decisions with little analysis or research, and this technique helps them realize that the quality of the decision they made was not significantly different from what could have been achieved through a time-consuming study of the situation.

4. Avoidance of accountability

Accountability refers to the obligation of individuals to be responsible for their actions and decisions. It involves being transparent and willing to accept responsibility for any negative outcomes that may result. In high-performing teams, accountability is not limited to individual members but extends to mutual accountability , which ensures that team members hold each other accountable for their actions. This shared sense of accountability motivates team members to maintain high standards of performance and encourages continuous improvement.

To achieve this, well-defined roles are also crucial, as without clarity in roles, individuals may avoid being accountable for their actions. This can result in missed deadlines, low-quality work, and a lack of progress. Therefore, it is imperative to establish clear roles and responsibilities within the PPP team to ensure that each member understands their obligations and is held accountable for their behaviors.

Suggestions for overcoming Dysfunction 4

• Publication of goals and standards: clarify exactly what the team needs to achieve, who is responsible for what and how everyone must behave. Well-defined roles are an essential component of this process, as they establish a set of expected behavior patterns for each team member based on their position and responsibilities within the project.
• Simple and Regular Progress Reviews: systems of checks, feedback and balances, such as performance evaluations, audits, and oversight mechanisms.
• Team Rewards: the goal is to create a sense of unity, collaboration, and shared responsibility, and to encourage team members to work together towards common goals.

5. Inattention to results

The fifth and final dysfunction that hinders team performance is the inclination of team members to prioritize their individual needs, such as personal ego, career development, or recognition, over the collective goals of the team. This dysfunction is typically associated with two underlying concepts.

Firstly, team status, which manifests when some members are content with being part of the team and are not committed to achieving results. Secondly, individual status, which pertains to the inclination of individuals to focus on their personal career prospects at the expense of team goals.

It is also important to note that in the context of programs and portfolios, team members must not only focus on their individual project objectives but also on the expected outcomes of the entire program or portfolio. This can often lead to conflicts of interest that need to be managed carefully to ensure the success of the overall initiative. Therefore, team members must be aligned with the program or portfolio's strategic objectives and work collaboratively towards achieving them, putting the collective goals above their individual interests.

Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 5

First is important to make results clear, and reward only those behaviors and actions that contribute to those results. Some tools commonly used are:

• Public Declaration of Result: it involves public communication of the intended results. Teams that commit publicly to specific results are more likely to work better to achieve those results.

• Results-Based Rewards: These involves rewards and compensation for the achievement of specific outcomes.

Team assessment

Lencioni's diagnostic tool provides a practical method for project and team managers to evaluate their team's susceptibility to the five dysfunctions. The tool consists of 15 straightforward statements, and managers should assess how often their team behaves as stated in each sentence. The possible answers are usually, sometimes, or rarely, which correspond to 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. The statements cover various aspects of teamwork, such as open communication, accountability, and commitment to team goals:

1. Team members are passionate and unguarded in their discussion of issues.
2. Team members call out one another’s deficiencies or unproductive behaviors.
3. Team members know what their peers are working on and how they contribute to the collective good of the team.
4. Team members quickly and genuinely apologize to one another when they say or do something inappropriate or possibly damaging to the team.
5. Team members willingly make sacrifices (such as budget, turf, and headcount) in their departments or areas of expertise for the good of the team.
6. Team members openly admit their weaknesses and mistakes.
7. Team meetings are compelling, and not boring.
8. Team members leave meetings confident that their peers are completely committed to the decisions that were agreed on, even if there was initial disagreement.
9. Morale is significantly affected by the failure to achieve team goals.
10. During team meetings, the most important—and difficult—issues are put on the table to be resolved.
11. Team members are deeply concerned about the prospect of letting down their peers.
12. Team members know about one another’s personal lives and are comfortable discussing them.
13. Team members end discussions with clear and specific resolutions and calls to action.
14. Team members challenge one another about their plans and approaches.
15. Team members are slow to seek credit for their own contributions, but quick to point out those of others.

To evaluate the team's vulnerability to each dysfunction, the manager should combine the scores of the relevant statements. For example, to assess the absence of trust, statements 4, 6, and 12 should be considered; for fear of conflict, statements 1, 7, and 10. To evaluate the lack of commitment, statements 3, 8, and 13 should be appraised; for avoidance of accountability, only statements 2, 11, and 14 should be considered. Finally, to evaluate inattention to results, the statements to be assessed are 5, 9, and 15.

After evaluating the statements in each dysfunction category, the manager can determine the final score for each group by summing up the three individual scores. Then, a score of 8 or 9 indicates that the dysfunction is not a problem for the team, while a score of 6 or 7 indicates that the dysfunction could be a problem. A score of 5 or below indicates that the dysfunction must be addressed urgently. By using this tool, managers can identify areas of improvement and take appropriate actions to boost their team's effectiveness.

Limitations and further advice

Although the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model can be a helpful tool that is easy to apply, it is crucial to recognize its limitations in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors that impact PPP team performance. While this model provides a basic framework for understanding team dynamics, it does not account for important elements of team composition, work design, external context, and team development process. In terms of composition, the model neglects the competencies, personalities, diversity, and social norms of team members. Moreover, the model does not address work design factors, such as task autonomy, variety, skills, and competency-interest fit, which can have a significant impact on team performance. External factors, such as the resources available to the team and the broader context in which the team operates, are also overlooked by the model. Lastly, the model is not comprehensive in its assessment of the entire team development process and only offers a causal analysis of problems within the team.

Therefore, to gain a more complete understanding of team performance, it is essential to complement the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model with other techniques, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five personality traits (OCEAN), Belbin Team Roles, and Competence Assessment . By using these additional tools, a more thorough and nuanced understanding of team dynamics can be developed, which can ultimately lead to improved team effectiveness.

Anotated bibliography

1. Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass: This book is the original source of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model, and it offers a compelling and easily accessible introduction to the model. The book presents the model through a fictional story about a CEO who must turn around a dysfunctional executive team, making the model relatable and easy to understand. The author provides practical insights and advice on how to overcome each dysfunction and build a strong, cohesive team.
2. Project Management Institute. (2021). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute: The PMBOK Guide is a widely recognized standard for project management, published by the PMI. The guide provides a comprehensive framework for managing projects, including processes, tools, and techniques for project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and control. The 7th edition incorporates agile and hybrid project management approaches, reflecting the evolving needs of the project management profession.