The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team uses a fable to explain why even the best teams struggle to work together, offering actionable strategies to overcome distrust and office politics in order to achieve important goals as a cohesive, effective unit.

Like any good relationship, trust is the key to a solid team. When members in a group trust each other, they will talk openly about tough or touchy subjects. And if they can talk about hard things, they can find the best solutions.

Team members build trust when they are vulnerable to one another. People need to see that there is no reason to protect themselves and start talking about their mistakes and vulnerabilities. When they do this, others will see the full picture of their peers. When they see that their peers have weaknesses and make mistakes, they will feel less hesitant to share their own flaws. The leader needs to be the example of vulnerability, and the most vulnerable as well. Let’s take a look at an example of this from the fictional story in the book.

At DecisionTech, CEO Kathryn knew the group needed to take the time to share mistakes. She led by telling the team about her previous management failures and her being fired once in the past. By doing this, Kathryn earned the team’s trust and helped them open up and share their own shortcomings also.

One of the keys to becoming a great team is to make decisions together and stand by them. Team players realize that making any decision will always be more beneficial than not making a decision. When the team doesn’t make a choice, there is confusion and ambiguity, which will trickle down, affecting work on every level.

However, a consensus may not always be possible. People often have differing opinions, and it’s not easy or practical to please everyone. That’s why effective team members agree to commit to a decision that will help the common goal, regardless of if they agree.

To do this, though, every opinion needs to be heard. Most rational people will accept a decision, even if their opinion differs, as long as their feelings on the matter are listened to and addressed. A quality of a cohesive team is that they will all commit fully to the decisions the group has made, even if they argued against it passionately earlier.

In a truly efficient team, members realize that the goal of the team is more important than individual gains. Take for example the story of Kathryn’s husband, a basketball coach. He had to drop one of his best players because that player was more concerned about how many points he scored than whether or not…