The 5 Dysfunctions Of A Team

Transcript

The 5 Dysfunctions Of A Team 

[00:00:00] Alexander: Welcome to a new episode of The Effective Statistician and today I want to talk about one of my all-time favorite books around [00:00:10] leadership. Of course, I also have some books that I really love that have nothing to do with leadership. I like Lord of the Rings or things like that that I Really, really [00:00:20] love.

[00:00:20] Alexander: I also do read some books that have nothing to do with leadership, but I really love the leadership books. And this one is a book by [00:00:30] Patrick Lencioni. He wrote many books, but this one really stands out from the crowd, and I think I can highly encourage you to read it, [00:00:40] unless just the overview of what I’m speaking today about, helps you already.

[00:00:45] Alexander: So, This book is called The Five [00:00:50] Dysfunctions of a Team, and yes, that’s a pretty negative title, and yeah, maybe it sells just better if you talk about the negative sides, and these [00:01:00] dysfunctions you see all the time, and they work like a pyramid, yeah, so they build on each other, so. [00:01:10] And whenever there’s a dysfunction on a lower level, all the other levels don’t work, yeah?

[00:01:17] Alexander: So, you basically [00:01:20] need to start with the basement, yeah? With the first dysfunction, remove that, then the next, then the third, then the fourth, and then the last one. [00:01:30] And many teams already struggle with the first one. And that is the absence of trust. Okay. [00:01:40] You see that around all the time. I do a lot of training and people speak about this [00:01:50] in the training, you know, that there is a lack of trust.

[00:01:54] Alexander: And you can see that because People are afraid to [00:02:00] speak openly, are afraid to be vulnerable, yeah. People have the perception that they can’t say, [00:02:10] I don’t know, or that they can’t say, I don’t have time for that things like that. Now, if you are in a, [00:02:20] in a group and a project team and a study team where you fear like bringing up this idea, [00:02:30] then there’s already an absence of trust.

[00:02:34] Alexander: So you need to build that trust. Yeah. And I have [00:02:40] Maybe talked about this already in another episode, trust is based on three components, care, character, and competence. So [00:02:50] if all these three dimensions come together, care, character, and competence, then there is trust in the [00:03:00] relationship. And the bigger the team, the harder it is to build this trust.

[00:03:06] Alexander: And every time someone new comes into the team, you need [00:03:10] to kind of re establish the trust with this new team member. And yes, it takes time. So that’s why [00:03:20] it’s usually pretty good to also spend some time with the people outside of the regular project meetings. Yeah, to, yeah, have a [00:03:30] beer together with them, go to dinner together with them have these coffee chats, speak about things that are unrelated to work.

[00:03:38] Alexander: That very, very [00:03:40] often builds trust with people. The second layer in these five dysfunctions is conflict. And [00:03:50] yes, absence of conflict. Now you can say like isn’t conflict a bad thing? No, there is actually [00:04:00] always conflict. Yeah, there’s conflict in terms of your regulatory person wants to have it really safe and easy with the regulatory [00:04:10] submission and you want to have it maybe innovative.

[00:04:13] Alexander: And the project manager wants to have it really fast and cheap. And the physician wants [00:04:20] to do something that is innovative and that he can, you know, show off with his peers. All these different priorities. [00:04:30] compete with each other. And so there will always be conflict. Now, who is first on the authorship list, who actually gets on the [00:04:40] authorship list, who is goes to this conference, who is, you know, speaking to upper management, who gets a seat at [00:04:50] This meeting where there’s only two or three people allowed.

[00:04:53] Alexander: There’s always conflict and if the team [00:05:00] fears that conflict, the conflict is not resolved. And so lack of good conflict management, conflict [00:05:10] resolution, That is the second part. And usually it’s driven by fear. The next part is lack [00:05:20] of commitment, so that people don’t really buy into agreements. You see that, [00:05:30] especially if for example, if you’re in a team and whenever you have left the room, yeah, and [00:05:40] it’s a discussion, someone doesn’t follow up on it.

[00:05:44] Alexander: Yeah. So or someone says, Oh no, I have a different idea. [00:05:50] Yeah. So people don’t really kind of commit to doing something together.

[00:05:57] Alexander: If no, however, people [00:06:00] do trust each other. You have a good conflict management and people commit to things, then you can [00:06:10] have a problem with the next layer and that is lack of accountability. So people say, yeah, I want to do this, [00:06:20] but they don’t follow up. And of course that happens all the time. Yeah for some good reasons, [00:06:30] sometimes.

[00:06:30] Alexander: Yeah, but just because maybe it’s not a priority anymore, there’s something else coming, whatsoever. Yeah, now [00:06:40] accountability is that everybody in the team will hold each other accountable. [00:06:50] Yeah, not just the project manager that holds everybody accountable, yeah, but everybody holds each other accountable.

[00:06:59] Alexander: Someone also needs [00:07:00] to hold the project manager accountable, yeah, of doing these things. So help make sure that everybody [00:07:10] helps everybody accountable. And now, if that all works, so trust, conflict [00:07:20] commitment, accountability, there’s still the last one, and that is results. And here I speak about the results [00:07:30] of the team, not the benefits of the individuals.

[00:07:35] Alexander: Yeah. If everybody always kind of just thinks about [00:07:40] what’s in it for me and only do the things that is helpful for them, then you can’t work as a good team. [00:07:50] Yeah. If people can say, yeah, I’m okay to give in here for the benefit of the team. And if [00:08:00] everybody does that, then the team really, really works together in a, in You see that, for example, in sports teams, [00:08:10] yeah?

[00:08:11] Alexander: If, you know, the scorer only thinks about him and kind of the scoring thing and not about defense, well, it doesn’t [00:08:20] work, yeah? If the defense always just, you know, Make sure that there’s no goals scored from the other team. Well, you’ll not win because they [00:08:30] also need to help with offense. And I’m speaking about football or soccer here.

[00:08:35] Alexander: So but you can apply that to any kind of team sports. Yeah, [00:08:40] and the same is also within your team. And that can be a study team, a project team, or maybe a lead team, yeah? In a good [00:08:50] lead team, people will not just think about their empire. Yeah, but they will help each other, contribute to each [00:09:00] other. They will say, yeah, I see this high performer in my team will be better suited in your team.

[00:09:08] Alexander: Because [00:09:10] with all the trust and all the other things, that person knows next time if it’s the other way around, the other person will do the same. For the [00:09:20] benefit of the overall team. So, the five dysfunctions are absence of trust, fear of [00:09:30] conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

[00:09:36] Alexander: If you can make sure that all these [00:09:40] five come together, you will have a great team. And I can tell you. If you work in such a team, it’s fun. It’s [00:09:50] really, really fun, yeah? Will you have sometimes difficult things? Yes. Maybe it’s sometimes long hours. Yes. But overall, [00:10:00] it is a great, great experience. And then, if something works, isn’t working, yeah?

[00:10:08] Alexander: Always go [00:10:10] back to the lowest level that is not working. See whether there’s enough trust. If says trust. Do you speak about [00:10:20] conflict? If they speak about conflict, is there commitment, then accountability, and then in attention to results. And based on my [00:10:30] experience, very, very often teams already struggle with the trust part.

[00:10:35] Alexander: First invest in that part, building [00:10:40] trust. And here I repeat again, you build trust with others, If they feel that you’re competent, [00:10:50] that you have a good character, and that you take care of them. Competence, character, and care. [00:11:00] So, that’s another episode. Check out the show notes and you will find the link to the book.

[00:11:07] Alexander: And by the way, of course, we [00:11:10] talk about this also in the Effective Statistician Leadership Program. As this episode comes out, we are just beginning. [00:11:20] Two weeks away from starting the new open program. And maybe there are still some slots available. If there are, [00:11:30] just head over to the effective statistician.

[00:11:32] Alexander: com, find the leadership program with masterminds, and then you can sign up. If you listen to this. [00:11:40] Later in the year. Check out the homepage. Maybe there’s already a new one announced and we have a waiting list here, [00:11:50] so you can also get into the program. And once we have enough people, then we’ll start a new cohort for the effective leadership [00:12:00] program.

[00:12:00] Alexander: If you want to run this leadership program within your company, just reach out to me. That’s how we do it. Usually we organize [00:12:10] this within companies and then we have, I don’t know, 10, 20 or even more people from a company joining this program.