My review of The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Great managers can detect the symptoms and signals of inefficiencies within their teams. They can also identify them in other teams, for the symptoms usually exhibit similar patterns. Detecting these signals is a critical step of the rest.
One typical signal is the absence of attention to the team results. The team individuals don’t pay attention and show passion towards their team goals. When this happens, the reason is that the team doesn’t care or put their own career goals ahead of the team goals.
The team must be held accountable for the entire team’s progress to the point where they internalize failing or succeeding together. The practical application of holding the team accountable is to commit to the team goals together, and if the team goals are not met, the entire team has an honest confession meeting about what went wrong and how to improve. Also, the members hold one another accountable for their team’s progress.
However, the teams won’t feel accountable if they don’t commit to the goals a hundred percent. For the team to commit themselves without any exception, the consensus in the decision-making is unnecessary, unlike the common misconception. Waiting for a consensus among the team members can turn into poisonous honey. It tastes sweet but can slowly kill everyone. It takes time to reach an agreement, and it is usually artificial.
An artificial consensus happens when the teams don’t feel free to discuss and conflict. Yes, conflict is good. It is a natural course of healthy teams where people speak their minds freely without fearing payback. Such freedom does not mean disrespecting others, even though the arguments sometimes heat up. In the end, though, once everyone’s ideas are heard and considered genuinely, everyone must be ready to agree to the plan whether they like it or not. A good manager here listens a lot and doesn’t hesitate to make the final call if needed.
But people don’t easily dare to openly conflict with others if they don’t trust each other. Hence, trust is the most fundamental building block of team formation. Trust means that people won’t be backstabbed by their team members. A good manager cannot allow others to talk badly about other team members, especially if they are not present. Genuine feedback is different. Trust will enable people to be vulnerable. Otherwise, they yell at everything or stay silent to hide their weaknesses and lack of knowledge in the subject being discussed.
These were the five dysfunctions of teams.