Overcoming the

Five Dysfunctions
of a Team
A Review of the Field Guide by
Patrick Lencioni

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Objectives
Students who attend this course will
obtain a general understanding of:

• The five dysfunctions common in teams

that fail
• Techniques for overcoming the five
dysfunctions
• Why teams are so powerful

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Agenda
• What do we mean by a Team?
• Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions:
– Building Trust
– Mastering Conflict
– Achieving Commitment
– Embracing Accountability
– Focusing on Results
• Questions and Objections

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 What Does “Team” Mean?

We define “team” as _______________

______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 What Does “Team” Mean?
• Easier said than done
• Always present in a successful
organization
• Always lacking in organizations that fail
• Leadership and Teamwork are the two
most sought after qualities today
• Saying you are a team does not make
you a healthy, highly functioning unit

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 The Five Dysfunctions
#1 Absence of Trust
#2 Fear of Conflict
#3 Lack of Commitment
#4 Avoiding Accountability
#5 Inattention to Results

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Absence of Trust

What are the problems caused by lack of

trust on the team?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Trust

"To be trusted is a greater compliment

than to be loved."
George Macdonald      

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Building Trust

• Starts with a vulnerable Leader

• Important to understand the
perspective and personal bias of others
• Personal Ice-Breakers and Profiling
• Trust must be established before the
team can move forward

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Labeling Saves Time

Dave’s Label

An ENTP, triangle, facilitator with a

“ready, fire, aim” tendency and the
attention span of a fish.

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Fear of Conflict

• A team must have established trust

before they can handle conflict
• Conflict – Trust = Argument (win/lose)
• Conflict + Trust = Debate (truth)
• Even on the best teams, conflict may be
uncomfortable

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Conflict
"All men have an instinct for conflict: at
least, all healthy men."
Hilaire Belloc      

"No doubt there are other important

things in life besides conflict, but there
are not many other things so inevitably
interesting.“
Robert Lynd

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Mastering Conflict
Teams must get comfortable with being
exposed to one another and be able to
say things like:
• I was wrong
• I made a mistake
• I need help
• I’m not sure
• I’m sorry
April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV
 Positive Conflict

Positive Conflict is based on passionate,

unfiltered debate around issues of
importance to the team

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Lack of Commitment

• Commitment is NOT consensus

• Buy-in: the achievement of honest
emotional support
• Clarity: the removal of assumptions and
ambiguity from a situation

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 “Commitment is…
…a group of intelligent, driven individuals
buying in to a decision precisely when
they don’t naturally agree.

In other words, it’s the ability to defy a

lack of consensus.”

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Achieving Commitment

“Most people don’t really need to have

their ideas adopted in order to buy into
a decision. They just want to have their
ideas heard…”

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 "Sometimes a player's greatest challenge
is coming to grips with his role on the
team.""
--Scottie Pippen      

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Steps to Build Consensus
The DAVE Principle
• D – Discuss with key decision makers
• A – Ask stakeholders for input
• V – Vet the plan
• E – Evaluate input and implement

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Commitment Clarification

• Leader should always summarize the

agreement of the team
• Use Cascading Communications

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Avoiding Accountability
“Accountability: The
willingness of team members
to remind one another when
they are not living up to the
performance standards of
the group.”
April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV
 Avoiding Accountability

“Human beings often choose a

path of slow, uncomfortable
decline rather than risk a
dramatic drop in morale caused
by an ugly incident.”

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Embracing Accountability
“Peer pressure and the
distaste for letting down a
colleague will motivate a
team player more than any
fear of authoritative
punishment or rebuke.”
April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV
 Leadership Modeling
• Leader must model holding others
accountable
• Behavior issues and not results
• If the team members know the leader
will eventually step in, they might as
well do it themselves
• Natural to be hesitant about giving
critical feedback

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Accountability Building
• Team Effectiveness Exercise (TEE)
– Two Questions about each team member:
• What is the single most important behavioral
characteristic or quality that contributes to the
team?
• …that can derail the team
– Leader goes first
• Meetings are the best place to practice
accountability

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Inattention to Results

“We have a strong and natural

tendency to look out for
ourselves before others, even
when those others are part of
our families and our team.”

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Focusing on Results

• Define Success
• Teams establish their own measurement
of success.
• Go public with the expected results
• Set up a scoreboard (visual)

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Results

"The man who gets the most satisfactory

results is not always the man with the
most brilliant single mind, but rather
the man who can best coordinate the
brains and talents of his associates."
W. Alton Jones      

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Why are Teams Powerful?

1. _________________________
2. _________________________
3. _________________________
4. _________________________

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV

 Questions?
And Objections

April 3, 2006 David R. Phillips, CAE, RCE 2006 AEI, Reno, NV