In my recent posts Quality Circles—Improving the Improvement System and 13 Simple Steps to Implementing Quality Circles I wrote about the importance of the operational team and their focus on solving problems. For this to be effective it is essential that the team is functional and able to work effectively together. In this post, I want to highlight why your team may not be performing at its best.
As a workplace and facilities professional, you are likely to be the leader of at least one team if not several. The effort involved in creating a fully functional and cohesive group is one of your more important ‘non-facilities’ related functions. As a leader, you need to be able to create a team which is a powerful point of differentiation.
Teams that function well avoid wasting time talking about the wrong issues. They are a well-oiled machine that exhibits a high level of buy-in from all members. This enables them to make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time with less distraction and frustration. High functioning teams are exciting and engaging and are less likely to experience the loss of critical team members.
Several times in my career, I have had to step in and lead previously dysfunctional teams. Successful teamwork is not about mastering subtle or sophisticated theories but rather about being authentic and embracing increased levels of discipline and persistence. This does not mean being authoritarian. Ironically great teams succeed because they are exceedingly human. By acknowledging the imperfections of their humanity, members of functional groups overcome some of the natural tendencies that make teamwork so elusive.
“No matter how brilliant individuals may be, when they come together they always get better results. Teamwork is better because it compensates for individual weaknesses and creates a mastermind outside of the individual.” Ray Laferla
Counterintuitively it is often better to focus on what not to do, rather than confusing yourself with the plethora of leadership advice that is freely available.
One of the best resources available is the book 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by veteran author Patrick Lencioni. The book is a New York Times bestseller and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Lencioni has taken an interesting approach in addressing this common topic by authoring the book as a business fable.
I do read a lot but I will admit to being put off buying initially by a manufactured storyline. However, by structuring this as a fictional account Lencioni constructs a powerful and engaging story that is both believable and highly instructive.
How do you know if you have a dysfunctional team? In order to address the potential dysfunction of your team and to engage in the improvement process, you need to understand the level of dysfunction you’re facing. To do this ask yourself the following questions;
Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams, even the best ones, often struggle. He outlines a powerful model together with actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive and effective team.
By Illustrating the model as dysfunctions it is clear to the Leader what behaviour to avoid but similar in concept to Maslow’s hierarchy, Lencioni bases his model on a pyramid of dysfunctions that a team should overcome step by step working from the bottom to the top, at which point you should be a productive and high-performing team.
To ascend the pyramid of dysfunctions we must combat each one in turn. One of the most important dysfunctions within a team is a lack of trust. The team members must have a stable foundation of trust to build upon to achieve their goals. Without trust within the team, there can be little hope of ever becoming functional and effective.
An absence of trust is at fault when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses or need for help. Without a certain comfort level among team members, a foundation of trust is impossible. When Team Members are mistrustful of each other, the focus is on back-stabbing, internal politics and self-serving individual interests.
If team members do not trust each other, they will not venture opinions and ideas. Trust is also about “do I trust my teammates enough, to be honest, and potentially reveal my weaknesses.”
A lack of trust is, ironically, often caused by three commonly sought-after values,
What is needed in effective teamwork is cooperation rather than competitiveness. The collaboration that leads to a focus on innovation and serving the customer rather than internal competition. Excellence should be sought over ambition where the team players should strive to be the best they can be, rather than the best in the organisation. Lastly, the individuals in the team should seek to exert influence instead of power, by having integrity and being someone that the others can trust.
Ineffective teams, waste inordinate amounts of time and energy managing their behaviours and interactions within the group. They are reluctant to take risks or help their colleagues. As a result, morale is often quite low and turnover in the team is high. Overcoming this debilitation is not a quick win, but without doing so, the team is doomed to never progressing.
Much like healing, time is an important factor when asking team members to be vulnerable enough to trust their colleagues with their own weaknesses. This is particularly so when this may involve individuals from different levels of the organisation or competitors outside of the team environment. Building trust requires a high degree of shared experience over time and multiple instances of follow-through to gain credibility. Both recognition and in-depth understanding of the contributions that each team member makes will go a long way to engendering trust within the team.
“The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of productive, ideological conflict.”
The idea of healthy conflict is for some people, one of the hardest dysfunctions to overcome. Once the team has trust, it is good for team members to debate the merits of an approach or ideas suggested by other members. Healthy, positive conflict helps drive better ideas and equally importantly, it enables the team members to commit to an activity.
Agreement by consensus is never normally an achievable or desirable thing in a team environment. Good teamwork should avoid group-think and Lencioni reinforces the notion that the majority of people will buy-in to an idea they don’t agree with if they have been involved in the debate and their point of view has been heard and discussed.
For the team to be able to engage in constructive conflict, one can begin to see how important it is to build from the base of the pyramid and to establish trust within the team. Teams that are lacking in trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues. This causes situations where team conflict can easily turn into thinly veiled criticisms and back channel comments. In a work setting where team members do not openly air their opinions, inferior decisions are the result.
Teamwork requires collaboration but this may mean that different people will come into conflict over ideas. If an absence of trust is present, the Team will avoid conflict and choose simply to rubber-stamp any suggestion, particularly if it comes from the leadership. If trust is established, the team will understand that conflict is normal, and will become willing to express and accept divergent views.
Conflict is considered taboo at work. People spend time and energy trying to avoid the passionate debate that is essential to any great team. There is a distinct difference between productive ideological conflict and destructive fighting and interpersonal politics.
Ideological conflict is limited to concepts and ideas and avoids personality-focused, mean-spirited attacks. Behind this lays a clear purpose, which is to produce the best possible solution in the shortest time. Ideological conflict may demonstrate passion, emotion, and frustration that others may wrongly see as counter-productive even destructive, but healthy conflict is a time saver as teams that avoid conflict revisit issues again and again without resolution.
In order to overcome a fear of conflict within the team, all members need to acknowledge that constructive conflict is productive and that many teams have a tendency to avoid it. The team needs to acknowledge that there will be some discomfort during the process and that the costs of avoiding conflict end up encouraging a dangerous tension within the team. When the debate isn’t open, teams can turn to backstabbing and personal attacks that are often more harmful than a heated argument over issues.
The lack of buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they will stick to. Click To Tweet
Commitment from a team (or individual) is based on trust and conflict; both of which enable the individuals to buy-in to the end goal and make the commitment required. Lack of trust and conflict will see team members taking on a passive-aggressive role and artificially agreeing with the team’s direction but lacking any real level of commitment.
Without conflict, it is difficult for team members to commit to decisions, creating an environment where ambiguity prevails. Lack of direction and commitment can make employees, particularly star employees, disgruntled.
Just as team members need to trust each other, if the team is to work well together, so they must be committed to the team and to their stated objectives. Team leaders must ensure that everyone buys into the team’s core values, mission, vision and objectives.
As a team leader you must first ‘Talk the Talk’ then you must be seen to ‘Walk the Talk’. Without the team experiencing both of these actions you will find it impossible to ‘Run the Talk’ and being able to engage all Team members in setting up the team’s strategic decisions and the measures.
In a team, commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in. Great teams make clear and timely decisions and move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who voted against the decision.
They leave the meetings confident that no one on the team is quietly harbouring doubts about whether to support the actions agreed upon.
There are two main causes for a lack of commitment that each team leader needs to be wary of, the desire for consensus and the need for certainty. Great teams understand the danger of seeking consensus and find ways to achieve buy-in even when a unanimous agreement is impossible. They understand that reasonable human beings do not need to get their way in order to support a decision, but only need to know that their opinions have been heard and considered. When there is an impasse, the leader of the team is allowed to make the call.
“The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable for their behaviours and performance.”
Everyone in the team should be held accountable for their involvement in meeting the goals. Trust, healthy conflict and commitment are enablers to this accountability. Importantly, however, this accountability is to all members of the team, not merely the leadership.
When teams don’t commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviours that may seem counterproductive to the overall good of the team. Members who are mistrustful, avoid conflict and lack commitment will avoid being accountable for their actions.
Typically these behaviours will involve the shifting of blame when things go wrong. Team members need to be given the authority and responsibility to achieve the agreed outcome. When these outcomes are not met team members must hold each other accountable and not allow the team member concerned to get away with sub-standard performance.
It refers to a willingness of team members to call their peers on performance and issues that might hurt the team. The essence of this dysfunction is the unwillingness of team members to tolerate the interpersonal discomfort that accompanies calling a peer on his or her behaviour and the more general tendency to avoid difficult conversations.
Team members with strong personal relationships hesitate to hold on as team members start to resent each other for not living up to expectations and letting the standards erode accountability because they fear jeopardising the relationship. Ironically this causes the relationship to deteriorate even further.
Peer pressure. This avoids excessive bureaucracy around performance management. There is nothing like the fear of letting down respected teammates to motivate people to improve their performance.
The pursuit of individual goals erodes the focus on collective success. Click To Tweet
Whilst it is still acceptable for people to strive for personal gain and status, each team member must put the team’s goals first in all cases. Where these conflict, the personal goals should be discarded for the good of the team. A successful team should always reap personal rewards for the members of the team due to the very nature of the team’s progress and success.
Team members naturally tend to put their own needs (ego, career development, recognition, etc.) ahead of the collective goals of the team when individuals aren’t held accountable. If a team has lost sight of the need for achievement, the business ultimately suffers. If team members do not know what is expected of them they will avoid accountability, and will not pay any attention to results.
Performance outputs are required to specify the outcomes expected from the team. Results that need to be attended to do not just relate to financial results or operational output such as SLA’s but rather to all aspects of the balanced scorecard. As with all performance measures, these should be few, unambiguous, objectively measurable and well known by all members of the team.
Many teams are simply not results focused. They merely exist or survive. No amount of trust, conflict, commitment or accountability can compensate for a lack of a desire to win or be successful by any measurable standard. Make results clear, and reward only those behaviours and actions that contribute to those results.
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni explores the key factors that undermine team performance and cohesion, presenting his findings as a fable that dives into the dynamics of an executive team. The five dysfunctions listed above, if left unaddressed, will derail even the most talented FM teams. I have provided actionable insights for you and your team members that will foster a cohesive, high-performing team culture addressing these dysfunctions isn’t easy but is essential for team success
Drop me a line at andrew@workplacefundi.com if you want to improve your workplace and ensure that your team is engaged and dedicated. Don't let your best talent slip away.
PEOPLE I PLACE I PERFORMANCE
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