Friday, September 9, 2011

DYSFUNCTION OF A TEAM

Dysfunction 1:Absence of  Trust

> Trust lies at the heart of a functioning,cohesive team

> Trust is the confidence among team members that team members' intentions are good-no reason to be protective or careful around the group

> Trust-the foundation of real teamwork

> Team members must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another

> the vulnerabilitiescies: weakness,skill deficiencies,interpersonal shortcoming,mistakes and requests for help

> some observations:

- conceal weakness and mistakes from another

- hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback

- jump to conclusions about the intentions & aptitudes of others without attempting to clarity them

- fail to recognize & tap into one another's skills & experiences

- hesitate to offer help outside own areas of responsibility

- waste time and energy managing behaviours for effect

- hold grudges

- dread meeting and find reasons to avoid spending time together


Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

> By building trust,a team makes conflict possible-team members do not hesitate to engage in passionate and sometimes emotional debate,knowing they will not be punished for saying something that might otherwise be interpreted as destructive or critical.

> All great relationships,the ones that last over time,require productive conflict in order to grow: married,parenthood,friendship & certainly business

> Need to distinguish productive ideological conflict from destructive fighting and interpersonal politics.

> The purpose of productive conflict is to produce the best possible solution in the shortest period of time.

> some observations:

- have boring meeting

- create environments where back-channel politics & personal attacks thrive

- ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success

- fail to tap into all the opinions & perspectives of team members

- waste time and energy with posturing & interpersonal risk management


Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment

> Commitmentvis a function of two things: clarity and buy-in

>Team members leave meeting confident that no one is quitely habouring doubts about whether to support the actions agreed on

> two greats causes of the lack of commitment: the desire for consensus & the need for certainity

> some observations:

- creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities

- watches windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis and unnecessary delay

- breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure

- revisits discussions and decisions again and again

- encourages second-guessing among team members


Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability

> Members of great teams improve their relationship by holding one another accountable

> Respect each other and have high expectations for one another's performance

> some observations:

-creates resentment among team members who have different standards of performance

- encourages mediocrity

- misses deadlines and key deliverables

- places undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of dicipline


Dysfunction 5: Inattention To Results

> tendency of team members to seek out individual recognition and attention at the expense of results

> tendency of team members to care about something other than the collective goals of the group.

> some observations:

-stagnates/fails to grow

- rarely defeats competitors

-loses achievement-oriented employees

- encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals.

-is easily distracted


OVERCOMING TEAM DYSFUNCTIONS

1. Getting to know you

2. Miner of Conflict- extracts buried disagreements within the team and sheds the light on them

3. Clear deadlines

4. Publication of goals and standards

5. Team rewards

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