Discussion:
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
Jason
A team is a group of people who are together in order to accomplish a specific task. I am currently the leader of a team that works at a restaurant in a retirement community. When I read the article, I shudder that the answer to most of the questions with regards to my team were negative. There is always some dysfunction on any team, my particular team would be rowing the boat in circles. We have been together for some time and the trust is beginning to solidify with respects to one particular person on the team of 6. Unfortunately, we are about to have the team torn apart and 3 of the 6 will be transferred to other areas and I will get replacements that will hopefully integrate into the dynamic quickly. The company I work for is entering into a very tight budget year next year and the accountability of the team will be very high for the first time, the constraints of the budget make it much more difficult to run the business since every penny will count. So because of this dysfunction #5 will be eliminated, we will all be focused on results. My thought is that one of the 6 will fall due to lack of commitment and that should shore up everyone else. Needless to say this is a timely article for me and the team that I lead, hopefully everything goes well.
Elika
A team is 2 or more people sharing leadership roles to reach a common goal. While working together teams sometimes have dysfunctions that they have to overcome to complete their goal successfully. The five dysfunctions include Absence of trust, Fear of conflict, Lack of commitment, Avoidance of accountability, and Inattention to results. Absence of trust can be horrible dysfunction in a team because members are sometimes afraid to be honest, admit mistakes, and share concerns. Fear of conflict is when members of the team are afraid to express their thoughts or opinions because of fear of other members or leaders of the team. Lack of commitment shows a low level of productivity because team members are not focused on the shared goal. Avoidance of accountability is bad because if something goes wrong no one will accept the responsibility of there wrong doing, and would blame someone else. Inattention to results can lead to selfishness because members put their personal ambitions or goals before the team's common goal.
For example, I have experienced Fear of conflict when working because I wanted to avoid disagreements with my boss. He would offer me a pay rate, then change a week later after working, and to avoid conflict I would agree with the pay rate. I would not express my thoughts because to him he was always right. It seemed like no conflict was healthy for my boss because he would get angry.