How To Get A Dysfunctional Team Back On Track (Part 2) - Commitment, Accountability and Results

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Dysfunctional teams cannot be blamed for all business failures. Still, they play a significant role in unsuccessful projects and missed goals. In his acclaimed bestseller, organisational consultant Patrick Lencioni identifies The Five Dysfunctions of a Team:

  1. Absence of trust

  2. Fear of conflict

  3. Lack of commitment

  4. No accountability

  5. Lack of attention to results


No team functions well without trust in their leaders. Equally important is trust among team members. Without trust, people don’t openly debate the issues and explore new ideas. 

Worse, lack of trust leads to complacency, consensus and groupthink where everyone just “goes along to get along.” There is no real commitment and no accountability to each other. In the end, teams are distracted and lose focus on the results they were designed to achieve.


When Teams Don’t Commit

When teams lack trust and fear conflict, they’re likely to avoid commitment. Instead, they focus on self-preservation and maintaining amicable relationships. As people attempt to avoid confrontation, they stop listening to others’ concerns. Discussions become superficially polite.

For example, I hear about this a lot in coaching sessions. Most people can sense when someone isn’t listening to their ideas or questions. This single dynamic―often subtle―will shut down team engagement and commitment, and tension grows.

Teammates who are cut off or ignored feel left out. They’re less committed to the team effort, so they’re unlikely to “get with the program.” It becomes difficult for a team to move forward amid stalled decisions or incomplete assignments. Enthusiasm for projects takes a nosedive, and confrontations become commonplace. Some members even stop caring about whether the team succeeds.

Lack of commitment also becomes a problem when you fail to convey clear goals or direction. People are left to wonder what they’re supposed to do, and the team’s success is no longer their top priority. They mentally check out and just start going through the motions. 

You can reestablish commitment by prompting team members to ask questions. When you invite dialogue, teammates learn more about each other. They’ll see others’ intentions, attitudes, motives and mindsets more clearly, eliminating the need to guess or assume. 

Successful team leaders solicit all opinions, positions and ideas while affirming those who offer them. They make a point of considering all input, which conveys a sense of worthiness to team members. 

When teams have clear plans and directions, members become infused with confidence and commitment. People want to be led in ways that assure success and fulfilment. 

When Teams Lack Accountability

Accountability is a term that gets overused in the workplace and thus loses some of its power. Here’s a good definition from Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Jossey-Bass, 2002).

“When it comes to teamwork, I define accountability as the willingness of team members to remind one another when they are not living up to the performance standards of the group.”


Here’s why this is so important:

“Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a colleague will motivate a team player more than any fear of authoritative punishment or rebuke.”

What really works in groups of people working together is peer-to-peer accountability, and it’s stronger than any fear of punishment from a supervisor. And, like the other dysfunctions of teams, when accountability is lacking in teams, it contributes to project failures.

Teams with No Accountability

If you fail to reverse the lack of commitment in team members, dysfunctions will intensify. Team members lose their sense of accountability. If there’s little buy-in, there’s no desire to meet obligations, follow directions or help others. 

Lack of accountability is most common in environments where progress isn’t adequately assessed, and definitive project schedules don’t exist.

When directions are unclear and roles are ill-defined, people have less impetus to account for their performance or progress. In extreme cases, progress is not even possible. Lack of clarity has people confused, frustrated or apathetic. 

There can even be uncertainty as to who is on the team. Members may shift on or off or have duties reversed, dropped or unspecified. People will have no sense of interdependency, and the team’s reason for existence is lost.

Work toward establishing clear directions, standards and expectations. All team members need to work with the same information set at all times. Realistic, understandable schedules help drive activities and allow the workflow to meet interconnected goals. 

Activity tracking methods should clearly report which tasks are on time and which are late. Corrective action plans should make the necessary adjustments and redirect activities accordingly. Accountability can be restored under inclusive project management. People will want to avoid letting down their boss and each other.

When Teams Lack Focus on Results

When team members trust one another, engage in healthy conflict around issues, commit to the decisions they make, and hold one another accountable, there’s a pretty good chance they will succeed. And yet… sometimes they don’t.

When teams manage the first four dysfunctions that commonly cause project failures, they might fail. Why does this happen? Human nature.

We have a strong tendency to look out for ourselves before others, even when others are part of our families and teams. And because teams are made up of fallible human beings, they often stumble. They lose sight of the ultimate measure of a great team: Achieving the results they were designed to achieve.

Inattention to Results

Without team accountability, the criticality of group success is lost in the shuffle. Self-preservation and self-interest trump results in a climate of distrust and fear. Your inability to track results leaves you with no way to judge ongoing success or failure, progress or pitfalls. No one is praised for good results, and no one is corrected for the lack thereof. As this trail of dysfunction reaches its fatal end, it won’t be long before the team is disbanded.

This type of team scenario is logged as yet another failure. Leaders who allow this to happen may not be capable of learning from their mistakes, and their ability to prevent similar results in the future is severely compromised. 

Effective project management methods must track progress toward intermediate and final goals. Affirm team members (and their interdependence) through their accomplishments and struggles. This draws them together and lets them know they’re valuable to the organisation, team and, ultimately, themselves. 

Working through issues and encouraging people to provide candid responses foster the discipline needed to reverse a trail of dysfunction. Your people will focus less on self-preservation and more on the group’s efforts to achieve common goals.

The process begins with trust. If you establish trust from the start, you’re on the road to minimising dysfunctions. Even if your team is deeply entrenched in a project before trust is built, it’s not too late to assess functioning. Take advantage of continuing education opportunities, leadership training and executive coaching to help prevent dysfunction pitfalls.

Team coaching is also recommended. It teaches skills and tactics for contributing to organisational success, reversing any longstanding project failure trends.

What do you think? Are these suggestions practical in your organisation? I can be reached here and on LinkedIn.

 

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Taff Gidi

Governance & Corporate Affairs Executive | Director | Executive Coach | Author

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How To Get A Dysfunctional Team Back On Track (Part 1) - Trust and Conflict