OVERCOMING THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM

Overview:

Would you say your team is more dysfunctional than functional?  If so, you’re not alone.  In this interactive session, we will discuss the five dysfunctions of a team (based on Patrick Lencioni’s best selling book with that same title): Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.  We’ll talk about strategies and tools that each team member will be able to put into action to overcome these dysfunctions. Teamwork remains a huge competitive advantage – because it’s so powerful AND it’s so rare!

Objectives:

As a result of attending this program, you should be able to:

• Understand the expectations for a cohesive team, based on “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” model
• Identify which of the areas of the five dysfunctions are strengths for your team, and which are potential areas for improvement.
• Determine how your personality (and the personalities of all of those on the team) impacts the team’s ability to trust.
• Define conflict and determine where on the conflict continuum your team falls (from artificial harmony to mean-spirited personal attack).
• Develop ground rules for dealing with conflict as a team.
• Understand components of effective team meetings and ensure meetings are a good use of the team’s time.
• Identify how the team will clarify team commitments.  Specifically, how the group will achieve buy-in for decisions, assign action items, and determine the communication to be cascaded out after team meetings.
• List the team’s rules of engagement, including: preferred communication methods, availability after hours, freedom to interact with each other’s staff, etc.
• Create an individual action plan to improve the team, based on the peer-to-peer accountability feedback activity.
• Establish a team scoreboard to track and measure the most important results for the team to achieve.

Length:

4 Hours – Sample Agenda [PDF]
1 1/2 Days – Sample Agenda [PDF]

Participant Materials:

Online Assessment – “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” Assessment

Optional Assessment – I-Speak or Personality Assessment of Choice

Optional Assessment – Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

Optional Book – “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”