The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Review

Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is

Kaye, B., & Hogan, J. (1999). Improve teamwork. Executive Excellence, 16(6), 17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204610635?accountid=458

This fable was a great way to promote the importance of a team and its functions. This book had many highlights throughout the context and I would highly recommend it to leaders of a corporation or of that of a team like setting. This book offered many great implications of the model and how to use it in many diverse settings when trying to build and manage successful teams.

In his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, recognized analyst Patrick Lencioni (2002), employs the literary style of injecting tales to stretch out a down to earth message of the rights and wrongs of group leaders. Lencioni believes there are five dysfunctions at the focal point of why teams often fall short. Lencioni illustrates, through his fable, the common barriers presented, a dynamic model, and active steps that can be used to build an effective and powerful group.

The Five Dysfunctions of a team are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattentin to results. Each of these items will lead team to failure eventually. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team written by Patrick Lencioni address each of these in detail.

As a team, we didn’t really face unsuccessful communication, this was due to us just listening to each other during our meetings, and we listened politely and made sure we weren’t being ignored. This not only helped us have effective communication as a team, but also got closer as a team.

Teamwork is essential to the smooth running of many projects, organisations and companies. Much research has been conducted into the effectiveness of teams and their contributions to organisational success.

As it is being stated earlier that this paper will be discussing about team development and it will then explain the theories of teamwork and team development. Team development is defined as the improvement of the efficacy of working in teams or groups by advancing goal progressions (Eyre, 2015). Bruce Tuckman firstly identified the four stages of team development in the mid 60s (Eyre, 2015). These stages are; Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. In the 1970s Dr Bruce Tuckman added the fifth stage, which is Adjourning (Businessballs.com, 2015). Dr Bruce also mentioned that this theory is a helpful and beneficial description of team development (Businessballs.com, 2015).

Healthy and dysfunctional teams, for most part, function as mirror images of one another. While one can find characteristics in effective teams without direct counterparts in unhealthy teams, however these qualities tend to arise out of a smaller number of corresponding qualities. Four characteristics stand out as quintessential to whether teams are effective or ineffective; attitude, control mutuality, communication, and execution.

My team displayed several characteristics from the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. For several years things were great and the team success was the most important thing, especially watching our students excel in their daily lives especially while in our program. After reading the amazing book of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I discovered some very important facts about our dysfunction. We didn’t just show up one day and we were dysfunctional it took a process to get to this point. If we had seen it coming could we have stopped the process from happening?

Our group cohesion in helping the kids with the eye-spy bottles was very good. We all communicated what we needed and how the others could be of help to us. For example, when a bunch of kids were surrounding Andrea wanting her help writing their lists she was able to just tell us that she needed help and one of us would step up and do it. I feel our “communication skills (pg. 18)” were well developed. When someone was

As a transformational leader it becomes clear why from an early age the author struggled to make everyone happy within the group. Her desire was to see everyone succeed but not everyone care or aspire to do the best. In many instances team members were assigned to do things that did not fit their personality, attributes or talents. Experience has taught the author these things are imperative for the success of at team. Teams, in the beginning stages are usually not a team; they are groups that can potentially become a team. The author believes; it is very clear that misinterpretation of the meaning of the word Team is a common mistake across education institutions and organizations. A team is a group of people that collectively works towards a common goal. Each one of them with a purpose, task or responsibility that later should be integrated to accomplish a final outcome. Unfortunately, misunderstanding of the purpose of a team can cause a chain of effects such as poor communication, over stepping boundaries, conflict between team goals, lack of identity or role within the group and power issues. Based on experience, a common denominator of great performing teams is that they work collectively, members take ownership and accountability for their assigned task, there is clear understanding of goals and expectations from each member. A major issue or

While they recently emerged from the storming stage with higher levels of motivation and increased knowledge, one variable can send them tumbling back into the storming stage (Norming). Such variables include new challenges obstructing a team’s physical progress to their goal, as well as interpersonal issues that linger after the team’s exit from the storming state; the former issue is easily resolved once the latter is effectively dealt with. If individuals are unaware of the correct methods of improving their interpersonal issues, which include, “Issues of strengthening relationships, open communication, and positive/constructive feedback” the team will ultimately bear the burdens of team members ineffectively settling persistent issues (Norming). While a team-building course attempts to disrupt a team during this stage, it also nurtures an environment for teams to work through any remaining differences and begin to form a tighter bond within its ranks. Individuals gain greater proficiency with their interpersonal relations, enabling themselves to collaborate with and place greater trust in their teammates. Through partaking in a team-building course, individuals secure the necessary interpersonal skills to prevent their teams from plunging back into storming by excelling through the norming

The main factor that had a negative effect on the team performance was the communication process. During and between meetings, the discussion was led by students 4 and 5. Early in the group work, new ideas that were presented by students 1, 2 and 3 were denied by students 4 and 5. This type of incidents that had

Inattention to results: the tendency of team members to seek out individual recognition and attention at the expense of collective results, i.e. the goals of the entire team