The Five Dysfunctions of a Team sheds light on why most organizations fail to achieve effective teamwork. The Zywave training team has trained over 1,200 agencies across the United States and we’ve seen some of these dysfunctions get in the way of an agency’s growth.

• The first dysfunction is an absence of trust among team members. Most team members are not comfortable sharing their strengths and weaknesses in front of the group. This makes it impossible to build trust.

• The second dysfunction is a fear of conflict. Due to a lack of trust, many teams never share ideas or engage in healthy debates in fear of being judged. So they remain guarded and would rather avoid conflict altogether.

• The third dysfunction of a team is a lack of commitment. By avoiding conflict, team members rarely “buy-in” or commit to decisions even though they may seem to buy-in during company meetings.

• Because of this lack of commitment and buy-in, team members develop the fourth and perhaps the most damaging dysfunction, avoidance of accountability. Now team members don’t hold their peers accountable for certain actions and behaviors even if it hurts the team!

• The fifth dysfunction is a direct result of team members failing to hold each other accountable. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their own needs ahead of their teams’ goals.

Every local agency consists of a team of rowers in the boat, but not all the rowers are rowing in the same direction. Is your team rowing in the same direction? Overcome these 5 dysfunctions by making results clear and rewarding only those behaviors and actions that put the team first and contribute to those results.

Read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team AS A TEAM and steer your agency in the right direction!