We’ve all heard the Together Everyone Achieves More acronym and it does serve as a reminder of why teamwork is important in the workplace. A team is more than just a group of workers, located together, doing their jobs. Real teamwork in the workplace comes from employees being interdependent. In order to function, they require certain fundamental elements such as trust, accountability and commitment.
Patrick Lencioni in his book, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, outlines 5 elements that can cause teamwork in the workplace to lose traction causing the team to fall short of their potential. The Lencioni Model is structured like a pyramid and, in order to deal with dysfunction, you need to start at the bottom and work your way up.
The 5 Elements Are:
Absence of Trust
If there is no workplace teamwork your employees won’t trust you or each other and they won’t work well together. Indications of this team dysfunction come in the form of workers not admitting to making mistakes, faking competence and not asking for help.
Trust forms the foundation of teamwork; its absence can stall collaboration and transparency. This dysfunction arises when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable within the group, stemming from fears of exposing weaknesses or inadequacies. Without trust, teams may struggle with open communication, making it difficult to commit to decisions or engage in constructive conflict.
Strategies for improving trust in the workplace:
- Foster an open environment: Encourage sharing personal experiences and professional challenges during team meetings.
- Team-building activities: Regularly engage in exercises that focus on vulnerability, such as word games or sharing fun facts about each other.
- Transparency in processes: Ensure that team decisions and workflows are visible to all members, allowing no room for doubt about responsibilities and expectations.
Examples of these strategies at work:
- A tech company implementing monthly “Failure Forums” where team leaders share past mistakes and learning outcomes, promoting a culture where vulnerability is valued as a growth mechanism.
- A healthcare provider restructuring project management workflows to include joint goal-setting sessions, ensuring all team members have a clear understanding of collective and individual roles as well as having their own input.
Fear of Conflict
Healthy conflict is a necessary component of innovation and performance and if your teamwork strategies for the workplace do not include conflict resolution, it could cause employees to stagnate. Indications may appear as a reluctance to speak up or being overly accommodating. Avoiding conflict can lead to poor decision-making as it prevents the airing of different viewpoints and stifles innovation.
Strategies for reducing conflict in the workplace:
- Encourage healthy debate: Frame conflict as a route to better outcomes, not as a personal attack. Promote an understanding that disagreements are often necessary for discovering the best ideas.
- Define rules for engagement: Establish clear guidelines on how conflict should be managed, ensuring respect and professionalism are maintained.
- Role-playing exercises: Conduct sessions where team members practice expressing dissenting opinions in a controlled, respectful environment to build comfort with conflict.
Examples of these strategies at work:
- A marketing firm establishing a monthly debate where teams present opposing views on campaign strategies. This practice not only honours their presentation skills but also improves campaign quality through examining ideas and collaborating in a conducive way.
- An IT company introducing ‘conflict mediators’ trained to facilitate resolution sessions when project teams encounter significant disagreements, ensuring every voice is heard and considered.
Lack of Commitment:
This can arise due to a lack of direction, and clarity of goals or priorities. It can be seen in people doing their own thing, not following procedures, agreeing in meetings and ‘white-anting’ outside the meeting. A deficiency in commitment usually stems from unclear directives or goals, visible in team members pursuing individual agendas or agreeing in meetings but subverting these agreements afterwards.
- Clarify goals and decision roles: Ensure that every team member understands the team’s objectives and their individual roles in achieving these goals.
- Create a culture of decisiveness: Encourage timely decision-making and make it safe to take risks by openly discussing the potential outcomes and minimising fear of failure.
- Regular progress reviews: Hold frequent check-ins to assess progress towards goals, discuss issues openly, and adjust plans as necessary to stay on track.
Examples of these strategies at work:
- A software development company using clearly outlined roadmaps for each project, with set milestones and designated decision-makers. This approach can improve team commitment as members appreciate their role in the journey and their contribution to the bigger picture.
- A retail chain implementing quarterly strategy sessions where store managers can provide input on operational goals and challenges. This not only clarifies priorities but also fosters a sense of authority among the managers, boosting their commitment to company objectives.
Avoidance of accountability:
This can arise due to a lack of direction, and clarity of goals or priorities. It can be seen in people doing their own thing, not following procedures, agreeing in meetings and ‘white-anting’ outside the meeting. A deficiency in commitment usually stems from unclear directives or goals, visible in team members pursuing individual agendas or agreeing in meetings but subverting these agreements afterwards.
Strategies for promoting accountability:
- Clear expectations and roles: Clearly define the responsibilities and expectations for each team member, ensuring everyone understands what they are accountable for.
- Regular feedback sessions: Implement a structure for providing consistent, constructive feedback that helps individuals understand their performance relative to team goals.
- Peer accountability: Encourage team members to hold each other accountable in a supportive way, promoting a culture where peers can motivate each other without fear of reprisal.
Examples of these strategies at work:
- A consulting firm introducing bi-weekly review meetings where team members assess each other’s contributions and discuss improvements, fostering a culture of mutual accountability and respect.
- A construction company deploying a digital project management tool that tracks individual contributions to shared tasks, making it easier to identify areas where accountability could be improved.
Inattention to Results:
One of the big examples of teamwork in the workplace is when the team is focused on their collective goals. If each team member doesn’t consider the goals of the entire team they’ll never hit them. Teams like this may lose their achievement-orientated employees or have team members more focused on growing their own empire than being part of the big picture.
Strategies for Improving Attention to Detail
- Set clear, measurable goals: Ensure that all team members understand what success looks like by setting specific, measurable, and time-bound goals.
- Align individual rewards with team outcomes: Structure incentives so that they reward collective success rather than individual performance.
- Regular progress updates: Schedule routine meetings to discuss the team’s progress towards goals and adjust strategies as necessary.
Examples of these strategies at work:
- A software development team implemented a dashboard that tracks and displays real-time progress towards milestones, enhancing visibility and driving engagement towards common goals.
- A sales team at a retail company shifted from individual to team-based commissions, resulting in a more collaborative environment and increased overall sales.
Lencioni also discusses ways to address each team’s dysfunction, and these must be done from the bottom of the pyramid up.
We need to start with practices that increase trust. Build relationships based on respect for diversity of opinion. Keep commitments, use clear and transparent communication, and show vulnerability by admitting mistakes.
As you build relationships and increase teamwork in the workplace, get to the root cause of the fear of conflict. Start to dig for the real issues, ask for opinions and demonstrate that it’s not about right and wrong but more about understanding and focusing on solutions.
Once issues are in the open, gain clarity around standards, expectations, goals and priorities. Stamp out gossip and white-anting and keep channels of communication open.
Increase accountability through clarity and consequences. Have difficult conversations and provide feedback on the impact of the workers’ actions. Providing examples of teamwork in the workplace that have garnered positive outcomes can also enhance this feedback.
Allow workers to see how they fit into the big picture so they can realise their value. Promote ownership of actions and base rewards on results that arise from teamwork in the workplace.
Building high-performing teams can be a long process but the investments you make in avoiding or fixing any team dysfunction will pay dividends in staff retention, productivity and relationships. That is why teamwork is so important in the workplace.
Importance of Ongoing Monitoring and Continuous Improvement
Regular assessments and reviews are crucial for sustaining team health. Teams should schedule periodic evaluations of their dynamics and the effectiveness of implemented strategies. Continuous improvement processes enable teams to adapt their approaches based on these reviews, ensuring interventions remain relevant and impactful.
JEM’s Training and Development Group Courses for Addressing Team Dysfunctions
JEM Training provides specialised programs designed to foster team cohesion and resolve common team dynamic dysfunctions. These courses are adaptable to different team sizes and structures, focusing on practical skills that can be directly applied within the workplace.
By utilising these tools and embracing a philosophy of continuous improvement, teams can transform their dynamics and achieve remarkable business results.
If you would like more information on improving dysfunctions in the workforce and between employees, contact Jill on 1300 850959
