There is no “I” in “Team”
How to operationalize The Five (Dys)Functions of Teams
One of my favorite quotes of all times, when being a young project manager in the heydays of my consulting career was to say, “There is no I in Team”.
Especially, if I had some new associates on my projects, it was fantastic to see how they rolled their eyes and were thinking I was a total idiot.
However, I have always strived to ensure, that the people on my projects (client side and consultants) were working together as a team. Unfortunately, I did not have the experience nor insight on how to achieve this every time. I think I might have that now.
Before I share, what I believe is best practice on high-performing teams, let me just get back to the quote. I did a little bit of research, and beside the usual baseball associations, it seems that it can be linked back to Peter Drucker (of course).
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I’. And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I’. They don’t think ‘I’. They think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.
Peter Drucker
A leader does not exist alone. He or she must have committed followers to implement a shared vision of a better future. Or for that matter, the strategy of the company.
For this reason, the leader’s focus must be on facilitating the team’s success – not on fulfilling own personal ambition and glorification.
Well, hell yeah!
That sounds like a good idea. So how do you ensure that you have a functionally team?
Much have been (and still is) written on this topic. But I truly believe that the most simple and efficient framework is Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of Teams” from 2002.
In short, he argues for five pillars of a functionally team. Not Finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.
Trust
At the base of the pyramid is trust. Without trust among the team, very little progress can be made in gaining overall cohesiveness. Vulnerability-based trust (the ability to expose one’s weaknesses) is key to building the relationships required to be able to withstand and even benefit from both the routine and unique challenges every team faces.
How to amplify Trust
Have the team share where each of them grew up, what order in the family they are, and the most difficult challenge in their childhood. People will look at each other like they’ve just met. It’s a great leveler and makes everyone a little more vulnerable. In other words, share personal information, and spend time with each other.
Conflict
Conflict is sometimes considered dangerous on a team because it can lead to hard feelings. However, if the team has relationship trust, members feel secure enough to be honest and courageous. If trust is truly in place, conflict is constructive.
How to ensure an environment to embrace conflicts
When discussing difficult topics, ensure to stay on topic and mine for conflict. And when conflicts arise, give permissions to conflicts. This is real time permission, so they don’t feel guilt or fear. Teams that don’t have conflict are not great places to work.
Commitment
Gaining commitment from team members is not the same as getting consensus. According to Lencioni, reaching consensus means compromise, and compromise might not yield the best result. Commitment comes with clarity of purpose.
How to increase commitment
On a leadership team, everyone should weigh in with their ideas and their opinions. That doesn’t mean there will always be consensus. As former CEO of Intel Andy Grove was fond of saying: “We are going to disagree and commit.”
Accountability
Accountability in a team identifies potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches without hesitation. Accountability is typically the most difficult behavior for a team to master. Most will never get to the point where each team member routinely holds all other members accountable.
How to learn to hold each other accountable
A team effectiveness exercise is to have everybody write down one positive thing that each person does for the team (by being who they are). Then one behavior of each that hurts the team (i.e., what they need to get better at).
Results
Achieving team objectives is why the team exists. The goals need to be clear and have a profound meaning – not just for the individual, but for the entire team. The team goal becomes more important than any individual’s personal goal, and everyone feels rewarded by being part of the team result.
How to stay focused on the goals
For your team to keep focus on common results, it is vital to have clear metrics to assess results. If the team already knows how to keep each other accountable, they will push each other toward pursuing common not individual goals. Team leaders must reserve rewards and recognition for those who make real contributions to achieving group goals.
So, to sum up, making great strategies and clear plans is not enough. And has never been. The key to success is having a high-performing team built on trust – and a clear eye for where the team is going.
However, a great first step for any newly formed (or existing dysfunctional) team is to understand the five characteristics of the Five Functions of Teams.
And remember there is no “I” in “Team”.