HR 61C

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HR 61C

• Session 6 - 7

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Differences Between Groups and Teams(Daft The
Leadership Experience)

• Group
• Has a designated, strong leader
• Individual accountability
• Identical purpose for group and organization
• Performance goals set by others
• Works within organizational boundaries
• Individual work products
• Organized meetings delegation

• Team
• Shares or rotates leadership roles
• Mutual/individual. accountability
• Specific team vision or purpose
• Performance goals set by team
• Not inhibited by organizational boundaries
• Collective work products
• Mutual feedback, open-ended discussion, active
  problem-solving

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Dysfunctional Teams

• Teams which have not made a successful transition
  from their group status and are deficient in the
  distinguishing features

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The theory of Patrick Lencioni The Five
Dysfunctions of Teams

• Ineffective teams are characterized by five
  dysfunctions
• Though treated separately, the dysfunctions exist
  interdependently
• If a team suffers from even one dysfunction, it
  can fail
• Dysfunctions can feed upon one another creating a
  downward spiral in the teams cohesion and
  performance

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Lencionis Pyramid of Dysfunctions
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Dysfunction 1

• Absence of Trust
• This dysfunction arises when team members are
  unwilling to be vulnerable within the group. Team
  members who are not genuinely open with one
  another about their mistakes and weaknesses make
  it impossible to build a foundation for trust.

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The Importance of Trust

• A central force in developing relationships and
  cohesion
• Consists of
• Confidence in one anothers good intentions
• Belief in one anothers commitment to the teams
  process and product
• Belief in one anothers sincerity
• The willingness and ability of members to be
  themselves and to be open

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Effects of Trust

• Trust creates a climate for self-disclosure and
  vulnerability
• Trust allows members to focus their energies on
  the task and production process rather than on
  protecting individual interests
• Trust allows members to participate openly even
  in passionate disagreements and healthy conflict,
  confident that the focus will be on issues and
  not personality
• Trust permits sharing of honest feedback

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Absence of trust creates political behaviour

• Political behaviour occurs when members choose
  their words and actions based on the response
  they wish to elicit from others, rather than on
  their true thoughts and feelings
• Political behaviour contributes to hidden
  agendas

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Dysfunction 2 Fear of Conflict

• A failure to build trust sets the stage for the
  second dysfunction - a fear of conflict.

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Conflict

• Conflict is defined as an expressed struggle
  between at least two independent parties who
  perceive incompatible goals, scarce rewards and
  interference from the other party in achieving
  their goals
• 
  (Adler Towne, 1999)
• An individual may also experience conflict within
  himself or herself if such an individual is torn
  between contradictory feelings, desires or
  motives

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Conflict

• In the context of teams, the type of conflict
  which Lencioni advocates is productive
  ideological conflict not destructive fighting
  and interpersonal politics
• Ideological conflict is limited to concepts and
  ideas, avoids personality-focused, mean-spirited
  attacks (The Five Dysfunctions of Teams)

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Manifestations of Fear of Conflict

• Members withhold feelings and opinions that
  differ
• Debate is suppressed for fear of residual ill
  feeling
• Disagreements are buried
• Because of the suppression of true feelings and
  diverse ideas, tension becomes an underlying
  feature
• Lack of resolution causes issues to recur
• Conflicts may be explored privately among members
  thus promoting the development of cliques

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Consequences of Fear of Conflict

• Premature interruption of disagreements
• Promotion of hasty peace-making
• Failure to propose, explore alternative
  viewpoints
• Prevalence of political behaviour
• Lack of conflict management skills and group
  processes to tackle conflict
• Absence of productive storming, hence teams
  progress is arrested
• ARTIFICIAL HARMONY a sort of tacit agreement to
  avoid confronting issues that are likely to
  create conflict

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Dysfunction 3 -Lack of Commitment

• Lack of commitment refers to the absence of
• true engagement in the task and process of
  the team
• Lack of clarity and lack of buy-in result in
  reduced effort, motivation and output
• Desire for consensus and fear of uncertainty
  contribute to the pretence of agreement
• The pretence of understanding, acceptance and
  agreement translates into low commitment which
  hinders implementation

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Dysfunction 4 - Avoidance of Accountability

• Accountability within the team context refers to
  the willingness of members to hold themselves and
  one another answerable for specific contributions
  to process and task outcomes

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Avoidance of Accountability - Causes

• Mutual protectionism I cant hold someone else
  accountable because I havent done my part
  either
• Fear of hostile, unpleasant reactions
• Knowledge that decisions, goals, assignments
  might not have been clear or resolved
• Fear of damaging interpersonal relations
• Lack of confronting skills

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Avoidance of Accountability

• Prevents groups / teams from being
  self-regulating therefore the perception grows
  that peers dont confront each other. Rather,
  their bosses hold them accountable and they in
  turn, hold their direct reports accountable.
• As teams mature through growing accountability,
  this dynamic is attacked and every member of the
  team can deal with another who is falling short
  in performance or team norms.

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Dysfunction 5 Inattention to results

• Absence of focus on the task and on outcomes
  which are expected of the team is the ultimate
  dysfunction, arising from the individual and
  combined effects of all other dysfunctions
• Attention is focused instead on
• The teams existence as an end in itself
• Individual status need fulfillment
• Doing enough to survive

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Characteristics of teams that have overcome the
dysfunctions

• They trust one another.
• They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.
• They commit to decisions and plans of action.
• They hold one another accountable for delivering
  against those plans.
• They focus on the achievement of collective
  results.

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Importance of Goal Clarity

• Our job in achieving the winning goal of team
  work is to make the results that we need to
  achieve, so clear that no one would even consider
  doing something purely to enhance his or her own
  individual status or ego. Because that would
  diminish our ability to achieve our collective
  goals. We would all lose