Five Dysfunctions of a Team - #1 Absence of Trust
Have you read "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team?"
I've been writing a short series in my weekly email, summarizing and reflecting on the book, and the feedback has been positive, so I thought I'd share the first of my cliff-note articles here.
I invite you to email me your comments or questions, as I'd love to hear about your experiences working on either a healthy or unhealthy team.
#1 Dysfunction - Absence of Trust
Trust could be understood as people’s willingness to safely tell the truth.
This includes both leaders and team members admitting when they don’t know an answer, being willing to ask for help, and apologizing when they have hurt someone or failed to live up to agreed-upon standards.
The absence of trust is evidenced by:
a) failure to admit mistakes (mistakes = weakness).
b) not asking questions (everyone must at least pretend to know answers for fear of looking stupid or a mistake being exposed)
c) never genuinely apologizing (If no one can admit a mistake, there is never a need to apologize).
In other words, a healthy team deteriorates into dysfunction when guardedness takes the place of openness.
When people feel guarded, the best ideas will never be shared. Errors are covered up. Learning slows down. The core strengths of healthy collaboration lose out to self-serving faux-health, faux-agreement, and faux-progress.
When a team is characterized by Absence of Trust, you can imagine how it quickly leads to Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict.
“Trust could be understood as people’s
willingness to safely tell the truth.”
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