5 Behaviours of a Cohesive Team
The Five Behaviours and Your Team
Creating a high performing team is not always straightforward. However Patrick Lencioni summarises here the key components for improving team dynamics and creating a team that gets on well while achieving great results.
Remember, the five behaviours can be mistakenly interpreted as five distinct issues that can be addressed in isolation of one another. But in reality they form an interrelated model, and neglecting even one of the behaviours can be potentially harmful to the success of a team.
Building Trust
The first and foundational behaviour of a cohesive team is trust. Unfortunately, the word trust is used- and misused- so often it may not impart the same meaning to everyone. The definition here isn’t centred around the ability to predict a person’s behaviour based on past experience (a standard description). Rather, in the context of a cohesive team, trust means:
A willingness to be completely vulnerable with one another
Confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the team.
Trust lies at the heart of a functioning, cohesive team. No matter how a team scores on the assessment, teams should always begin with trust because there is no quality or characteristic that is more important for building a team.
Building Vulnerability-Based Trust
Sometimes it’s during the process of coming clean about weaknesses that the biggest breakthroughs happen among team members. Giving people as much information as possible about who a person is and why this person might act the way he or she does will greatly reduce the likelihood of unfair judgements.
Taking Action to Build Trust
How does a team go about developing vulnerability-based trust? Unfortunately, it cannot be built overnight. It requires shared experiences over time, multiple instances of follow-through and credibility, and in-depth understanding of the unique attributes of team members. However, taking a focused approach, a team can dramatically accelerate the process and build trust in relatively short order. Consider the importance of building trust, outlined below, as you create an action plan.
Mastering Conflict
All great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow. It’s important to distinguish productive, ideological conflict from destructive fighting and interpersonal politics.
Productive conflict:
Is focused on concepts and ideas.
Avoids mean-spirited, personal attacks.
Conflict is often considered taboo, especially at work, and people may spend inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to avoid the kind of passionate debates that are essential to any great team. Teams that engage in productive conflict know that the only purpose it to produce the best possible solution in the shortest period of time.
What is acceptable behaviour during conflict?
In some cultures, there is very little direct disagreement and debate during meetings, while in others people tend to “get in one another’s faces.” In some families, parents and siblings rarely engage in raw, emotional dialogue, while in others people argue passionately and then make up with equal passion. Which is better on a team? The only thing that really matters is- are people holding back their opinions? Members of great teams do not.
Taking Action to Master Conflict
How does a team go about developing the ability and willingness to engage in healthy conflict? The first step is acknowledging that conflict can be productive, and that many teams have a tendency to avoid it. As long as some team members believe that conflict is undesirable and unnecessary, there is little chance that it will occur. Consider the importance of engaging in conflict, outlines below, as you create an action plan.
Achieving Commitment
What do we mean by commitment? In the context of a cohesive team, commitment is:
Clarity around decisions.
Moving forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who initially disagreed with the decision.
The bottom line is, if people don’t commit, they’re just half-heartedly going along with decisions. Two greatest causes of a lack of commitment are the desire for consensus and the need for certainty, which are just not possible in all situations. Great teams understand that they must be able to commit even when the outcome is uncertain and not everyone initially agrees.
Commitment with Clarity
Team members will be unlikely to commit to decisions that seem vague or incomplete. After all, how can you really commit if you’re not sure what you’re committing to? It seems that your team is clear about its direction and priorities most of the time. It may be that sometimes, though, the team lacks clarity. Ensuring that everyone is on the same page may allow the team to commit to decisions and move forward with confidence.
Commitment with Buy-In
Great teams move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team. Members leave meetings confident that no one is quietly harbouring doubts about whether to support the agreed-to actions. According to the assessment results, your team frequently achieves this alignment. Most likely, your team has a habit of openly airing doubts or concerns so that people feel a stronger commitment to final decisions. This may allow decisions and plans to take hold more quickly.
Taking Action to Achieve Commitment
One of the greatest consequences for a team that does not commit to decisions is unresolvable discord. When a team fails to achieve buy-in from all team members, even if the disparities that exist seem relatively small, there will be a clash of priorities. And small gaps can become major disagreements. Consider the importance of commitment, outlined below, as you create an action plan.
Embracing Accountability
Accountability has become a buzzword- so overused and with so many different interpretations that it has lost much of its meaning. In the context of teamwork, however, accountability is
The willingness of team members to call their peers on performance or behaviours that might hurt the team.
The usual source of dysfunction in this area is the unwillingness of team members to tolerate the interpersonal discomfort that accompanies calling out a peer on his or her behaviour. This includes the more general tendency to avoid difficult conversations. Functional teams overcome these natural inclinations, opting instead to “enter the danger” with one another.
Your Team and Accountability
Great teams are able to call out members’ poor performance or unproductive behaviours. However, your team may have trouble in this area. Even team members who are particularly close to one another may hesitate to call one another out precisely because they fear jeopardizing that relationship. Ironically, this only causes relationships to deteriorate. The willingness to hold one another accountable in a constructive way is key to developing cohesiveness and can help a team avoid far more costly and difficult situations later.
More than any policy or system, there is nothing like the fear of letting down respected teammates that motivates people to improve their performance. However, your team members don’t seem comfortable applying appropriate pressure to each other. Perhaps people don’t think it’s right to push their peers, or maybe they’re afraid that this sort of pressure is a highly effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards on a team.
Taking Action to Hold One Another Accountable
It must be clear to all team members that accountability is a shared team responsibility. As uncomfortable and difficult as it can often be, accountability helps a team and an organization avoid far more costly and difficult situations later. Consider the importance of accountability, outlined below, as you create an action plan.
Focusing on Results
The ultimate goal of encouraging trust, healthy conflict, commitment and accountability is to achieve results. And yet, as it turns out, one of the greatest challenges to team success is the inattention to results. In the context of a cohesive team, results:
Refer to the collective goals of the team.
Are not limited to financial measures, but are more broadly related to expectations and outcome-based performance.
But what would a team be focused on other than results? Team status and individual status are the prime candidates. A focus on team status occurs when merely being part of a group is satisfying enough, regardless of results. Individual status refers to the familiar tendency of people to focus on enhancing their own positions or career prospects at the expense of their team.
Taking Action to Achieve Results
There is no getting around the fact that the only measure of a great team is whether it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish. Great teams ensure that all members, in spite of their individual responsibilities and areas of expertise, are doing whatever they can to help the team accomplish its goals. Consider the importance of focusing on collective results, outlined below, as you create an action plan.
About the Author:
Edited and abridged version, to access the full version, go to: http://edvantedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/5bSample_Martin.pdf
Patrick Lencioni is a pioneer in both leadership and business and a New York Times best-selling author. He is the Founder of The Table Group and is the author of 10 books, including best-seller 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.