For the last year or so, our leadership team has been following the principals described in Patrick Lencioni's book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. I thought I should take some time to recount what that is all about.
The “leadership fable” in this story tells of a technology company that is struggling in the marketplace to find customers. The new CEO recognizes that the company has innovative products and great talent, however the executives are not working together as a team, negating the aforementioned market advantages. The team is struggling with their situation unable to find an appropriate solution to their problems. The team dynamics erode into naming, blaming and shaming, no one is accepting responsibility, deadlines are being missed and morale is on the decline. The executive team is unable to make important decisions and as a result the company is losing the battle for market share.
Enter Patrick Lencioni's perspective on the problem:
“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”
To get the people in a team aligned and rowing in the same direction requires leaders to address what Lencioni called "The Five Dysfunction of a Team". Those dysfunctions are: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.
In the days ahead, I'll review how these dysfunctions relate to each other, and how the Decade Software leadership team tackled them head-on.
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