Published in Harvard Management Update

April 2009

Diagnosing and Fixing Dysfunctional Teams Three interrelated issues cause most team dysfunction By Anne Field The perfect team doesn’t exist. Because teams are made up of fallible human beings, they have flaws and failings. Even so, they get the work done – most of the time.

But in some cases, a team’s fallibilities are so pronounced that the team does not get the work done, or it generates as many problems as solutions. In the current global economy, when organizations need to wring the maximum value out of every last resource, such dysfunctional teams need to be fixed, and fast. Dysfunctional teams can take many forms. Among them: • The team of individualists. Everyone is out for himself, his department, or his function. Jockeying for power and ive resistance are common.

• Factional teams. Individual team are loyal to their faction, not to the team itself. • The conflict-avoiding team. Everyone goes along to get along. Creativity and innovation suffer; mediocrity prevails.

• The indecisive team. Discussions are circular. For every two steps

forward, the team takes one-and-ahalf steps back.

Under most team dysfunction lays a lack of trust, the inability to engage in productive conflict, or insufficient clarity of purpose. Since one of these problems tends to trigger another, most dysfunctional teams suffer from more than one of them. Whether you’re in charge of a project team or a more permanent team – for instance, an entire unit – the advice in this article will help you diagnose what ails your team and will provide a targeted remedy. TRUST

A lack of trust is the most common problem afflicting teams, says Patrick Lencioni, president of the Table Group, a Lafyette, Calif., management consultancy. Those on individualist teams don’t trust one another to share credit. Fearing a loss of power or respect if they compromise or share the spotlight, they go all out only for their own benefit.

A similar dynamic occurs on factional teams, except factions rather than individuals distrust each other and

© Copyright 2009 Harvard Management Update. All Rights Reserved.

feel they need to compete for resources and glory.

When team don’t trust each other, they shy away from open disagreement, undermining their ability to reach the best decisions – or to make any decisions at all. What’s more, when team don’t trust each other enough to have healthy disagreements and debate, they lose out on the chance to create a stronger bond. “Great teams disagree all the time,” says Lencioni. “As in a good marriage, arguments make the relationship stronger.”

To build trust, create opportunities for team to get to know one another on a personal level. Have lunch brought in and encourage casual conversation for a half-hour. If it seems appropriate, prompt team to reveal a little bit about themselves – their upbringing, families, hobbies, travels – at team meetings. This is surprisingly effective. Small disclosures can go a long way to helping individuals understand each other’s actions and become more accepting of them. Even on business-unit teams, whose work together day after

day, such exercises can prove beneficial. For instance, Lencioni once worked with a division whose finance manager was perceived by his colleagues as excessively stingy. His reluctance to approve their expenses caused friction in the group. But when he revealed that growing up in a home so poor that it lacked running water had given him a determination never to overspend, his colleagues came to accept his intense control on costs as protective to the group. And he tried harder to apply reasonable business standards in making approval decisions. COHESIVENESS

Because many employees serve on more teams over the course of a typical year than they did five years ago, team cohesiveness has become more of a problem. “Employees get pulled in so many directions now. It’s harder for them to really commit to a team, and it’s more difficult for the team leader to create a strong team identity,” says Kate Beatty, director, global portfolio, at the Center for Creative Leadership, headquartered in Greensboro, N.C.

The first step in building team cohesiveness is strengthening the bonds between individual . One way to do this is to have each person take a personality test, such as the Myers-Briggs, and share the results with the group. Not only will this experience build trust, it will give insights into one another and promote bonding. Daniel Harkavy, CEO of Building Champions, a Lake Oswego, Ore., coaching firm, did this when he decided of his leadership team needed to get beyond their surface dissimilarities to see their shared commitment to the team’s goals.

A senior vice president who worked for him tended to be short-tempered when dealing with another person on the team. The SVP was an analytical type who placed a on efficiency. He regarded his colleague as undisciplined about decisions and deadlines – and maybe a little lazy. But after the group shared their test results, the SVP came to realize his teammate was simply a big-picture thinker who preferred to get input from as many people as possible before taking action. Gaining insight into their personality differences allowed him to trust that his colleague was just as dedicated to the company and its mission as he was.

An added bonus: Sharing information about each other’s personality styles can also help people feel more comfortable about airing conflicts, sharpening decision making and increasing ability.

Harkavy says that teammates who had been hesitant to speak up now feel free to ask probing questions of each other when the team doesn’t hit a quarterly objective. “They discuss why a task didn’t get accomplished and what they can do to help the person get it completed,” he says. “Now, the whole group plays a role in holding each other able, not just me.” CLEARLY DEFINED PURPOSE

When the of a team seem more focused on reaching individual or factional goals, something other than competitiveness may be the cause: for example, the team’s purpose may not be clearly defined. If team don’t have a specific goal, they’re bound to focus on other things. “A clear goal, communicated well, generates energy and excitement,” says Beatty. “It’s crucial to getting

© Copyright 2009 Harvard Management Update. All Rights Reserved.

team to be able for their individual performance and the team’s performance. And in making everyone focus on the same thing, it builds cohesion.”

Indecisiveness is a big clue that the team’s goals need to be clarified. Even your ablest employees are going to be reluctant to make decisions when they’re not sure what they’re striving for. And all their combined talent and experience will be misdirected. Laura Stone, CEO of Stone + Co. (Cohasset, Mass.), agrees. “Without a clearly defined goal, every team resource is going to be underleveraged. Unless teammates fully understand the team’s objectives, they will inevitably work at crosspurposes.”

Stone was once brought in to help a factional team that was deeply dysfunctional. Composed of a Fortune 20 retailer’s human resources employees and employees of the company to which many of the retailer’s HR functions were being outsourced, this was a team split in two – with a wide gap and plenty of enmity between the factions. The retailer’s HR employees blamed the outsourcer for taking jobs away from their unit. Employees of the outsourcer felt, with good reason, that they weren’t being helped to do their jobs and then were unfairly blamed when they stumbled. In all of this, both sides lost sight of the team’s mission: making sure that the retailer’s employees got their paychecks on time. PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

Clarifying the team’s purpose was the first step toward building trust and team cohesion. Then Stone and her partners held a series of workshops with the team. In individual

interviews, team were asked five questions:

1. In earlier teams you’ve worked on, what did you do that you felt made an impact on the team’s work? 2. What are you able for on this team? 3. What do you see standing in your way?

4. What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?

5. What’s going to make you proud when this project is completed?

Everyone’s answers were shared and discussed by the entire team. “This exercise helped the team in two significant ways,” says Stone. “First, it helped them think about specific outcomes related to the team’s overarching goal. Second, it helped them understand and trust each other. It bridged the gap between the factions and brought everyone together working toward a common purpose.

“This was really significant,” Stone says.

If you want to do this exercise with your team, says Stone, ask colleagues from HR or from another department to do the questioning. “It’s really important that the team don’t think that the interviewers are from one side or the other. Questioning should be approached with genuine curiosity, to try to understand where everyone’s coming from.” Ultimately says Beatty, “the work of the team leader is to create an environment in which everyone is willing and able to step up to meet the team’s challenges.”

Anne Field is a business writer based in Pelham, N.Y. Reach her at [email protected].

“A week later, we brought the team together again. During this meeting we revisited the pride question and built on the individual answers to create a collective understanding of what would make this team proud. The result was that we found a common ground that went beyond vision and mission; it was a combination of what each member of the team really cared about and what they wanted to be able to accomplish as a team.”

Laura Stone As the CEO and a senior consultant at Stone + Company, Laura Stone brings a wealth of strategic consulting and leadership development experience in both start-up and mature business environments, providing a transformative strategic planning process for clients in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail, insurance, high-tech, and consumer product industries.

Please visit our website: www.stoneandcompany.com or call us at 781.383.8383.

Partnering with leaders and leadership teams to help you deliver results to be proud of. 781 383 8383 | www.stoneandcompany.com | 164 Chief Justice Cushing Way, Cohasset, MA 02025 © Copyright 2009 Harvard Management Update. All Rights Reserved.