Lencioni's 5 Team Dysfunctions applied to Inter-Dependent and Extra-Dependent Teams

Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions

Evidence in Extra-Dependent Teams

Resolution

Good functioning

Absence of Trust

(invulnerability)

Team members avoid talking to each other about the details of what they do and how they do it.  They withhold their secrets of success and their mistakes that others could learn from.  

Psychological safety to learn from each other

The team shares with each other the details of how they do their individual work, including how they make mistakes and how they are successful.  

Fear of Conflict

(artificial harmony)

Team focuses on issues outside the team, and rallies together, blaming others for problems.  Members don’t question each other’s work fearing reciprocity that exposes their own weaknesses.  

Openness to challenge and learn with each other

To be open to question and to be questioned about how each other works and the sharing of different ideas and approaches so that learning starts to become collective rather than individual.    

Lack of Commitment

(ambiguity)

Members give excuses for not attending meetings.  The value of team meetings is less than the perceived value of priorities outside the team

Commitment to collaboratively learn for each other

The team uses its limited time to create value for each other by learning together.  Commitment to the team is known to benefit stakeholders, not just team members.  

Avoidance of Accountability

(inconsistent standards)

Practices are individualised and hidden from each other creating inconsistency in quantity and quality of value added for stakeholders

Implementing, improving and innovating standards together

Collaborative learning enables newcomers to learn quickly, for standards to be transparent and for those standards to be questioned so that thy are improved and even innovated to create stakeholder value 

Inattention to Results

(status and ego)

Team members are only interested in individual results.  The manager is made accountable.  Workload, standards, and output is imbalanced.  Team reputation is mixed. 

Attention to the impact and process of collaborative learning  (learning to learn)

The team regularly shares results of applying the learning from their collective work.  They review the quality of the learning process and its contribution to meeting stakeholder expectations.