GATCHALLAN, ALEXANDRA M.

OCTOBER 4, 2019
S38 – PRIMAN

Are We a Team?
A Case on the Team Dynamics, Dysfunctional, and High Performing Teams

I. Background of the Case

“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive
advantage, both because it is powerful and so rare.”

This is a quote by Patrick Lencioni from his best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
Lencioni believes that people are the key for success more than anything else. It is people that cogs the
wheels and drives the helm toward the vision and goals of an organization.

With this as a premise, let us look at the case of Jenny McConnell and her team.

Jenny McConnell is a newly appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a medium-sized technology
(tech) company. The is composed of highly talented individuals coming from the top graduates of
engineering and business schools. The company has continued to grow in other states. However, despite
the skillset and the talent pool, the company’s performance is lackluster. They could have been a Fortune
500 company, but they were not. It was a team composed of great and talented people but it does not
translate to high performance. The company seems to perform well on the surface, but trouble was broiling
underneath.

McConnell approached the team. She wanted to gather information and feedback from the regional
CIOs and department heads. She wanted honest assessment from the team to determine areas of
improvement and to create a vision for the future of the team. However, she was saddened by the results.

From her one-on-one sessions, she gathered that people in the teams were highly independent and
were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do. Bob, the previous CIO, would just fade in the background
and not stand as a leader to the team. He had much awe and belief to the people that independence was
a top priority, but there was no cohesion and interdependence. Perhaps he was intimidated, but no one
really knew. He didn’t disagree nor try to rationalize actions or decisions. No one seemed to take the lead.

Cooperation levels within the team were also low and was revealed to be an area of concern. During
meetings, people seemed to be in their own bubbles. They were physically in the meeting, but their eyes
were constantly checking their iPads and smartphones. No one was paying attention that if someone
stopped talking, no one might now have noticed. Cooperation across teams were also sad. Regions that
were able to perform well and solved problems never bothered to help out other teams, as if they were
working for different companies, not as units within the company. Another indicator of high levels of
independence with in contributors.

All these findings were indicative of lack of trust and communication. There was no genuine concern
for how the team and the company should be. There was no teamwork, collaboration, and cohesion in
individual teams and across teams. The team felt like it was distressed and dysfunctional.

Jenny McConnell is faced of reinventing them. How will she create a team that is cohesive and visionary
to catapult the team to the high performance team that it should be?

II. Statement of the Problem

The tech company is a super team with disappointing performance. The team is composed of stellar
individuals with talent, intellect, and creativity, however this does not translate into high performance. It is
worrisome to see great individuals not translate to great teams. She needs to be able to unite the teams
who are in disarray so as to help the tech company grow as well.

To be able to springboard the improvements and the creation of a visionary team, McConnell must be
able to determine the root cause of the problems that their company is experiencing. She needs to be able
to understand what are the causes for the people in the company to behave that way. To analyze the
behavior of the team, the framework provided in the book of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick
Lencioni. In this framework, Lencioni analyzes what are the pitfalls that teams face and the struggles team
face to achieve their optimum performance.

Figure 1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. Retrieved from

https://medium.com/taskworld-blog/lencionis-5-dysfunctions-of-a-team-330d58b2cd81
 The first dysfunction is the absence of trust. This problem occurs when team members are reluctant to
be vulnerable to each other. They are unwilling to disclose weaknesses and mistakes because they are
afraid of the judgement they might face. Also, they are afraid of asking help from because they believe that
this shows weakness and incapacity to do something. McConnell’s team shows this dysfunction because
they are more independent and unwilling to collaborate. The team composed of talented individuals and
star performers which may be why there is that fear of exposing weaknesses and difficulties. There is
nothing wrong with having highly independent and efficient people. However, the individual contributors of
the team must break out of the independence circle and strive toward an interdependent zone. Team
members must be able to understand that as individuals, they can be good, but when working together,
strengths and weaknesses can complement and lead to greater outputs. This was also visible when teams
who succeed did not want to share their keys to success for fear of other teams getting better. They didn’t
trust their colleagues to help them out when it will be their turn to need help and guidance. They kept things
on their own.

The second dysfunction is fear of conflict. Teams that fear conflict are incapable of engaging in
discussions and debate. This results into an artificial sense of harmony. Team members must be able to
understand that disagreements are part of being in a team and these are often the springboard for superior
and more solidified ideas and plans. Discussions must be engaging and purposeful. Teams must just
ensure that discussions and debate are done in a civil and respectful manner and in the right platform. This
dysfunction was visible with how Bob, the previous CIO, managed the team. He faded into the background
and was unable to weigh in the ideas and thoughts of his people. He just allowed people to do as they are.
He may have believed that this is empowering to the people but without right mentorship and guidance, this
will not lead to productive employees and teams. The kind of behavior was carried on even when McConnell
took over the team.

The third dysfunction is lack of commitment. Lack of commitment is when there is lack of clarity on
directions and goals that team members do not know what they are committing to and putting their efforts
into. This can cause even star performers to become disgruntled due to the lack of vision and commitment
from the people around them. A team that fails to commit creates ambiguity and second-guessing. Team
members and teams do not know how to go about their operations. This is visible in our tech team when
they are inattentive to meetings and discussions. They did not see the purpose of being present and active
when they were called in for meetings. They found meetings as a distraction when this could have been an
avenue to talk about goals and directions, plans and outputs. Meetings are good ways to engage with
people and to easily resolve open items. Leaders just need to ensure that meetings are not excessive and
these are called for a purpose and objective.
 The fourth dysfunction is avoidance of accountability. This occurs when teams do not commit to a clear
plan of action. When there is clarity of the goals and plan of actions teams need to do, they are able to be
accountable for their actions and hold others accountable for theirs, and this is what is good. However,
when teams are not committed, they will make every excuse to get out of accountability. They hold back
and this erodes performance as plans go undone and unfinished. Deadlines are missed and key
deliverables are incomplete. It creates a culture of mediocrity among members. McConnell’s team was also
a victim of this. They could have been a Fortune 500 company, but they weren’t. This was because no one
in the team was accountable to push themselves and their teams to deliver and bring their company to
greater heights.

The last and fifth dysfunction is inattention to results or team objectives. This dysfunction happens when
team members put their own needs first ahead of the collective goals of the team. The team at this point
has lost sight of the need for achievement and the company’s business suffers as a result. It is normal to
have personal goals. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when people gravitate towards personal
goals at the expense of collective and common goals, that is where problem starts. Teams fail to see
themselves as teams and rather see the fellow members as competition to beat. At the end, everyone loses
because individualism is fostered more and there will be no stability for the company. This was also visible
when teams who succeed did not want to share their best practices. They were geared to achieve their
individual goals rather than see the whole tech company grow.

Jenny McConnell’s team is a dysfunctional team. The team demonstrates all of the five dysfunctions
that hinder teams to become great. They are mediocre, and at best, just plain good. These dysfunctions
are the root of the problems that the team is facing now. McConnell must be able to create a solution to
help the team breakout of the unexceptional, and become exceptional high performing teams.

III. Objectives of the Case

Jenny McConnell must be able to set-up a roadmap on how to the build the team to become cohesive
and visionary. She must be able to spearhead the team from being dysfunctional to high performing. She
must be able to build her team to be the core resource towards the success of the tech company.

IV. Alternative Courses of Action

Creating a team is not easy, much less building a high performing one from a dysfunctional one. But it
is not impossible. In the following discussions, this will be a roadmap that McConnell can engage with the
team to counter the five dysfunctions that the team is experiencing resulting to lackluster performance.
More than building the team, her courses of action must also seek to understand the human nature of the
team.
 1. Build a trusting and open team
In order to build a foundation of trust with the team members, McConnell can allocate time for team
members to engage with each other outside of work. The core of empathy is when we understand the
context of the people we deal with and this drives people to see each other as human. She can set a
teambuilding session where members can talk about personal histories so they can relate to each other.
This does not mean using the vulnerabilities that one has exposed against another, but rather use this to
create a culture of equals and a culture that understands. McConnell can also engage the help of the
company’s human resource department to profile the personalities and strengths of the employees so she
and her regional heads can have a better understanding of the people with work with and handle. It is about
seeing strengths and weaknesses of others and see where complements can be made so that contributions
will be made in the team. This will drop walls and barriers and will allow team members to be open without
getting defensive. When you tear down walls, foundations of synergy and understanding can be made.

2. Encourage teams to engage in healthy debate and discussion

After building trust among the members of the team, McConnell must be able to have the team engage
in open and free but respectful discussions. When you know and understand the context and histories of
people, members are able to comprehend their arguments in a more discerning manner because they
understand where they are coming from. Judgements and personal biases can be lessened making
discussions more open and healthier. Team members also become more careful and vigilant of their words
and actions in order to ensure that the discussions are healthy and non-confrontational. Team members
must also acknowledge that healthy conflict is productive and can go a long way towards better plans and
results.

3. Ensure clarity and commitment from team members

Direct and open lines of communication must be present. This will ensure that team members have
channels to clarify any confusion or problems that they may have. This creates clarity and aligns team
towards the goal that they want to achieve. This also removes fears that a member will be judged for not
understanding or failing to comprehend things because it allows for open communication. McConnell can
do this by setting up channels and processes where team members have means to communicate to their
immediate, intermediate, or even to management. There is value when people see their thoughts and ideas
are valued. Leaders must also ensure that they cascade information well and clear enough for people to
see the direction that they are going to. Proper planning for any project including all contingencies will also
help get the commitment from the team members because it shows preparedness and allows people to
know the pros and cons, the different possible scenarios with the tasks they are faced with. Monitoring of
plans and action items will also put team members on check with the tasks that they do to minimize failures
and allow for improvement.
 4. Hold each other accountable for actions and hold high but achievable standards of performance
One of the best ways to ensure high performance of the team is to have clear deadlines, goals, and
standards. When this is clear among the members of the team, they will be able to drive themselves and
their members to reach each and the teams deadlines and goals. Setting team rewards for achieving goals
is also one thing that the company can improve in its culture. Part of this is also allowing team members
and leaders to have an open feedback mechanism where they can receive individual and team behavior
and performance.

5. Create a culture that grows employees with the company

Transparency and visibility is key to creating a culture that is embraced by employees. We cannot deny
employees as individual contributors who have their own personal goals and dreams. But the company
must be able to align these individual goals to that of the company and this must be visible to the employees.
When this happens, employees will be able to see themselves are part of the growth of the company. The
tech team’s management must also be able to pinpoint what the roles are of the different teams and
employees towards the achievement of the collective goals of the company. This is so employees will see
the fruits of their labor contribute to the company’s own fruits.

As a starting point, McConnell can conduct this exercise with the regional CIOs and use this as a
springboard to have her regional leaders cascade this healthy business practices into their own individual
business units. She has already started this when she had her one-on-one discussions with the heads. she
just needs to operationalize the changes and new processes that she has. When this succeeds with the
regional heads, it will be difficult to get their buy in to use the same roadmap to build similar high performing
teams into each individual business units that the tech company has.

V. Conclusions and Recommendations

There is no perfect team. But there are high performing teams. Jenny McConnell inherited a team with
stellar individual contributors with lackluster performance. It is difficult. But she is not doomed.

Patrick Lencioni shows a framework on how to better understand teams and the human psychology
that go with it. Normally, team members are geared to achieve their own individual goals and dreams. But
then humans are also very social beings that work within groups and teams. And in order to build high
functioning groups, foundations of trust, openness, commitment, and accountability must be built with the
teams. What McConnell also needs to understand is this a process that will take time. There is no band aid
solution to create a stellar team. The process will have its pains and troubles, but with the support of the
team, the tech company is not far from becoming a great one.