1. Absence of Trust
- This is not about predictive trust – where we have known someone for some time and can predict what they will do, say or respond
- Focus here is vulnerability-based trust
- When people are not pretending, and can be open and honest with each other, without any egos
- Happens when people can say things like “I need help”, “I’m sorry” or “can you teach me”
- Requires the whole team to be vulnerable; if just one member of the team cannot be vulnerability, it will spread like virus to the whole team
- To encourage vulnerable behaviour within a team, the leader has to start first by being and demonstrate vulnerability
2. Fear of Conflict
- Conflict is a good thing; not mean spirited, but productive ideological
- Without vulnerability based trust, conflict becomes politics (Personal A is just looking to manipulate Person B to win)
- With vulnerability based trust, conflict is just the pursuit of truth or the best possible solution
- Conflict will look different from culture to culture
- Great relationships are built on the ability to disagree, and know you can recover from that
- When we fail to disagree with people around ideas and issues, it ferments into conflict around them as a person, it builds up, and comes out in a hurtful way later
- When we skip over important conflicts, we end up putting our self in position to encounter the next dysfunction – lack of commitment
3. Lack of Commitment
- When people don’t weigh in on a subject, they don’t buy in
- We are not looking for consensus; it will take too long. Goal is to disagree and commit
- Important to demand that people weigh in
- When there’s no consensus, a leader’s job is to break the tie
- 99% of time, people will support even if they disagree, after they know they have been heard and their inputs are considered in the decision
- If we don’t get commitment, we get the next dysfunction – avoidance of accountability
4. Avoidance of Accountability
- When people have not committed on a decision, they are not going to hold one another accountable
- On great teams, accountability is peer to peer
- Peer pressure is best kind of accountability
- This is only possible if leaders are willing to confront difficult issues and hold people accountable
- As much as it is important to hold people accountable to results (numbers), it is also important to hold people accountable for their behaviours
- If we don’t hold people accountable, they will not understand the consequences of their actions
5. Inattention to Results
- People will think it doesn’t matter otherwise
- If we are not focused on the results, then why are we there
