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