My presentation of P. Lencioni's book "Overcoming the 5 dysfunctions of a team", at the 34th Athens Agile meetup. The presentation includes the key points of the book, and in the addendum the Thomas-Kilmann model is explained.

1. Overcoming the 5 dysfunctions
of a team
P. Lencioni’s book overview
George Sfyris

2. Overview of the model

3. If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you
- Zig Ziglar (motivational speaker)

4. Conflict is the beginning of consciousness
- Esther Harding (psychoanalyst)

5. Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a
company work, a society work, a civilization work.
- Vince Lombardi (football player and coach)

6. I just think we need more accountability and transparency
- John Thune (Politician)

7. Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and
just keep taking the next step towards completing it.
- John Carmack (Software Engineer)

8. Leader objective:
Overcome the 5 dysfunctions

9. Leader Actions
Fear of conflict
● Allow conflict & model conflict behavior
● Help team members overcome fear of conflict
Lack of commitment
● Take decisions & let people explain their ideas
● Push for adherence to schedule and closing issues
Avoidance of accountability
● Empower the team to be the accountability mechanism
● Serve as the ultimate arbiter of discipline when needed
Inattention to results
● Set the tone for a focus on results
● Be selfless and objective with rewards
Absence of trust
● Display genuine vulnerability & social events
● Personal history exercise(s) at correct timing

10. Team objective:
Overcome the 5 dysfunctions

11. Team Actions
Fear of conflict
● Engage in productive conflict
● Understand the inevitability of discomfort
Lack of commitment
● Ability to defy the lack of consensus
● Explain their ideas to the team
Avoidance of accountability
● Hold each other accountable
● Report their progress to the team
Inattention to results
● Remove ambiguity when it comes to success
● Establish measurement of success
Absence of trust
● Ask/offer help
● Accept the different personalities in the team

12. High performance teams vs Dysfunctional teams
Members help each other
Safe environment to speak up
Members don’t help each other
Avoid meetings
Poor performance and results
Team turnover
High performance, team based results
Highly motivated team
Missed deadlines & deliverables
Hopelessness & poor performance
Ambiguous direction
Revisit of discussions
Lack of transparency & confusion
Tough issues not confronted
Poor performers are held accountable
Same standards for everyone
Aligned on common objectives
Clarity on direction and priorities
Confront issues quickly
Minimal policies
Practical solutions

13. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Summary
We use all five conflict-handling modes.
Temperament or practice makes us use modes more efficiently
Conflict is also a cultural thing!
Your conflict behavior in the workplace is therefore a result of
both your personal predispositions and the requirements of the
situation in which you find yourself.

14. Summary
If everything is important, then
nothing is.
-P. Lencioni

15. Thank you!

16. Overview of the 5 dysfunctions
1. Absence of Trust
● We want to be
invulnerable
● Exposing weakness is
frowned upon
● Trust requires honesty
2. Fear of Conflict 3. Lack of commitment
● Artificial harmony - but
people are angry
● Difficulty to take
important decisions
● No engagement
between team members
● Ambiguity prevails due
to desire for consensus
● Ambiguity prevails due
to need for certainty
● People will not buy-in if
they do not have an
opportunity to weigh-in

17. Overview of the 5 dysfunctions
4. Avoidance of accountability
● We want to avoid
unpleasant situations
● No buy-in = No
accountability
● Team members need to
monitor team and
individual's performance
5. Inattention to results
● No common goals
amongst team members
● Ego and status get in the
way
● Politics and negative
language

18. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Competing (or forcing)
Assertive and uncooperative — an individual
pursues his own concerns at the other person's
expense. This is a power-oriented mode in which
you use whatever power seems appropriate to
win your own position — your ability to argue,
your rank, or economic sanctions. Competing
means "standing up for your rights," defending a
position which you believe is correct, or simply
trying to win.

19. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Collaborating
Both assertive and cooperative — the complete
opposite of avoiding. Collaborating involves an
attempt to work with others to find some solution
that fully satisfies their concerns. It means digging
into an issue to pinpoint the underlying needs and
wants of the two individuals. Collaborating
between two persons might take the form of
exploring a disagreement to learn from each
other's insights or trying to find a creative solution
to an interpersonal problem

20. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Compromising
Moderate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The
objective is to find some expedient, mutually acceptable
solution that partially satisfies both parties. It falls
intermediate between competing and accommodating.
Compromising gives up more than competing but less than
accommodating. Likewise, it addresses an issue more directly
than avoiding, but does not explore it in as much depth as
collaborating. In some situations, compromising might mean
splitting the difference between the two positions,
exchanging concessions, or seeking a quick middle-ground
solution.

21. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Avoiding
Unassertive and uncooperative—the person
neither pursues his own concerns nor those of
the other individual. Thus he does not deal with
the conflict. Avoiding might take the form of
diplomatically sidestepping an issue, postponing
an issue until a better time, or simply
withdrawing from a threatening situation.

22. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Accommodating
Unassertive and cooperative—the complete
opposite of competing. When accommodating,
the individual neglects his own concerns to
satisfy the concerns of the other person; there is
an element of self-sacrifice in this mode.
Accommodating might take the form of selfless
generosity or charity, obeying another person's
order when you would prefer not to, or yielding
to another's point of view.

23. Conflict Behavior: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model
Summary
Each of us is capable of using all five conflict-handling
modes. None of us can be characterized as having a
single style of dealing with conflict. But certain people
use some modes better than others and, therefore, tend
to rely on those modes more heavily than
others—whether because of temperament or practice.
Your conflict behavior in the workplace is therefore a
result of both your personal predispositions and the
requirements of the situation in which you find
yourself.