The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Coursework Example

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Decision Tech’s Ineffectiveness 3 Behavioural Norms 4 Four Stages of Team Development 5 Forming 5 Norming 6 Storming 7 Performing 7 Seven Tools for Developing Credibility 9 A Task Facilitating Role 10 10 A Relationship Building Role 10 Blocking Role 10 Work Cited 11 Decision Tech’s Ineffectiveness The ineffectiveness of a team working at various organizations arises due to different reasons. Kathryn Peterson, who was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Decision Tech, made the organization run smoothly under her assistance. Decision Tech., located in San Francisco had quite an effective working team. The members working in the team were very much talented, the company had garnered increase in its capital, and moreover it had highly efficient engineers (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Jeff Shanley was at the top most position of the company and the members of the organization were not at all surprised when he was appointed as the CEO. Unfortunately, the company, Decision Tech. faced a lot troubles under the assistance of the CEO Jeff Shanley. Apparently, when CEO Kathryn Peterson was appointed the members of Decision Tech were increasingly surprised. The reason behind such striking behavior of the members of the organization was that Kathryn Peterson was neither at the top most position of the organization nor did she have very high qualifications. After she became the leader of the organization, it made a lot of profits. The employees worked under her for a longer period of time but as time went by the working environment under her seemed monotonous for the employees. The employees left the organization and shifted to other organizations (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). From the above analysis of Decision Tech, it is evidently understood that in order to be an efficient team leader high qualifications and higher post is not much important. However, the factor which really matters is the urge or the need of becoming something in life similar to the kind of interest, which Kathryn Peterson showed during her interview procedure for joining Decision Tech. The Chairman was highly impressed by her attitude towards joining Decision Tech and offered her the job of senior leadership post. The urge of being something in life made her the most promising team leader. In order to develop a healthy working atmosphere, the team leader should be replaced at some point of time otherwise employees might leave the organization due to same type of working scenario (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Therefore, it can be analyzed that the most appropriate attribute that correlates with the ineffectiveness scenario in Decision Tech would be “Effective teams do not always have the same leader” (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). As it is quite apparent that leadership role of the leader prior to Kathryn Peterson had played a major role in the ineptitude of the organization Behavioural Norms Before Kathryn joined the organization, there was no proper communication between the top level and the lower level members of the organization, Decision Tech. Kathryn had to set up meetings in order to make the members of the organization be accustomed to having healthy conversation with each other. Kathryn held the meetings in order to build a strong atmosphere in the workplace and reduce conflicts between the employees. With less conversation, an effective working atmosphere cannot be built in any of the organization. Decision Tech. had a precedent scenario of not getting involved in significant communication with their customers, which made the organization lack in terms of acquiring updated knowledge of the customer requirements. It had a crucial impact upon the profitability of the organization. With the help of Kathryn’s leadership the company made more profits by building a strong relationship between the employees of the organization and the customers (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Kathryn always believed that in order to reach the future goals of the organization, employee satisfaction is very much important. Once employees are satisfied with the organization they will give more labor in fulfilling the needs of the organization. The entire concept was missing before Kathryn became the CEO of Decision Tech. With the help of her leadership she was able to satisfy the needs and the desires of the employees of the organization (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Four Stages of Team Development Forming After appointment of Kathryn as the CEO of the organization the first step which she took was that she called for a meeting of the members of the organization. With the help of this meeting there was communication between the members of the organization which helped her in forming a healthy team. She believed that in order to develop a healthy team, transfer of information is very much important among the employees. Kathryn also believed that if employees are not familiar with the rules and the regulations of the organization then it will be very much difficult for the organization to meet the future goals. Therefore, the meeting was one of the utmost important decisions taken by her (Lencioni, P. M. “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). For instance, in Persian Gulf Logistics team the first task which they did in order to meet the future goals of the organization was that they laid the objectives, policy measures and resources of the company in front of their team members. These helped the team members in understanding their work more clearly and carry out their work in an organized way (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Norming In spite of Decision Tech being successful, the company lacked in terms creating favorable customer opportunity. In this respect, two of the competitors of the company were placed in a more positive position with the customers. Kathryn pointed out in one of the meetings that due to lack of trust among the team members, the company is unable to meet customer opportunity. In order to build the trust, the members of the team have to be given more importance. Without providing employee satisfaction, trust cannot be built in the organization and future goals cannot be achieved (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). For example, the President of United States John F. Kennedy was one of the most successful decision makers. He had given the best possible solution to his team while dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Apparently, under the leadership of John F. Kennedy the former Soviet Union was restrained from placing certain warhead missiles in Cuba, however, same team under John F. Kennedy had shown disastrous performance while dealing with the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The above observation reveals that pointing out the aspect in which the company such as Decision Tech. is lacking is important for healthy organizational growth. Moreover, giving the best optimal solution to those problems will make the organization to earn more profit (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Storming Kathryn, the CEO of Decision Tech believed that in order to build a healthy team, individual satisfaction of the employees working in the team is essential. If motivation is not given to the employees working in the team then the organization cannot exist in the long run. Personal success and team success are equally important in order to make any organization successful. Kathryn had pointed out the fact that the organization, Decision Tech was more focused individual performance and not on group performance (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). From a general point of view, it is a known fact that motivation acts as a key contributing factor to attain success for any organization. Once motivation is provided to the employees, the employees are bound to work hard. This hard working nature will provide the employees individual success and also present the organization with a better team work (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Performing Kathryn had pointed out the mistakes that were occurring in Decision Tech. This made it easier for the organization to perform in a better way and make more profits. Moreover, Kathryn believed that for the organization to sustain, mutual trust is very much significant. Once trust is been achieved and team members’ start working as a group this will help the team leader to carry the organization to its top most position (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). For instance, it is believed that if in any organization, team performance is healthy, it can make easy to complete any assigned task within the organization in a convenient way. Performance of the organization mainly depends on two factors, one is task-facilitating roles and the other one is relationship-building roles. The employees of Decision Tech. were more focused towards task-facilitating roles for building individual characteristics and team development for further growth of the organization (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Seven Tools for Developing Credibility Among the seven tools of developing credibility, Kathryn was more into being a ‘clear and consistent’ team leader. She recognized certain drawbacks of the organization, which required to be addressed. First of all, there was no healthy communication among the employees of the organization. Therefore, Kathryn decided to hold meetings in order to build a strong relationship among the employees. Secondly, there was less customer opportunity at Decision Tech. Kathryn made it evident to the organization that without customer opportunity, profit cannot be earned in the long run. Thirdly, the company was very much concentrated towards individualistic approach; however it required more of team work. Kathryn was successful in turning the negative facets of the organization to derive positive outcomes. She gave the organization a healthy atmosphere by emphasizing more on customer satisfaction, building team work and communication among the employees. Moreover, there was lack of trust in the minds of the people who were working in the organization. Kathryn made it apparent that if trust is not developed among the employees then the organization cannot be successful in the coming future. Kathryn started to take certain initiatives so that the trust is created among the employees and reason of distrust can be known more closely. Kathryn was successful in making evident to the organization the various misleading factors that were setting back the company from obtaining desired progress. She was also able devise strategies to acquire solutions for the hindrance creating aspects. Therefore, she carried out those solutions in a very consistent way (Lencioni, P. M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). A Task Facilitating Role Carlos Amador, a staff of Decision Tech had been involving himself towards becoming part of certain critical thinking process in the organization. He made certain valuable contributions and provided crucial inputs that helped in organizational advancement. He made his contributions largely towards developing the quality of the products (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). A Relationship Building Role Jeff Shanley, the previous CEO prior to Kathryn Peterson was strong in building a healthy relationship with the customers as well as the employees. He brought the organization with more growth by raising money and giving more of employment opportunities (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Blocking Role The blocking role was observed to be played by Michele Bebe, who was the marketing head of Decision Tech. He was terminated from the organization due to individualistic approach towards the organization. The organization required more of team work and due to his individualistic development the company had suffered loss and was not able to earn profit (Lencioni, P.M., “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable”). Work Cited Lencioni, Patrick M. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable John Wiley and Sons, 2010. Read More