Is your Scrum team dysfunctional?

5 dysfunctions of a team book is a MUST to read for any leader, especially for Scrum Masters. In this article I want to share with you what should you look for before answering if your team is dysfunctional.

To give you an overview about the context, 5 dysfunctions of a team model was developed by Patrick Lencioni under a fable where he bolded the dysfunctions simulating real human interactions.
Reading the book, I got amazed of the attitude and courage of Kathryn - team's leader, and how she handles different situations with her colleagues.
I come over and over to read Patrick Lencioni's book and each time amazes me.

Let's take a look over how these 5 dysfunctions would look like and which are the dysfunctional signs that you can find within a team:

1. ABSENCE OF TRUST - Invulnerability
The first dysfunction lies at the foundation of a team. It relates to the confidence among members so they get comfortable being vulnerable with one another. Invulnerability can be noticed within the team.

How to recognize?
- Hesitate to ask for help from other colleagues or to ask clarifications during Product Backlog Refinement meetings?
- Avoid spending time together, there is no interest in group activities
- Conversation using tools is preferred rather than face to face conversations
- In meetings they have a neutral participation and they refuse to gather together
- Not everyone joins team building activities


2. FEAR OF CONFLICT - Artificial Harmony
The second dysfunction relates to avoiding productive conflict between team members by keeping an artificial harmony within the group. Conflict is considered somehow a taboo especially at work but the essence is that all relationships require productive conflict to grow.

How to recognize?
- Boring meetings, team members don't offer a different perspective than other peers
- No decisions are taken
- Topics which might be controversial are ignored
- Team members avoid to bring in discussion and also to discuss about sensitive topics during retrospectives
- Controversial topics that are critical to team success are ignored


3. LACK OF COMMITMENT - Ambiguity
Another dysfunction relates to ambiguity and failure to buy in decisions. The idea is not for team members to reach a consensus, but to get buy-in even when some members have reservations and don’t agree.

How to recognize?
- Team does not commit to the sprint backlog, focus is missing
- Long discussions and unnecessary delays happen and the majority end up without a decision
- Team does not commit to improvement actions after retrospectives
- It is not clear for team members how their peers contribute to the sprint goal
- Discussions and decisions are revisited again and again, time passes and no progress can be seen

4. AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY - Low Standards

Another  dysfunction refers to accountability avoidance. It refers to the willingness of the team members to call their peers on performance or behavior that might hurt the team and to avoid Low Standards within the group. To be able to do this, teammates need to have a clear sense of what is expected from them. 

How to recognize?

- Sprint goal missed for many times

- Team members don't challenge each other about technical approaches

- Project deadlines and key deliverables not accomplished

- Team members don't offer feedback if a colleague of them don't perform well or if they see something that can be improved by their peer

5. INATTENTION TO RESULTS - Status and Ego

The ultimate dysfunction relates to inattention to results and this happens when there is a team members tendency to care more about their status and ego than the collective goals of the group. 

How to recognize?

- Team members focus more on their individual contribution 

- It is more "I" than "we" in the team

- Team deliverables are missed but team members are ok with this as they did their job

- Individual contribution is more valuable rather than team's performance

Coming back to my question from article's title, I recommend you to do a team assessment that you can find it in the the book, or online at this link. 

The assessment is more valuable as it is completed by the entire team to review results together and discuss discrepancies in the responses.

Next step once you finalised team's assessment is to think how to overcome the dysfunctions.

So tell me, have you notice which are the signs of dysfunctions in your team? 

What does the assessment tells you?