Recognising dysfunctionalityThis is a featured page

Un-aligned people and organizations
Dysfunctionality in teams is rife in many organizations, yet to achieve major change organizational alignment towards common futures is essential. Teams exhibit these dysfunctionalities as follows:
  • Lack of trust: Team members who are not genuinely open with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build a foundation for trust.
  • Fear of conflict: Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered and passionate debate. Instead they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.
  • Lack of commitment: Without having aired their opinions in the course of passionate and open debate, team member rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement.
  • Avoidance of accountability: Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.
  • Inattention to results: team members put their individual needs or even the needs of their divisions above the collective goals of the team.
Resistance to change
Individuals display these response states all of which impact on attention to desired results:
Abstainer: Denial
Denying the need for change is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with facts too uncomfortable to contemplate. They deny the truth in the face of incontrovertible evidence. Denial expressses itself as:
  • Denial of fact: where someone avoids a fact by lying
  • Denial of responsibility: involves avoiding personal responsibility by blaming, minimizing, or justifying
  • Denial of impact: involves a person avoiding thinking about or understanding the harm their behaviors have caused to themselves or others
  • Denial of awareness: People using this type of denial will avoid pain and harm by stating they were in a different state of awareness
  • Denial of cycle: where a person avoids looking at their decisions leading up to an event or does not consider their pattern of decision making and how harmful behavior is repeated
  • Denial of denial: involves thoughts, actions, and behaviors which bolster confidence that nothing needs to be changed in one's personal behavior

Abstainer: Acknowledgement
Expresses it self as 'I'm too busy' or 'It is not a priority for me

Adopter: Acknowledgement
"I see that others can do this but show me what I can do"

Adventurer: Acceptance
"I can see how I can contribute and am strectching myself to do all I can!"

Knowing which state(s) a person, or a group of people is exhibiting, and responding appropriately, can help overcome their roadblocks to acceptance far faster and less painfully than denying their state and ignoring their difficulty.

A good exercise is to assess your people using a four box model. On the y axis assess each of your people on whether they can do or can't do what you are asking of them. On the x axis assess your people on whether they will or wont do what you are asking of them.#

  • Can and will (~20% of the people) : These are your adventurers. Promote and reward them publicly. Give them opportunities to shine and grow etc.
  • Can't but will (30% of the people): Train them, put more experienced people with them, let them see others doing good work etc.
  • Can but won't (~30% of the people): Manage them up or out
  • Can't and won't (~20% of the people): Let them go, now
 Further reference: Denial

Next: Getting Buy-In Back: Preparing for the Future To: Shaping Tomorrow

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thryller
thryller 		Latest page update: made by thryller , Sep 12 2009, 4:18 AM EDT (about this update About This Update thryller Edited by thryller

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Keyword tags: Accountability Attention Conflict Trust
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