The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team

How many of you have read the popular book, The Five Behaviors of a Dysfunctional Team by Patrick Lencioni? Wiley publishing, the publisher of the book, has created an assessment for teams to complete determining how they measure up in each of the five behaviors. I just completed the certification for the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team assessment and will offer it as a service of Insights4Results, LLC. The assessment incorporates the DiSC®, a tool designed to help you understand yourself and others better, so each team member learns how their DiSC® styles influences their behaviors. The DiSC questions are included as part of the Five Behaviors assessment  

The following is a brief summary of the five behaviors.

1 / Trust One Another

When team members are genuinely transparent and honest with one another, they are able to build vulnerability-based trust.

2 / Engage in Conflict Around Ideas

When there is trust, team members are able to engage in unfiltered, respectful, constructive debate of ideas.

3 / Commit to Decisions

When team members are able to offer opinions and debate ideas, they will be more likely to commit to decisions.

4 / Hold One Another Accountable

When everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they will be more willing to hold one another accountable.

5 / Focus on Achieving Collective Results

The ultimate goal of building greater trust, conflict, commitment, and accountability is one thing: the achievement of results.

How would you rate yourself as a team member on each of the Five Behaviors?

How would you rate your overall team on each of the Five Behaviors?

Is there one behavior that is getting in the way of achieving your results?

The behaviors occur in sequential order and build to achieve successful results. It starts with trust, if there is lack of trust on a team it will influence team members engaging in respectful, healthy conflict over differences in ideas and in turn committing to the decisions made. Add an unwillingness to hold one another accountable and that will ultimately influence achieving the desired results.

The assessment is intended to be used with intact teams. A team is a relatively small number of people, usually from three to twelve, who meet on a regular basis

and are collectively responsible for results. The team members share common goals as well as the rewards and responsibilities for achieving them. Not every group is a team. For example, a group that appears to be a team might simply be a collection of people who report to the same manager, but who have relatively little interdependence and mutual accountability. If a group does not meet the criteria of a true team, this process is unlikely to produce the results they expect.

I am excited about the opportunity to support building high performing teams by providing them with the tools, knowledge and insights on where the team is currently functioning and what can be done to close any gaps to achieve their successful results.