COACHING

DYSFUNCTIONAL TEAMS
 COACHING
DYSFUNCTIONAL TEAMS
(disorganized, ineffective, misaligned, unfit, troubled, lazy,…)
Hello !
My name is Mariya Breyter
For over 20 years, my job
involves team coaching and
digital product delivery
maria_breiter@yahoo.com; @mbreyter

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1. What is a dysfunctional team?
The Definition
What is a dysfunctional team?

Based on your own experience, define a dysfunctional team

Group exercise: Five WHYs
The exercise:
One of the participants describes a dysfunctional team in 2-3
sentences, and others take turns asking five WHY questions

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Examples

«I was part of a team where everyone took credit of other team members’ work.
Whatever I accomplished, someone else reported it to the manager as their own work.”
“Why did they report it to the manager?”
“Because the manager wanted to know who accomplished each deliverable.”
“Why was it so important to the manager?”
“Because in the end of the year the manager had to write individual performance
reviews.”
“Why was it needed?”
“Because our compensation and promotion depended on this review.”

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“ Leaders fix the
environment. Not the
people”

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2. What is the optimal team
environment?
Secrets of high-performing teams
Project
Aristotle
Five secrets of high-
performing teams (2012)

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Five Keys to Success (page 1)

Psychological Dependability Structure and clarity

safety
Team members must be Everyone needs to Clear direction and goals is
comfortable in taking risks contribute to the best of their vital. Everyone needs to
and speaking their minds. ability and understand what part they
They need to know that their deliver high quality work. play on the team.
team members will support They must do this within the
their actions and not ridicule time parameters allotted and
them. agreed upon.

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Five Keys to Success (page 2)

Meaning of work Impact of work

Personal satisfaction in the job team Team members want to feel that they are
members are performing is a key element not simply wasting their time when doing
in the success of the team. things.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

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Five Dysfunctions of a Team

1. Absence of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of
accountability
5. Inattention to results

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2. How to coach a team
towards high performance?
Real-life examples
Example #1.
Laura (product manager):
I have an idea for a new feature. I did customer
research, and I know this is something our
customers need.
Sam (development manager);
We have a problem – technical debt is
significant. If we do not take care of it, we will
lose all the customers.
Laura: It’s so hard to work with you. All you
think of is yourself.
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Solution: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

OBJECTIVE - We will achieve market leadership for GitLab by

KEY RESULT 1 – Growing use of GitLab for all stages of the DevOps
lifecycle by 10% via establishing three proven case studies (Product)
KEY RESULT 2 – Ensuring appropriate transactional business pricing
(Sales)
KEY RESULT 3 – Launching advertising for the customer base for
Manage, Plan, Create, and increase overall pipeline coverage by 8 %
(Marketing)

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Example #2.
Laura and Sam escalated this misalignment to
their manager who made the decision to
prioritize technical debt. Laura is very upset
now, she tells everyone that their manager is
biased and that she and her direct reports will
quietly continue working on the new feature
rather than the tech debt tickets.

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Solution: Create a Working Agreement

Working Agreement

Source: https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/stop-spinning-your-teams-wheels-its-time-to-revisit-your- 19
working-agreements/
 Example #3.
Laura and the business analysts on the team
committed to supporting the tech debt reduction
effort. They were so eager now that they
organized a competition who finds more defects.
Every day at the daily Scrum, they report how
many defects each of them found and which
developer is responsible. Now the developers are
unhappy with business analysts and team’s
productivity started decreasing.

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Solution: You get what you measure

Metrics drives behavior!

A possible approach: pair business analysts with developers and
measure the number of defects fixed vs. the number of errors made

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 Example #4.
With the new metrics, productivity improved, and then
George, a new developed joined the team. George is
never happy. Every morning he starts with a new
question to his peers: Why is Pavel out of office again?
Why their manager praises Stephany all the time? Why
Laura has her opinion about every single topic? Why
Sam speaks at all conferences?
Other team members started having thoughts about
unfairness on the team. Why aren’t they appreciated?
Why others are not working as hard as they are? Why
are they paid so little? Why is vacation so short? It must
be better in other companies… Team productivity went
down again.
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Solution: Remove toxicity from the team
▪ Depending on where the team is in the Bruce Tuckman model (forming,
storming, norming, performing) the team may resist toxicity
▪ As a Coach, dedicate a timeboxed effort to understanding the underlying reason
for toxic behavior and collaborate in removing it
▪ If this does not help, remove the toxic member from the team

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How to detect a toxic person?
▪ You talk or think about this person a lot
▪ You get upset or unhappy at work
▪ You are no longer excited to come to work
▪ Your self-esteem goes down
▪ You try to avoid this person
▪ Finally, toxic person’s complaints and rumors start resonating with you

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Types of Toxic Behavior
Spotting this behavior How to affect it?
Always unhappy, constantly
Negativity complaining
Make part of the solution

Agree on individual measurable

Jealousy Why not me? Why me?
goals

Refocus on delivery and

Victim Accountability issues
accomplishments

Aggressive or Finger pointing, aggressive

Strategic and research work
Passive Aggressive behavior

Underdeliver themselves and

Procrastinator distract others
Specific tasks

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Example #5.
George felt that no one understands him and
moved to another team. He did not last there
either.
His replacement, Steve, was a talented and
experienced developer. Sam was excited to see
another leader on the team. Unfortunately, their
relationship became contentious. Steve did all
his work the way he wanted it to be done, did
not collaborate with others, and constantly
argued with Laura and business analysts for no
obvious reason. It seemed that all he was
focused on was his own influence.
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Solution: Team Topology
▪ Balance your team Inspirer

▪ Tools: Guardian Executive

- MBTI (personality typology) Giver

- Team Performer Visionary Mechanic

- Other tools? Caregiver

Duty
Fulfiller
Protector

Artist Idealist

Doer

Nurturer Scientist

Thinker

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 Example #6.
Steve did not last on the team either, and after
he left, the team member bonded together. They
enjoyed collaborating as a team, went out for
lunches, shared their hobbies, and the work was
going very well. They completed the tech debt
reduction effort and started releasing new
features incrementally. However, as the winter
holidays were approaching, they became
suspicious of each other and rumors started
going around.
What has happened?

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Solution: Remove Competition within the Team

Source: EmpxTrack

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 Example #7.
Despite all the worries, team’s accomplishments
were recognized. Team members got a noticeable
bonus and team’s productivity went up again.
All of a sudden, Sam has resigned. His friend
started a startup to reform health insurance with a
goal of making a quality medical treatment available
to everyone. Shortly after Sam, Laura has left. She
had an autistic son, and she joined a company that
produced educational toys for autistic children.
Despite a slight decrease in her compensation, she
felt inspired.

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Solution: Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943)

Self-Actualization
Desire to become the most that one
1 can be contributing to a meaningful
cause

Esteem & Recognition

Respect, self-esteem, recognition,
love and belonging, sense of 2
connection

Safety & Physiological

Needs
Personal security, employment,
3
resources, health, air, water, food,
shelter, sleep

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Summary: 7 Ways of Overcoming Team Dysfunction

❑ Define Objectives and Key Results

Strategy
❑ Craft a Working Agreement
❑ Drive Behaviors with Metrics
❑ Remove Toxicity
❑ Balance your Team Structure
❑ Get Rid of Competition within the Team
❑ Build Your Maslow’s Pyramid

System

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Thank you!
Any questions?
▪ @mbreyter
▪ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariyabreyter/
▪ maria_breiter@yahoo.com
▪ www.agileleantransformation.com

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