Overcoming The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Every worship, tech and production team should go through this book together if they haven’t already.  This book has been out for a while now but the concepts in it have yielded great results with every team I have worked with.

In fact, over the last couple weeks the whole Worship Arts staff (worship pastors, tech, production and admins) at Bayside has been going through “Overcoming The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team” program together.  Doing this as a team may be the most significant team builder we do all year.  My team has been amazing and they have engaged and done very well with this.

Here’s the premise of the book in a nutshell:

Dysfunction 1: Absence of Trust

The first dysfunction is the absence of trust amongst team members. Trust is defined as a vulnerability type trust.  Trust is never generated in teams when the team members are not prepared to be vulnerable. Instead they feel the need to be right, to be strong and competent, so much that they are unable to be vulnerable and open with one another. The lack of trust amongst teams is a huge waste of time and energy as team members invest their time and energy in defensive behaviors, reluctant to ask for help and to assist others.

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

Trust is the foundation of great teams and it’s trust that makes team conflict possible. Teams become dysfunctional when they are unable to productively deal with conflict. All meaningful relationships require productive conflict for them to grow. Healthy conflict occurs when people talk about the issue at hand avoiding personal attacks, looking for the best solution for the team. Teams tend to avoid conflict often replacing it with an artificial harmony.

“Harmony itself is good, I suppose, if it comes as a result of working through issues constantly and cycling through conflict. But if it comes only as a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, then it’s a bad thing.”

We wear masks and focus on being nice to everyone. however, productive conflict is required for teams to become functional. This allows for meaningful dialogue where people are open to share, without feeling fearful of reprisal or criticism. One of the worst team dysfunctions is when you have a team of “yes men”.

Dysfunction 3: Lack of Commitment

When teams engage in productive conflict they can confidently commit and buy-in to decisions. Commitment is a function of clarity and buy-in. Productive teams make clear decisions and are confident that they have the support from every team member. A lack of commitment usually arises from not hearing all the teams concerns before making a decision. There can be no commitment without debate. People will not buy into something when their opinions and thoughts on the matter were not included and discussed. “If they don’t weigh in, then they won’t buy in.” This is not as much about seeking consensus as it is about making sure that everyone is heard.

At the end of the day everyone needs to get to the point where they can say, “I may not agree with your ideas but I understand them and can support them.”

Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of Accountability

Without team commitment you cannot have accountability. If the team is to be accountable, everyone must have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.

“People aren’t going to hold each other accountable if they haven’t clearly bought in to the same plan.”

At the end of the day it’s about each team member being accountable to the team. This means that a team member never lets the team down when is comes to meeting commitments. The team needs to hold their peers responsible for achieving results and working to high standards. It’s the responsibility of each team member to hold one another accountable and accept it when others hold them accountable.

Dysfunction 5: Inattention to Results

When teams are not held accountable the team members tend to look out for their own interests, rather than the interests of the team. A healthy team places team results as the most important goal. When all team members place the team’s results first the team becomes results orientated.

Achieving Personal Alignment

It’s a busy season.  You have a ton of meetings to attend, emails to address, people to call, fires to put out and this doesn’t even really address all the other things you were hired to do at your job that still need to happen!  Not to mention, you think about a whole different set of tasks that need to happen on the other side of the spectrum like: family time, thoughts that need formulating, blog posts that need to be written, blogs to visit, relationships that need nurturing, twitter and facebook updates, “personal touches” actions that let people know you were ACTUALLY thinking about them like a phone call or sitting down for coffee.  It can all become overwhelming.

Thought Walks

I walk almost every morning for an hour or so to focus on alignment.  I try to do this prayerfully but many times it becomes a series of “mentalsodes” that feature yours truly in a myriad of scenes ranging from me rehearsing conversations I need to have, scripting “that document” intended to inspire change like in the movie Jerry McGuire (not a memo, a mission statement) to delivering powerful speeches like in A Few Good Men.  Believe it or not, my tendency is to usually come back to the purpose of this time, get grounded and center my thoughts on what is important.  Last week there was too much on my mind about too many different things with too full of a schedule ahead of me to really do anything.  The realignment process that the Thought Walks provide was being threatened with every step.  Then it hit me.

Isaiah 40:31

but those who wait on the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

The progression in this verse broke through the little circus of tangents happening in my mind at that moment.  Soar.  Run.  Walk.  In that order.  Why is it that those who wait on the Lord soar, run and then walk?  Wait a minute, it seemed like that progression should have been the opposite.  I would have thought that as we “wait,” we naturally start off slow gradually reaching that point in life where we are “soaring.”  This seems like a perfect and much more desirable pace for people or at least for me.  Not to get too spiritual about things but at that point I felt like my head slowed down enough for God to come show me what He was trying to do in my heart.

As busy as life is, it is screaming for the pace of the walk.  That pace lends itself to deeper relationship, fresh perspective, long term sustainability, insight, wisdom, discernment and of course alignment.  It’s a pace of the heart that offers so much stability amidst the busyness.  In the grand scheme of things, I know life will always have it’s busy seasons but there is nothing fun about a busy head and a faint heart so pace yourself.

How do you manage your busy schedules?  How do you maintain alignment when life gets really busy?

Break Free:Overcoming Discouragement

Great points from Pastor Ray this weekend on “Breaking Free From the Grip of Discouragement.”  This series has been killer!

Here are some highlights:

HOW TO FACE YOUR FUTURE WITH CONFIDENCE

1.    Let God’s _Grace__ Resolve Your Past

“…And the Holy Spirit has been at work in your hearts, cleansing you with the blood of Jesus Christ and making you to please Him.”  1 PETER 1:2B (LB)
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope…”   1 PETER 1:3
2.     Let God’s __Promises__ Lift Your Spirit

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”  1 PETER 1:6

WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN DISCOURAGED

1 PETER 1

•    God has CHOSEN you!

“Dear friends, God the Father chose you long ago and knew you would become His children…”   1 PETER 1:2A

•    God has SECURED my Future!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you.”  1 PETER 1:3-4

“…Do you realize how fortunate you are?  Angels would have given anything to be in on this!”  1 PETER 1:12B (TM)

•    God is BIGGER!

“Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  1 PETER 1:5

•    God is WORKING!

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  1 PETER 1:6-7

3.     Let Your _HOPES_ not Your  _HURTS_ Shape Your Future
“He has given us new birth into a living hope.”  1 PETER 1:3

The Blog Church Pt 2–Dr Jeff Garner

Welcome guest blogger Dr. Jeff Garner on the “The Blog Church”

Technology is cool. Technology is not evil, its a tool, wielded to the lusts and longings of its master. Blogging, Twittering, and tech-necking whatever new gadget debuts on the fingertips of the USA can and should be used by the church to reach our community and world. I agree with much of what you say. But (i have to play advocate here) . . . it could be argued that in Scripture the only place where real community seems to happen in organic and healthy ways in around food. (but it could be equally argued that they didn’t have twitter either). In any event, in the post-resurrection Jesus encounters food seems to be the place where Jesus shows up most often. People gathering together, doing life together in intentional community is another theme of the early church. They just did life together. Moreover, Jesus reminds us that he is with us when we break bread and drink wine as we remember him. This is real and authentic community. I am sure someone will think up a way through an avatar to take communion, but it never will substitute for tasting the wine and bitter bread with other people of faith, looking into their fleshly eyes and seeing Jesus in them and remembering Jesus.

Yeah there are times when i want to just crawl in my techno-cave and not talk to anyone. Just e-verse (instead of converse) and text (instead) of talk. But I really need real people, real relationships not mediated by electronic gadgets but mediated in fleshly casings. I hunger for real people and real relationships in real face-to-face encounters.

So i guess i am saying that i think they would have twittered, texted, blogged and anything else together but i don’t think they would have quit meeting together or used technology as a substitute for human interaction. Doing life together whether its texting from 2,000 miles away or sipping tea over the same table. But if i can’t live in Sacramento with CJ and Jackie I love the idea of having community with them from San Francisco, that is where technology is great.

Dr Jeff Garner is the Senior Pastor at S.F Lighthouse Churchмебели in San Francisco California and you can find his blog here.