
Maybe you recognize that your own team has some struggles, but you're not really sure what is causing the turmoil. Lencioni professes a kind-of-a Maslow's hierarchy of dysfunction as follows:
How to overcome a lack of trust? Certainly not overnight! It requires shared experiences over time that include understanding and a building of credibility for team members. One of the suggestions is...oh, no, dare I say it...team building exercises.
Once the team buys into the vision of building trust, a simple exercise such as sharing personal history can work well. In the next team gathering, go around the table and ask folks to share some information about themselves such as hometown, favorite hobbies, first job, worst job, etc. This provides team members with the opportunity to relate to each other in another way and see each other as people with interesting backgrounds. This encourages greater empathy and understanding, a few main steps in building trust and rapport.
Next time we'll cover some of the ways to overcome the other dysfunctions of teams. Stop back soon!