{"id":3673,"date":"2018-08-06T18:25:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T23:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=3673"},"modified":"2020-12-21T20:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T01:56:04","slug":"how-can-we-turnaround-dysfunctional-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/how-can-we-turnaround-dysfunctional-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can We Turnaround Dysfunctional Teams?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3706\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dysfunctional-team-picture1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"dysfunctional team picture1\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dysfunctional-team-picture1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dysfunctional-team-picture1.jpg 905w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Assuming a new position in a Company is never easy. Everyone in the Company knows that Leadership (and extended) Team is vital to achieving success Yet, this is not always the case. Often, new executives get to face dysfunctional, non-performing, and poorly organized \u201cteam inheritances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This can be a challenging dilemma when management is increasingly confronted with a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment.\u00a0 Surviving a VUCA environment requires a \u201cdynamic team\u201d that strikes towards a common direction in unifying action to achieve one purpose.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s world where competition has become stiffer, sharper, and rough, the importance of having High-Performing Leadership Teams\u201d has come to a fore.\u00a0 Never shall executives allow dysfunctional teams to continue as deadwood that barely keeps our heads above water.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Definition of a Dysfunctional Team&#8230; Can You Say \u201cThe Miami Heat?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2011, LeBron and his Miami Head \u201cteam self-implode during the 2011 NBA finals. The ESPNS poll showed that 49 states in the U.S. wanted to see Dallas beat Miami. The lesson was pretty obvious.\u00a0 The NBA finals showed that dysfunction within a team, regardless of the level of talent of the individuals, inhibits organizations from reaching their goals (in the case of the Miami Heat, an NBA championship). The good news is organizational dysfunction can be corrected by understanding the underlying causes that prevent teams from working as one.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Common Leadership Team Dysfunctions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Having a good understanding of common <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/team-turnaround-strategies-3357\">leadership team dysfunctions<\/a> and the underlying causes that led to the creation of deadwoods in organizations can give Executives a better handle of rallying the troops to fly high.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/team-turnaround-strategies-3357\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3690 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-1-dysfunctional-team-final.jpg\" alt=\"slide 1 dysfunctional team final\" width=\"624\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-1-dysfunctional-team-final.jpg 624w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-1-dysfunctional-team-final-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Collective Delegation Up<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A team that \u201cdelegates up\u201d decision is unwilling to make and own its decisions.\u00a0 This can be a limiting factor to Executives wanting to focus their energies on strategic issues.\u00a0 The team cease to be a tactical resource an Executive can tap to achieve planned results.<\/p>\n<p>Worse, a collective delegating up can create a culture of fear where team members become static and poor performing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Collective Dysfunction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Inheriting a low energy, poorly engaged, and not committed extended Leadership Team is like an Executive hitting a blank wall. A common brand, goals, role clarity, and group processes have not been established in forging the team.\u00a0 As a result, members are not actively involved in important decisions during meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Credibility is lost more so when mediocrity is promoted and \u201cyes\u201d people are elevated to higher positions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Organization Silos<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During transition, Executives may inherit hierarchical and siloed organizations.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Definition of Silo Mentality in Business<\/span>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Silo Mentality as defined by the Business Dictionary is a mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not share information, goals, tools, priorities, and processes with other departments. Silo is a business term that has been passed around and discussed at many board room tables over the last 30 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This traditional model of organization can lead to delays in decision making, lost opportunities, and erroneous non-adaptive responses to shifting business environments.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Team Turnaround Strategies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Existence of dysfunctional teams indicate the presence of ineffective management system in companies. It has created a culture that is not supportive towards the attainment of its goals and objectives.<\/p>\n<p>Coming up with the appropriate <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/team-turnaround-strategies-3357\">Team Turnaround Strategies<\/a> is necessary.\u00a0 Foremost in the priorities of the company is to diagnose the situation and determine the factors that have detrimentally contributed to its development.\u00a0 Appropriate diagnosis will then effectively guide our company in identifying the appropriate strategy necessary for specific team dysfunctions.<\/p>\n<p>There are 3 dysfunctional Team Turnaround Strategies, each addressing a specific dysfunction.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Shared Accountability<\/li>\n<li>Energized Commitment<\/li>\n<li>Synchronized High Performance<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/team-turnaround-strategies-3357\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3691 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-2-dysfunction-team-final.jpg\" alt=\"slide 2 dysfunction team final\" width=\"626\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-2-dysfunction-team-final.jpg 626w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slide-2-dysfunction-team-final-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Turnaround Strategy <\/strong>to address<strong> Collective Delegation Up: Shared Accountability<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A culture of Shared Accountability must be created where team members can vigorously debate issues and make choices by themselves without fear of retribution. Culture change is not easy. Hence, a more systematic approach is necessary to engage and facilitate culture change.<\/p>\n<p>Culture change must be promoted and celebrated when members display decision making behaviors necessary to achieve Shared Accountability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Turnaround Strategy <\/strong>to address<strong> Collective Dysfunction: Energized Commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Turning around a low energy, poorly engaged, and not committed team is not easy or instant. This can be a challenge specially if it is the collective belief of the team that needs to be changed.\u00a0 The Executive must be able to determine the root cause of the team\u2019s belief and behavior to be able to turnaround the team.<\/p>\n<p>A collective dysfunction can be turned around into an \u201cEnergized and Committed Team.\u201d Our company must be able to recognize discretionary energy and efforts.\u00a0 It is necessary that the Executives must be able to visibly demonstrate, communicate, and reinforce this to the team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Turnaround Strategy <\/strong>to address<strong> Organization Silos: Synchronized High Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Resolving the conundrum of organization and team silos can be best done by constructing \u201cteam of teams.\u201d Organizing \u201cteam of teams\u2019 can dramatically improve strategic and operational capability of the organization to substantially scale up performance.<\/p>\n<p>Achieving synchronized performance requires change at multiple levels in what the team believes and how they are organized.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in gaining more understanding on how to turnaround dysfunctional teams? You can learn more and download an <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/team-turnaround-strategies-3357\">editable PowerPoint about Team Turnaround Strategies here<\/a> on the Flevy document marketplace.<\/p>\n<h2>Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n<p>You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\">FlevyPro Library<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\">FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here&#8217;s what some have to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant&#8217;s toolbox.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it&#8217;s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients&#8217; benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assuming a new position in a Company is never easy. Everyone in the Company knows that Leadership (and extended) Team is vital to achieving success Yet, this is not always the case. Often, new executives get to face dysfunctional, non-performing, and poorly organized \u201cteam inheritances.\u201d This can be a challenging dilemma when management is increasingly&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/how-can-we-turnaround-dysfunctional-teams\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How Can We Turnaround Dysfunctional Teams?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":3706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[106,1259,1261,1260],"class_list":["post-3673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","tag-leadership","tag-team-building","tag-team-development","tag-team-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3673"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8279,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions\/8279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}