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Conjunction Dysfunction

“Conjunction junction,what’s your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.” -Schoolhouse Rock

Do you remember Schoolhouse Rock? It was so awesome! It came on Saturday morning cartoons in the 70’s and 80’s as an educational program for kids via music. As a musician, I totally dug it! There was “Interplanet Janet” and “A Bill on Capitol Hill” and another favorite “Electricity, Electricity”! These songs were written and performed by a team of writers and musicians who brought musical magic laced with real world wisdom for the minds of youngsters like myself back in the day. They laid the groundwork as a perfect example of teamwork.

The bestselling book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni is a remarkable book that illuminates 5 types of dysfunction that can leave a team dead in the water. As a PRS, we work with other peer recovery specialists as well as other community stakeholders in the work we do. As we seek to contribute to the peer movement, it is always helpful to do a self-analysis under the same dysfunction rubric that is used for team building. They are as follows.

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

Without trust, there is no solid foundation for interpersonal relationships. So, it goes with being a team. It is essential to build trust AND keep it. Trust can take some time to build and you can destroy it in 30 seconds or less. Without trust, a team will not accomplish its objectives at least not without a lot of unnecessary drama.

No one likes conflict. Personally, I do not like it. I don’t know anyone who does. However, conflict is part of human nature and awfully hard to avoid, even on the best of teams. It is not a failure for a team to have conflict. The failure comes in not addressing it and addressing it correctly for the benefit of all team members and the mission at hand.

Commitment is everything. If a team doesn’t commit to the mission at hand, pack it up and go home because the chances of success are small and not stellar. There isn’t too much else to say except team commitment starts with personal commitment. When everyone on the team is committed, game on!

Everyone is accountable to someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow. For example, I am accountable to my supervisor to write germane articles for your edification and encouragement. So, the day I write a journal about purple giraffe zoos on Jupiter is the day I am pretty sure my supervisor will pull me aside for several reasons, chief of which, is the WRONG subject matter for this blog (rightfully so)! Team accountability starts with personal accountability. Accountability, I believe, must be tempered with grace, and sometimes, even mercy. We are all doing our best many days and sometimes we fall short. A great team member acknowledges their part and is open to receiving instruction and help to get back on the proverbial horse. A great leader builds and supports a ‘fallen’ team member so they get up with new resolve. It is not being accountable that is bad, it is how we are held accountable that can be bad. That is what most people fear, not failing, but getting in trouble because we did.

Finally, we work for results in whatever line of work we find ourselves in. Airlines? Safe landings. Car Dealerships? Sell, sell, sell! Peer recovery support services? Stellar support. We have to pay attention to the results in order to calibrate and change them if they are not where we want them to be.

In closing, when we remove the 5 Dysfunction of Team we get this:

1. Trust
2. Healthy conflict and resolution thereof
3. Personal and Team commitment
4. Accountability
5. Hawkeye Results Vigilance
6. Repeat

Challenge: Take a look at the 5 dysfunctions of a team. Apply them to yourself and your individual work…gently. If you are a member and/or leader of a team, do the same with the team as the focus. Both are worth doing. Both lead to results. The point here is just to notice any bit of dysfunction that may be lingering around. Then once discovered, you can put a plan together to move from Conjunction Dysfunction to Team Function!

~ Chris Newcomb