Quality Improvement Zone

There are several important elements to consider when supporting a team to work effectively together. The foundation of high performing teams are relationships based on trust and commitment. Patrick Lencioni identified five key behaviours, that if optimised, result in a team working effectively and efficiently together.  Each of these behaviours is interrelated and a breakdown of just one behaviour can prevent a team from achieving its potential.

It can be helpful to look out for the flipside of each these behaviours when you are working with a team.

• Lack of trust often results in reluctance to speak-up and share ideas or perspectives. 
• Fear of conflict results from a lack of trust.  If team members feel their views will be dismissed or ridiculed, they are unlikely to want to contribute to an improvement effort.
• Lack of commitment – if there is a fear of conflict and team members have not been involved meaningfully from the outset, they are unlikely to feel a commitment to support the work proposed.
• Avoidance of Accountability -if team members don’t feel committed to the work they are unlikely to hold themselves or each other to account.
• Inattention to Results – if team members don’t hold each other to account, this can lead to team members disengaging from improvement aims and putting individual needs above the collective goals of the team.

When any of these negative behaviours is present it will have a serious impact on the ability of the team to achieve lasting improvements.