Introduction
In today's fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, the need for strong and cohesive teams has never been more critical. These teams provide organisations with the backbone for adaptability, enabling them to swiftly respond to new challenges and seize opportunities. Their diverse perspectives cultivate innovation and effective problem-solving, thereby enhancing productivity and promoting efficient collaboration through clear communication and strategic task delegation. Consequently, strong teams contribute to higher employee engagement and satisfaction, offering a robust support network that bolsters organisational resilience during times of crisis or uncertainty. Without strong, cohesive teams, organisations risk miscommunication, a lack of direction, and ultimately, a decline in employee engagement and performance.
Organisations today face numerous challenges that undermine their success, and building consistently high-performing teams is one that remains a constant struggle for many managers and leaders. These issues can significantly impact productivity and profitability, making it essential to address them to maintain a competitive edge and achieve long-term success. To tackle these challenges, Patrick Lencioni's Five Behaviors® model offers a structured pathway for organisations to build strong teams and effectively address the common pain points encountered in team development.
What resonates most with me about this model is its emphasis on the five interrelated levels, commencing with the bedrock of vulnerability-based trust, which ultimately underpins both team and organisational success. However, success isn't merely a product of individuals undergoing The Five Behaviors training and building for competency in teamwork. Rather, the model's true value manifests when intact teams engage in dialogue across these levels, identifying both catalysts and barriers to progress. Through this process, fortified by ongoing commitment, role clarity, and reciprocal accountability, teams can truly unify and propel their organisations forward as a cohesive entity.
What Makes a Strong Team?
A strong team is characterised by a foundation of trust, open communication, and a shared commitment to common goals. Trust is the cornerstone of any successful team, creating an environment where members feel safe to express their ideas, take risks, and admit mistakes without fear of judgement. This level of psychological safety encourages open communication, allowing team members to share diverse perspectives and collaborate effectively. When team members can freely exchange ideas and perspectives, this cultivates a culture of innovation and promotes effective problem-solving. Additionally, having clear roles and responsibilities ensures that everyone understands their contributions to the larger objective. This clarity helps establish a shared commitment to common goals, and when team members are aligned in their purpose and direction, they are more motivated to support each other and work towards the collective success of the team.
Strong teams are adaptable and resilient, capable of navigating challenges and changes with agility. This adaptability is driven by a culture of continuous learning and improvement, where feedback is actively sought and valued. Effective leadership plays a crucial role in setting the tone for collaboration and guiding the team through uncertainties. Leaders who demonstrate empathy, provide constructive feedback, and empower their team members foster a sense of ownership and accountability.
In essence, a strong team is not just a group of individuals working together but a cohesive unit where mutual respect, shared vision, and collective effort drive outstanding performance and innovation.
What is The Five Behaviors® Model?
The Five Behaviors model is a framework that provides a structured approach to building strong, high-performing teams by addressing core issues that hinder team effectiveness. The Five Behaviors combines the framework of Patrick Lencioni’s model for teamwork with personalised insights to create powerful, customised, and authentic team development solutions that empower individuals to make lasting change. This model focuses on five key behaviours:
The foundational behaviour of a cohesive team is trust. Team members must be willing to be completely vulnerable with one another i.e. feeling safe in being authentic in both words and actions: communicating openly, admitting flaws, and seeking help.
While conflict is often considered taboo at work, teams willing to engage in productive conflict resolve issues and create the best solutions quickly. Productive conflict focuses on concepts and ideas without mean-spirited personal attacks.
Without commitment, team members only half-heartedly follow decisions, leading to misalignment and missed goals. Commitment involves clarity around decisions and full buy-in from every team member.
Commitment to a clear plan of action and ownership fosters a willingness to hold peers accountable for performance or behaviours that might harm the team. Though challenging, accountability becomes easier with trust and helps teams grow.
Cohesive teams focus on collective goals, ensuring that team success is paramount, “you win when the team wins”.
This framework has been proven to transform teams by addressing fundamental behavioural issues. It emphasises trust as the foundation for effective teamwork and builds upon this foundation to foster constructive conflict, commitment, accountability, and a focus on team results.
Let’s explore two case studies from The Five Behaviors® to see how this model has transformed organisations by building strong, cohesive teams and effectively addressing their internal challenges.
Case Study: From Turnover to Teamwork at Ohio Living Mount Pleasant
Ohio Living Mount Pleasant, a senior living community, faced internal challenges with high turnover among nurse leaders, threatening organisational stability and the quality of resident care. Trust, teamwork, and communication issues led to a dysfunctional work environment. With half of the nurse leaders considering leaving, the organisation was at risk of suffering significant loss in morale and increased costs.
To address these challenges, Ohio Living Mount Pleasant implemented The Five Behaviors programme, focusing on building trust, fostering productive conflict, and promoting commitment, accountability, and results. Despite initial challenges, the team committed to rebuilding trust and unity, leading to significant improvements in teamwork and resilience. The programme's impact was especially evident when a fire struck the facility. Thanks to their strengthened relationships and teamwork, they effectively managed the crisis, providing excellent care and support to residents and each other.
Ten months later, an assessment showed marked improvements in all five behaviours, transforming the team into a cohesive, efficient unit dedicated to their mission. This case study highlights how The Five Behaviors model can effectively address organisational challenges, fostering growth and cohesion within teams, and this was how Ohio Living was able to go from “Turnover” to “Teamwork” with The Five Behaviors.
Case Study: From Disconnected to Determined at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas (RMHC LV)
RMHC LV, a charitable organisation supporting families of hospitalised children, faced internal challenges including gossip, lack of trust, and high-stress levels, hindering their effectiveness in providing critical support. The team struggled to work together effectively, impacting both their professional and personal lives.
To address these issues, RMHC LV engaged in one-on-one coaching followed by team coaching on The Five Behaviors model. The programme encouraged open, tough conversations and fostered significant improvements in morale, trust, and overall effectiveness. Despite initial challenges, the team experienced sustained improvements in operations and a more supportive work environment, enabling them to better serve their community.
This case study illustrates how RMHC LV was able to go from “Disconnected” to “Determined” with The Five Behaviors framework, which transformed teams, fostered trust, accountability, and strength that ultimately led to improved performance and organisational success.
Effectiveness of The Five Behaviors Model
As organisations embark on their transformation journeys, navigating uncertainties, it becomes evident that comprehensive foresight remains elusive, even within the C-suite. Therefore, it becomes imperative for the entire workforce to converge, akin to a cohesive village, in order to decipher the prevailing reality, adapt strategies swiftly, and glean valuable lessons from missteps. This analogy aptly mirrors the collaborative nature of teams within an organisation.
Despite the allure and apparent simplicity, achieving high-performance teamwork proves elusive for many organisations. In challenging scenarios, relationships may strain, and trust can erode. Here, The Five Behaviors model emerges as a pragmatic framework, aligning teams with overarching organisational goals while harnessing their collective potential to navigate through various challenges and seize opportunities as they arise.
Conclusion
The Five Behaviors model has proven to be a powerful tool for transforming and building strong teams. At aAdvantage Consulting, we have also leveraged this model to help numerous organisations such as MSIG, SGX, SIF, Nutanix, White Coat, NIEC, Ngee Ann Polytechnic in leadership team coaching and culture transformation, and achieve positive outcomes. Find out more about their experiences with The Five Behaviors model and aAdvantage here.
In strategic implementations, organisations can harness the power of The Five Behaviors model to foster trust, encourage productive conflict, drive commitment, ensure accountability, and achieve outstanding results.
To learn more about how The Five Behaviors programme can benefit your organisation, visit aAdvantage’s The Five Behaviors page here.
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