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The Five Dysfunctions of an Engineering Team

https://dev.to/thawkin3/the-five-dysfunctions-of-an-engineering-team-3a60
Takeaway from the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick M. Lencioni

Teams are never perfect, it's fine.
Dysfunctions are linked (one will lead to another)

Because ideas aren’t openly discussed, there is very little buy-in from team members, and so they aren’t fully committed to any agreements. This leads to an avoidance of accountability, since it’s hard to hold someone accountable to a standard that they never really agreed to in the first place. All of this results in an inattention to results where the team fails to accomplish their most meaningful goals.

Present these dysfunctions to the team, have clear and honest discussion about it. Identify strength & weaknesses, improve.

Absence of Trust

  • Trust the team. Trust the dev can be relied upon
  • Signals of dysfunction : hiding mistakes, too many follow ups, bottleneck devlead, defense of the codebase.
  • Signals of function : discuss openly mistakes, team ownership (ask for help, ensure works gets done), code review done right

Fear Of Conlict

  • Teams need conflict, engineers are opiniated
  • Signals of dysfunction : members do not challenge useless process, boring meetings, toxic behaviors are not called, low performers do not learn.
  • Signal of function : Continuous improvement, lively discussion, no tolerating toxic behavior.

Lack of Commitment

  • Honest discussion while setting goals is required to have buy in from team members and ultimately reach goals.
  • Signals of dysfunction : goals and deadlines are missed, team focus on wrong topics, standards are not followed,
  • Signals of function : goals and deadlines generally met, team always focuses on the most important tasks, standards are agreed and enforced automatically.

Avoidance of Accountability

  • Fear of conflict => avoidance of accountability.
  • Accountability is not punishing someone any time they make a mistake.
  • Have an honest and open discussion when someone is not doing his job. Act fast, be clear, don't be mean. Micro feedback.
  • Signals of dysfunction : important tasks are not done, team dragged down, velocity decrease, standards ignored, dev lead only is adressing bad behavior.
  • Signals of function : All team members feel comfortable holding one another accountable.

Inattention to Results

  • Engineers build things to deliver value to customers
  • Focus on results
  • Signals of dysfunction : goals and deadlines missed, lots of work may be done but low impact, no interst or ownership, team members moving in different directions
  • Signals of function : team members show ownership and pride over their work, members are working together toward a shared goal.