Google Shares Five Characteristics of Effective Teams

In an article recently released, Google shares what they have discovered as five characteristics of effective teams within their organization.  When reading this article, I saw how much of what they shared is in The Five Behaviors of Cohesive Team program based on the best-selling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Below I have done a quick comparison of their characteristics to what is shared in the program based on Patrick Lencioni’s research and writings.

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Pyramid

1. Psychological Safety = Trust, specifically, vulnerability based trust, leads to honesty as team members feel safe to share their weaknesses or even state when they are over their head and need help.
2. Dependability = Accountability means team members are willing to take action and be responsible for task and project completion. More importantly, peers are able to hold one another accountable versus running to the leader and grumbling and complaining.
3. Structure and Clarity includes the basics of establishing roles, making plans, managing meetings, and setting goals for beginning teams. Without this initial structure any team is due to fail. The Five Behaviors program pyramid shows Conflict because without a culture that embraces productive conflict, the structure may never come to fruition.
4. Meaning = Commitment to decisions where all members have shared ideas, opinions, and debated the best way to proceed. As Patrick Lencioni states, “When people don’t weigh in, they don’t buy in”.
5. Impact = Results as the goal for any team is to make an impact and achieve results. This can only be done, when people can put the common goal ahead of personal or departmental goals.

Are you working on an effective team, or are you a collection of people reporting to the same manager?   Do you have team goals that inspire you to put them ahead of your own goal? Great teams, who can work together: can conquer the competition, win battles, and lead people towards something worthy that encourage them to get up every day and contribute.