Mikey doesn’t participate further in the discussion, and Kathryn believes she won’t be able to build trust with the group. Martin, to the surprise of the group, disagrees with Mikey. She further derails the whole process by telling the group that it is a waste of time while their competitors are probably currently working to gain market share. Mikey opens herself up to criticism from the group by rolling her eyes at a discussion. Using behavioral tools like DiSC, the group started understanding each other’s personalities and how they play into their work. However, this bond starts to fade as they dig into their behaviors. The activity only takes 45 minutes, and the group starts to form a bond that wasn’t there before. Kathryn tells the team they must share their ‘personal histories’ – things the group wouldn’t have known about each other. To further the surprise of the group, Martin obliges. To the group’s surprise, Kathryn tells Martin to put away his computer. While Kathryn is speaking, it’s hard not to notice Martin typing away on his computer. To trust each other, the team must know details about each other that aren’t revealed in daily work situations. Kathryn explains that great teams can’t exist without trust. She draws a pyramid on a whiteboard and labels the bottom section Trust. Kathryn kicks off the retreat by explaining that she feels the team is quite dysfunctional. Kathryn and Martin’s issue prior to the retreat foreshadows the first dysfunction: trust. Even stranger, she allows Jeff, the former leader, to keep leading meetings. To the astonishment of her team, Kathryn takes the first few weeks to observe the dynamics of her team simply. Oh, and she is also now the boss of the two co-founders of the company (Awkward!). These experiences might not seem bad at all, but in Silicon Valley, she doesn’t look like a great fit. Her lack of technology experience seems mismatched with the team she is supposed to lead. Furthermore, to the surprise of her team, she was formerly an executive that led an automobile manufacturing plant. She is older than most of the Executives she is tasked to lead, and she is coming out of retirement. However, Kathryn seems destined to fail in her new role. He convinced her that she was perfect because he saw that she was great at building teams. They only know each other socially, and Kathryn was surprised that he wanted her to lead this company. Deadlines are missed and key executives and employees leave the company.ĭecisionTech’s Chairman of the Board personally sought out Kathryn for this position. However, the company starts to experience issues. The company once was thought of as the next great organization to emerge from Silicon Valley. Kathryn is a seasoned executive who takes over a young Silicon Valley company called DecisionTech, Inc. ECHO Listening Assessment Certification.

The 5 dysfunctions of a team