Not an integrated team efficiently but a performing workers’ team—this is what a team is. A good team is an efficiently integrated one that works under the banner of trust, collaboration, and common goals. Being an efficiently integrated team is beyond quality leadership and great workers, though. It includes knowledge about group dynamics, smooth communication, and problem-solving with courage.
The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, developed by Wiley in partnership with Patrick Lencioni, provide a proven framework for organizations looking to enhance teamwork and drive high performance. Based on Lencioni’s best-selling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, this model helps teams overcome obstacles and develop the essential behaviors needed to achieve success.
What Are the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team?
The Five Behaviors is an intervention that enhances the health of teams through five key areas:
Trust – Establishing the foundation of a healthy team.
Conflict – Engaging in constructive, healthy disagreement.
Commitment – Getting clear and aligned on what is decided.
Accountability – Holding each other accountable for team goals.
Results – Keeping the focus on team success.
Each of these behaviors is built on the previous one, therefore creating a step-by-step approach on how to achieve maximum teamwork and productivity. Let us discuss each of these behaviors one after another.
1. Building Trust: The Foundation of a Cohesive Team
Trust is the foundation of every successful team. Without it, none of the team members will be able to feel confident enough to speak up, own mistakes, or ask for help. Five Behaviors shows us how to establish vulnerability-based trust where the members feel comfortable being candid and honest with each other.
Establishing Trust in a Team
Encourage openness in communication and listening.
Establish a culture where team members are comfortable owning weaknesses.
Use personality assessments (e.g., DISC) to help team members learn about one another’s work styles.
Lead by example—managers and team leaders must model vulnerability and openness.
After trust has been established, team members will be more likely to collaborate, assist one another, and perform at their best.
2. Productive Conflict
All such groups avoid confrontations for fear of crossing boundaries with disagreements. And yet, these evasions create tensions not being addressed and give birth to passive-aggressive behavior. Constructive conflict is, however, identified as being at the center of the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model under which team members freely discuss conflicting opinions.
Healthy Conflict Encouragement Tips
Model open communication without judgments.
Set ground rules of respectful communications.
Enforce that opposing views, and not insults, are discussed.
Give employees conflict resolution training so they can become masters of difficult conversations.
Well-managed conflict leads to better decision-making, innovation, and positive team culture.
3. How to Get Commitment Through Clarity and Buy-In
With a group working through effective conflict and arguing various perspectives, the group then must make a commitment to an action plan. Without this commitment, groups are beset by indecision, misalignment, and low accountability.
How to Build Commitment?
Make sure everyone on the team is heard when speaking.
Have clear expectations and goals.
Utilize decision-making criteria to get everyone on board.
Get team members’ concerns out before making a final decision.
Commitment isn’t everybody always having to agree—it’s everybody becoming on the same page and agreeing to stand behind the ultimate decision.
4. Holding Each Other Accountable
Accountability is the most challenging aspect of working as a team. Without accountability, teams blow deadlines, performance declines, and there’s resentment built up. In a healthy team, members want to hold each other accountable, not just wait for leadership to push standards.
How to Build a Culture of Accountability?
Set clear performance and expectations standards.
Encourage peer-to-peer responsibility, not the manager.
Provide frequent feedback and check-ins.
Celebrate achievement and rectify failure in a positive way.
When members have accountability, they take responsibility for their work and behave as a team toward common goals.
5. Team Results Focus
The final behavior in the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model is a results orientation rather than individual achievement. Far too often, teams are more concerned with competing against one another than collaborating for the good of the team, with individual achievement taking precedence over group goals.
How to Create a Results-Mindset?
Establish shared team goals and KPIs.
Reward team success rather than individual effort.
Construct cross-functional teams and knowledge transfer.
Track progress on a regular basis and make adjustments accordingly.
A team with a shared success orientation is more likely to achieve sustainable growth and longevity.
Using the Five Behaviors Model in the Workplace
Organizations that want to use the Five Behaviors model can take some steps towards success:
1. Team Assessment
Begin by evaluating where your team is at today in all five. Wiley’s Five Behaviors assessments offer insightful feedback about team performance and areas for development.
2. Training and Development
Invest in workshops, leadership training, and team-building activities to solidify the model’s principles. Wiley offers training classes that enable teams to learn these behaviors in a structured manner.
3. Build a Culture of Continuous Learning
It takes time to build a good team. Ongoing team meetings, feedback, and performance reviews can make the Five Behaviors a second nature that occurs over time.
4. Model the Way
Team leaders and managers have a crucial part in building an efficient work culture. By practicing the Five Behaviors themselves, leaders can get the rest of the team to do the same.
5. Monitor Progress and Adjust as Needed
Teams must continually monitor their progress on all of the five fronts and make adjustments accordingly to remain aligned and effective.
The Future of Teamwork with the Five Behaviors Model
As the nature of the contemporary workplace continues to change with remote, hybrid teams, and virtual work, teamwork is more crucial than ever. The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team system provides companies with a scientific approach to developing stronger, healthier teams that are better equipped to weather challenges and achieve long-term success.
By creating productive conflict, commitment, accountability, results-driven work teams, and building trust, organizations can have high-performing teams that lead to innovation, efficiency, and general organizational growth.
Conclusion
Wiley Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team is a groundbreaking framework for organizational development to build cooperation and team success. Centering on five preferred behaviors—trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results—organizations are able to establish an inner culture that can build lasting successful relationships, good decision-making, and team success.
The Five Behaviors approach calls for sustained commitment to learning, honest sharing of views, and active involvement by leaders. But its pay-off in the form of a stable, collaborative team, increased productivity, morale, and sustained prosperity makes it more than worth the time of any company.
Transforming such assumptions enables companies to tap into the complete potential of their teams and provide the foundation for a productive, successful working environment.
