When a High‑Performing Team Feels Off Track
When a High‑Performing Team Feels Off Track
You might have all the right players. You might have strategy, budget, talent in place. And yet the team still isn’t hitting its stride. That’s often not a problem of capability — it’s a problem of system: how the team is interacting, trusting, committing, holding each other accountable, and staying focused on collective results.
The Five Dysfunctions assessment is designed to help teams identify exactly where the breakdown is happening in their operating system — so they can repair it, align it, and get back into rhythm.
When We Utilize It
In our work we bring this assessment into engagements when the leadership team is stuck between potential and performance; when you know you could be better — but the gap isn’t about skills or strategy alone. It’s about how you work together.
Here’s why it matters:
It offers a clear model of five behavioral domains that, when they falter, derail team effectiveness.
It gives teams a structured assessment to map their current state and uncover root‑causes, not just symptoms.
It shifts the conversation from “what’s wrong” to “what needs attention and how we fix it together.”
Because it’s behavioral, systemic and relational — rather than purely individual — it’s perfectly suited for team‑level transformation.
What It Measures
The assessment is grounded in five interlocking dysfunctions that many teams face:
Absence of Trust – When team members aren’t vulnerable or open with one another.
Fear of Conflict – When healthy debate is avoided and ambiguous decisions result.
Lack of Commitment – When clarity is missing and buy‑in is weak.
Avoidance of Accountability – When peers hesitate to hold each other to high standards.
Inattention to Results – When individual goals, ego or departmental success override the collective mission.
The assessment provides a snapshot of how the team is performing across each dysfunction — highlighting strengths, gaps, and areas for intentional development.
How We Use It Together
When we choose to deploy this assessment, the process is structured to move from insight to transformation:
Context & Calibration – We clarify the team’s purpose, priorities and current state before diving in.
Completion of the Assessment – The team completes the tool together (or individually, aggregated) to map how the dynamics are experienced.
Debrief & Dialogue – We explore the results: “What’s showing up? What surprises us? Where do we see opportunity?”
Action Planning – We use the model to design team practices, commitments and behaviours that shift the dynamics — rather than just cover them up.
Ongoing Integration – We keep returning to the model: how are we tracking? What do we need to reinforce? What’s evolving?
When It Makes Sense
Consider this assessment when your team:
Is performing reasonably but not achieving the breakthrough your strategy demands.
Has strong individual leaders, yet the team as a whole acts disjointed or under‑leveraged.
Is navigating a transition: new composition, new mandate, new market, or scaling rapidly.
Wants to move from “doing more” to “doing better together” — not just through tactics, but through how you lead and relate.
If you’re ready to stop having “good meetings” and start having truly aligned ones — where trust, candor, clarity, accountability and results are the norm — this assessment gives you a map for change that many teams overlook.
