Teamwork is often idealised as the answer to every workplace challenge. But we all know that sometimes, teamwork fails—and when it does, it can be spectacular. Projects stall. Frustration builds. Morale dips.
So why does teamwork break down? Is it about the people, the systems, or something else entirely? In this article, we’ll uncover what really causes teamwork to unravel—and more importantly, what you can do about it as a leader, team member, or executive influencer.
This article is part of our High-Performance Leadership Series:
- Revisit Article 1: What is the Foundation of a High Performing Teams?
- Explore Article 2: What is the most overlooked dimension of teamwork?
- Dive into Article 3: What are the 3 Keys to Successful Teamwork?
- Review Article 4: What Is True of High Performing Teams?
- Work through Article 5: Champion's Mindset: Embrace Grit and Growth in Your Team
What Causes Teamwork to Fail?
Teamwork fails when communication breaks down, trust erodes, roles are unclear, and accountability is inconsistent. It often fails quietly—through silence, confusion, and disengagement—until the results (or lack of them) make the cracks impossible to ignore.
“If you could get all the people in an organisation rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry.” — Patrick Lencioni
The Hidden Factors Behind Failing Teams
Over the years, I’ve found myself in many rooms with high-performing professionals who struggle to perform as a team. It's not for lack of intelligence or work ethic—it’s usually because something invisible is eroding their connection. That’s where Lencioni’s model has always hit home for me.
His framework names the quiet saboteurs of teamwork. And once you know them, you can start shifting the culture intentionally—from dysfunction to deep trust and shared accountability.
Here’s how I interpret each one:
1. Absence of Trust – “I’m not sure I can be real here.”
This is where it starts. If I don’t feel safe to admit mistakes or weaknesses, I’ll self-protect. And if we’re all self-protecting, we’re not team-building—we’re image-managing.
Lencioni defines this as vulnerability-based trust. And in my experience, it's the foundation of every courageous team. Trust doesn’t mean comfort. It means I know you’ve got my back, even when I’m not at my best.
🧠 Try this: Start team meetings with check-ins or reflections that let people show up as human—not just as their job title.
2. Fear of Conflict – “I’ll stay quiet to keep the peace.”
I’ve seen teams where silence is mistaken for harmony. But what’s really happening is avoidance. The fear of conflict often masks itself in politeness—but it stifles creativity, decision-making, and accountability.
When we’re too afraid to challenge ideas, we miss out on better ones. Healthy conflict is a sign of engagement. It means people care enough to speak up.
🧠 Try this: Ask: “What are we not saying here that needs to be said?” Pause. Wait. Let it surface.
3. Lack of Commitment – “I’m not sure we’re actually aligned.”
When people don’t feel heard—or don’t fully understand the why behind a decision—they’re less likely to commit. Not because they’re disengaged, but because they’re unsure.
Commitment doesn’t mean consensus. It means clarity. I’ve learned to ask, “Is everyone clear—even if not everyone agrees?”
🧠 Try this: Summarise next steps clearly. Ask every voice to speak before moving forward.
4. Avoidance of Accountability – “It’s not my job to hold them to it.”
Accountability isn’t just the boss’s job. The strongest teams I’ve worked with hold each other to standards—not in judgment, but in shared ownership.
It’s awkward to call out a missed deadline or unhelpful behaviour. But when we avoid that discomfort, we pay for it later—in resentment, mistrust, or silence.
🧠 Try this: Make feedback a ritual, not a reaction. Peer-to-peer accountability changes the culture faster than top-down enforcement.
5. Inattention to Results – “Let’s just finish, not flourish.”
When teams lose sight of shared goals, personal agendas creep in. People protect their patch, polish their performance, or chase recognition over results.
The best teams I’ve worked with talk about the we, not the me. They track shared metrics, celebrate group wins, and speak one voice to their people.
🧠 Try this: Revisit: “What does success look like together?” Keep that question visible in planning and reflection.
SUMMING IT UP:
Lencioni’s model doesn’t just diagnose problems—it gives us language to lead differently. I keep returning to it when I’m guiding teams through transitions, trust rebuilding, or high-stakes alignment.
Because when we name dysfunctions with honesty and humility, we create space for transformation. And that’s what leadership is really about.
In Proverbs 27:17, we’re reminded, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
From Theory to "Aha"
Just this past week, I was working with a senior leadership team we’d originally described as “high performing.” From the outside, they tick all the boxes—strategic thinkers, functional experts, each delivering awesome results in their domain, each a high performer in their own right.
But something was off.
It wasn’t obvious at first. There was no drama, no derailment — I couldn't put my finger on it. An energetic flatness but with a tension to it. Languaging that didn't stretch beyond their silos: the team rather than this team. Nuanced, subtle.
As the day unfolded, we explored what best practice teamwork really looks like. We unpacked high-performance traits and compared them to the team’s own behaviours. Slowly, it started to emerge: while each leader was outstanding in their own right, they weren’t functioning as a team.
And then, something clicked.
We watched a short video from Patrick Lencioni on his 5 Dysfunctions of Teams (watch it here). He shared a story about what he calls “a golf team”—a group of individuals playing independently, only coming together to compare scores. He contrasted that with a basketball team: players working in sync, sacrificing their stats to move the ball forward together.
I noticed some heads nodding thoughtfully.
It wasn’t a fine-tuning problem—it was a collective clarity problem. There was no shared scoreboard. No rallying cry. No visible, measurable goal that this group could own together—one that would make them show up not just as functional leads, but as a unified leadership force.
The energy shifted and then fell into place. Clarity.
We closed the session with a powerful realisation: if the team wanted to grow, they had to choose team over title. They needed to invest in trust, invite real conflict, and most of all, commit to results that mattered to everyone—not just their divisions.
Because, as Lencioni says: “Teamwork isn’t a virtue—it’s a choice. A strategic one.”
Reflection Questions:
- What dysfunctions are you seeing (or feeling) in your team?
- Where are people avoiding responsibility—or each other?
- [Faith-Based] How can you sharpen your team with truth and grace?
🌍 Global & Sporting Examples: What Happens When Teamwork Breaks
FIFA World Cup 2022 – Morocco vs Portugal: In a moment that stunned the football world, Morocco became the first African team to reach a World Cup semifinal. But their journey was far from easy. Before Coach Walid Regragui took charge just three months before the tournament, the team was divided, demoralised, and plagued by inconsistent performance. Key players had been excluded from past tournaments due to internal politics. The team lacked belief.
Regragui’s first move wasn’t tactical—it was relational. He reinstated previously exiled players and focused on emotional unity. He invited families to stay with players throughout the tournament, creating a sense of community and meaning far beyond football. He reminded the team what they were playing for: not just a game, but for their families, for the Arab world, for Africa. The turning point wasn’t a goal—it was the moment belief was restored.
Under pressure, Morocco didn’t collapse. They rose. They outplayed technically stronger teams because they trusted one another, had a shared cause, and followed a coach who prioritised connection over control.
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek
- United States – NASA’s Columbia Disaster: A culture of silence and hierarchy contributed to a lack of risk-sharing across engineering teams. Communication gaps became fatal.
- Australia – Corporate Restructuring Gone Wrong: A major mining firm collapsed a layer of middle management in the name of agility. The result? Project delays and burnout from uncoordinated task ownership.
- UK – Healthcare Crisis Response Teams: Emergency response teams faltered due to poor cross-departmental communication—despite having the skills, they lacked systems.
- Kenya – NGO Coordination Challenges: Collaboration between health and education NGOs broke down due to unaligned outcomes and funding competition, even with shared values.
Reflection Questions:
- Are we operating in high performing functional silos instead of high performing unified teams?
- When does structure serve—or hinder—team clarity?
- [Faith-Based] Where do you need to advocate for wholeness and unity in fractured environments?
What Leaders Can Do When Teamwork Is Failing
This is the work of what I call The Relational Lift™—the ability to restore trust, reset team norms, and reforge connection through clarity and care. When leaders model humility, foster accountability, and create safety for feedback, teams move from broken to bonded.
Diagnose Honestly – Use anonymous surveys, retrospectives, or one-on-ones to name the elephants in the room.
Reset Norms – Reinforce accountability, decision clarity, and shared goals. Re-contract the culture you want.
Rebuild Trust – Trust isn’t rebuilt through speeches. It comes through follow-through, vulnerability, and consistent small wins.
Empower Communication – Teach and model how to challenge well, clarify roles, and close feedback loops.
“Teams fall apart when we focus more on being right than getting it right.” – David Burkus
Faith-Based: Scripture often reminds us that reconciliation is the work of leaders—not followers. In broken teams, leaders must lead with courage, repair, and humility.
Under pressure, Morocco didn’t collapse. They rose. They outplayed technically stronger teams because they trusted one another, had a shared cause, and followed a coach who prioritised connection over control.
🛠 Applying the Insights: Leading Through and Beyond Team Dysfunction
For Yourself as a Leader:
- Do a personal reflection: When has my silence or indecision contributed to team confusion?
- Choose one behaviour to model this week: vulnerability, clarity, or curiosity.
For Your Team:
- Run a mini “team trust pulse”—ask: what builds trust here? What erodes it?
- Try a 15-minute “honest conversation” ritual weekly.
For Stakeholders and Executives:
- Share examples where fixing dysfunction saved time or money.
- Create a one-pager showing how team health impacts deliverables and morale.
Faith-Based: Be the leader who carries peace into chaos—not false harmony, but peace rooted in truth.
✅ Summary + Final Thought
Teamwork doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails when silence replaces safety, roles blur, and leadership avoids the hard work of repair. But with the right mindset, language, and courage, any team can move forward.
Action Steps:
- Diagnose team gaps honestly
- Reset team expectations
- Model trust-building behaviours consistently
- Don’t settle for “fine”—aim for functional and flourishing.
By working on your Relational Lift™, you’re not just fixing dysfunction—you’re building a foundation for sustainable, high-performing leadership.
“Unity is not the absence of conflict but the presence of a reconciling spirit.” – Unknown
📣 Feeling the pinch of poor team dynamics?
- ✅ Book a Team Health Diagnostic Workshop to uncover the blocks to performance.
- ✅ Schedule a coaching consult to strategise your leadership response to team dysfunction.
high performance teams series: achieving the impossible
Article Seven: What Conditions Support Teamwork? Lessons from the Top: https://kerryannecassidy.com/leadership/what-conditions-support-teamwork/
Faq's for How can teamwork fail?
Skill doesn’t equal cohesion. Even the most competent individuals can struggle when trust is missing or roles are unclear. Talented teams often assume collaboration will come naturally, but success requires intentional design—clear expectations, transparent communication, and a culture that supports psychological safety. Without these, assumptions build, egos clash, and progress stalls.
Yes—rebuilding starts with mindset, not restructuring. While removing toxic behavior may be necessary, most teams can recover with honest feedback, safe dialogue, clear re-contracting of expectations, and leadership modeling of vulnerability and accountability. The key is a commitment to collective renewal.
Forgiveness opens the door to relational healing. Reconciliation restores connection. Scripture calls leaders to speak the truth in love, seek unity over ego, and model humility in conflict. These principles don’t replace accountability—they strengthen it with purpose and grace.
Influence starts with presence. Practice empathy, listen deeply, and show others what safe, constructive dialogue looks like. Ask thoughtful questions that help surface unspoken issues. Be a model of accountability and encouragement. Often, one person’s authenticity invites others to step up.
Grit sustains teams through long-term challenges, while growth mindset keeps them learning and adapting. Together, they help teams persevere and continuously improve, especially when conditions change or setbacks occur.
Normalise learning through feedback, celebrate effort, and frame mistakes as progress. Encourage leaders to model learning out loud and reward improvement over perfection.
Grit is absolutely developable. Research shows that grit grows through intentional habits, a sense of purpose, and communities that support perseverance.
Faith encourages perseverance with purpose. Grit becomes not just effort, but endurance in alignment with calling, guided by trust in a bigger picture.
One misconception is that grit equals overwork. True grit includes rest, reflection, and discernment. Another myth is that growth mindset is naïve positivity—when in fact, it requires courage, feedback, and humility.
📚 Article References and Extra Reading
Recent Studies & Critiques:
- Psychology Today – The Problem With Grit: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/functioning-flourishing/201703/why-grit-isn-t-everything
- National Institute of Health: Factors influencing team performance: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8864029
Expert Citations:
- Lencioni, Patrick – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: https://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions/
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75bO_XWk7fw&t=1s
- Burkus, David – Why Teams Fail: https://davidburkus.com/2021/06/why-teams-fail-and-how-to-prevent-it/
Expanded Case Studies & Reports:
- NASA Columbia Disaster Analysis: https://www.space.com/19436-columbia-disaster.html
- Harvard Business Review – How to Rebuild Trust on Your Team: https://hbr.org/video/6298625916001/how-to-buildand-repairtrust-at-work-
- Surf Office – 17 Reasons Why Teamwork Fails: https://www.surfoffice.com/blog/teamwork-fails
- Resourceful Manager – 9 Reasons Teams Fail: https://www.resourcefulmanager.com/teams-fail/
- Forbes – How to Rebuild a Dysfunctional Team: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/02/03/how-to-rebuild-a-broken-team/
- McKinsey – Organizational Health Index: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/dotcom/client_service/risk/pdfs/organizational%20health%20indexpsp.ashx
