Teams Inherit Your Dysfunction

Jerry Colonna has coached teams for decades. He's noticed a pattern that nobody talks about.

'Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.'

He applies this to teams: 'Until you make conscious the unconscious patterns operating in the group, the group will continue to repeat those patterns and you will blame somebody in the group.'

He tells the story of a software company where every time things got painful, someone would make a joke and all the energy would disappear. When he pointed this out, the CEO said: 'Jesus Christ, that's just like my family.'

'If you want to create a high-functioning team, do your work. And it starts with the person who has the most power.'

This is also true for families. Your kids will pick up your patterns, your avoidances, your coping mechanisms. They'll do it unconsciously. Unless you make those patterns conscious first.

'If that person refuses to do their work, the entire group will become a manifestation of early dysfunction.'