Title: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Summary
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is written as largely a fictional illustration that walks through Lencioni’s dysfunctions of a team. The company is called DecisionTech. The leader character in this account is Kathryn, who is hired by a board to take over a small, start-up tech firm as CEO. Jeff is the former CEO. He started the company, and in the beginning most people in the company look to him for guidance. Jeff recognized his short-comings early on and mostly approves of Kathryn’s changes within the company. Mikey (Michelle) handles marketing. She shows the most outward resistance to the changes, often dragging her fellow teammates down with her. Martin is fully involved in technology development and acts like a typical engineer (no offense to engineers out there!). JR is in charge of sales and quickly exits after Kathryn takes over as CEO. Carlos works on customer support. Jan is the Chief Financial Officer. She holds the reins in spending in this small, well-funded tech firm. Nick is the chief operating officer. Nick left a decent job to come work for the tech firm.
The fictional story leads the reader through a series of leadership moments where Kathryn takes the team from being highly dysfunctional to being a highly productive, supportive, profitable team. She begins by taking the team to a few off-site interactions where they are away from “real work,” and they work through their dysfunctions.
Kathryn repeats a statement every time the team meets. She says, “We have a more experienced and talented executive team than any of our competitors. We have more cash than they do. Thanks to Martin and his tea, we have better core technology. And we have a more powerful board of directors. Yet in spite of all that, we are behind two of our competitors in terms of both revenue and customer growth.”
The five dysfunctions are as follows:
- Absence of trust – because of invulnerability
- Fear of conflict – because of artificial harmony
- Lack of commitment – because of ambiguity of goals and expectations
- Avoidance of accountability – because of low standards
- Inattention to results – because of too much focus on individual status and ego
This book is roughly 225 pages. The fictional account ends on page 184. Over three quarters of this book is dedicated to the fictional story and under a quarter of the book is dedicated to a description specifically of the five dysfunctions. Lencioni brings clarity to the five dysfunctions and their opposites (to create a healthy team) in this last quarter of the book.
A healthy, functional team behave in the following manner:
- They trust one another
- They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas
- They commit to decisions and plans of action
- They hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans
- They focus on the achievement of collective results
Each of these behaviors build on one another. Without trust between team members, there would be no unfiltered conflict, and so on. It sounds simple, but it is extremely difficult in practice because it requires discipline and persistence.
Interesting Pieces
I honestly didn’t take many notes because the back of the book clarifies the simple approach so clearly. On page 187, the author begins the explanation of the model. It is four pages, including a descriptive chart of the model.
Review
This is one of the most interesting and attention-keeping leadership books I have ever read. I enjoy fictional writing to begin with, so having a leadership book produced in a manner that includes mostly fiction was extremely easy for me to read through and retain information. Many leaders prefer to get to the “nuts and bolts.” If that’s you, I would recommend beginning on page 187. However, I believe the fictional account gives context in a real-life (although it’s fictional) scenario. This allows me to see how Lencioni’s model can practically work out in a team.
Where to buy
You can purchase The Five Dysfunctions of a Team on Amazon.
