The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Book Summary

Book Summary

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Brief Summary

One of the most important elements of a successful organization is the strength of its teams. Despite this truth, effective teamwork can actually be quite rare due to the common dysfunctions inherent in them. There are five dysfunctions in particular which, when addressed, can lead to success. They include: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability and Inattention to Results. Patrick Lencioni identifies and explains each of these five dysfunctions by demonstrating them in story form. In this way, readers can more easily recognize these characteristics among their own team members and use the examples to make the needed changes.

About the Author

In 2008, Fortune magazine named Patrick Lencioni "one of the new gurus you should know." Lencioni has written many business themed books, with his most successful being “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” He is also the pioneer of organizational health, calling it “the last competitive advantage in business today.” Lencioni is the founder of The Table Group, a management consulting firm located in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has written ten books total which have sold nearly 5 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.

Topics

Entrepreneurship Management & Leadership

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Key Insights

Teamwork is prone to failure due to the ever-present human tendency towards weaknesses that can cripple a group effort. A few examples of team-busting predispositions include ego, selfishness, and personal agenda. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni addresses the five most common deficiencies among team members and shows how to overcome them. Lencioni teaches these principles by telling the fictional story of a CEO organizing and moving her motley team forward. In this parable, Katheryn, a 57-year-old executive, is the unexpected choice for the new CEO position. She is charged with changing the direction of DecisionTech, a technology company that is failing. The book focuses on the participants in the management team and the dynamic forces between each of the players. The five dysfunctions are presented in the following order: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.

Dysfunction #1- Absence of Trust

The core issue to be addressed when initially building a strong team is a lack of trust. In a work environment where much is expected, people tend to want to hide their weaknesses. They perceive that any admission of shortcomings could lead to censure, criticism, loss of promotion or even the job itself. This unwillingness to be vulnerable can result in distrust between team members as they speculate on the motives, intentions, strengths, and weaknesses of the other team players instead of accurately calculating what skills and abilities are available for the collective effort.

In the fable, Katheryn opens her team meeting by having the members share their strengths and weaknesses. She demonstrates strong leadership and begins to gain trust by being the first to expose her flaws. This helps the others feel more comfortable when it’s their turn to be as exposed and honest about both their weaknesses and their abilities. Katheryn openly discloses the leadership mistakes she made in the past and confesses that she was even fired from a job because of them. Such a revelation sets the tone for the other team members to be as truthful, recognizing that sharing these vulnerabilities is not as risky as it seems.

A few exercises to overcome trust issues include personal histories, where the team members answer questions that help share some of their life experiences and wisdom, inventory of the team members, where the team highlights the qualities of each other and looks at areas they can improve, taking personal profile tests like Myers-Briggs which provides insights that can be useful, and ropes course-type activities which may seem silly on the surface, but generate opportunities for communication and trust.

Dysfunction #2- Fear of Conflict

Very often, the fear of conflict causes teams to remain silent, holding back what could be important opinions, observations, and even expertise, afraid of offending the others. Conflict can actually be productive. This is an essential truth that follows the establishment of trust. Once trust exists, teammates know they can safely debate and examine all sides of an issue which allows them to come...