Summary

Business powerhouse writer, Patrick Lencioni’s Leadership Fable, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team ought to be required reading for anyone who leads, manages or works with people. Lencioni skillfully describes a hierarchy of dysfunctions which ruin teams. He describes each dysfunction, illustrating how it negatively impacts a team, and finally, describes tools to overcome it. His companion book, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team gives concrete exercises and ideas to address each of the dysfunctions.

The first part of the book tells the fictional story of Kathryn Peterson, the new CEO of DecisionTech. Leaving retirement to take on the challenge of turning the company around, she discovers an executive team which is dysfunctional. As he tells Kathryn’s story, Lencioni unravels 5 dysfunctions which get in the way of a strong team.

Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust

A willingness to be vulnerable forms the basis for trust. Sharing ideas, admitting mistakes and being open with each other is crucial to building trust.

Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict

Often times conflict gets a bad rep, however, consider conflict as more synonymous with debate. Teams can’t make good decisions without strong debate.

Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment

Without healthy debate and ensuring everyone is heard, a team can not gain true commitment to a decision. Instead, people may say they agree in a meeting, but then will back channel and not support the decision after.

Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability

Without strong commitment to decisions, it proves challenging to hold people accountable for their lack of support or inappropriate behaviour.

Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results

Without holding others accountable, it is easy to avoid looking at results. Often times, people will put themselves or their department above the company as a whole which also creates problems.
After the fable, Lencioni lays out the theory. He writes that any one of these can unravel a team, but he presents them as a triangle with Absence of Trust on the bottom and Inattention to Results on the top. When looking at the antidote to each dysfunction, you can see that trust is the basis for a strong team. Once you have trust, you can have healthy debate which leads to team members feeling heard and committing to decisions. Further to commitment, you can then hold people accountable and be willing to pay attention to the results.

He flips the dysfunctions into functional behaviour:
1. “They trust one another.
2. They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.
3. The commit to decisions and plans of action.
4. They hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.
5. They focus on the achievement of collective results.” (pp. 189-190)

He also includes a section with a team assessment and suggestions for addressing and overcoming each dysfunction. Additionally, for each challenge, he adds characteristics of teams who are dysfunctional and teams who are healthy.

If I had to pick a first book for any developing leader to read, it would be this one. I have taught it to dozens of leaders and each time, they comment about how simple, but useful it is. A quick read, it’s a great use of a few hours.

Book Review

Building Trust