Patrick Lencioni is one of the world's leading authorities on business management. He is the founder and president of the Table Group, which is a consulting firm that focuses on organizational health. One of his most popular books, which is considered the authority on team building, is called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In this book, Lencioni took a unique approach as he used his years of experience to create a fictional, rudderless company that has just undergone a change at CEO. As Catherine Petersen is thrust into the role of CEO, she begins strategically identifying the five dysfunctions of a team and models how they are to be remedied in order to create unity, efficiency, and profitability in a business setting. After walking through this book we thought it would be worthwhile to write a brief review and share it with you all. Below we have identified Lencioni's five dysfunctions and have provided a brief explanation of each. We also took a brief dive into how Lencioni tells us we can overcome these dysfunctions in order to build a more successful company. If you are interested in ordering a copy of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, please click here.
We hope you enjoy the review! Dysfunction #1 - Absence of Trust You have probably all heard the phrase, "The best offense is a good defense," right? Well, according to Lencioni, this couldn't be less true when it comes to your business. The absence of trust in a team causes its members to spend the vast majority of their time and energy on defensive behaviors. Trust, Lencioni says, "is the confidence among team members that their peers' intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. In essence, teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another." Here are a few ways Lencioni says a lack of trust plays out within a team:
The opposite of a lack of trust is a willingness to be vulnerable with team members. The vulnerabilities Lencioni mentions are weakness, skill deficiencies, interpersonal shortcomings, mistakes, and requests for help. Here are is what Lencioni says vulnerability within a team looks like:
Dysfunction #2 - Fear of Conflict The second dysfunction is a fear of conflict. While it's rare that teams are truly vulnerable with each other, it is almost unheard of for a team to truly embrace conflict. Lencioni says that "all great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow. This is true in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and certainly business." Within a business, he says the "higher you go up in the management chain, the more you find people spending inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to avoid the kind of passionate debates that are essential to any great team." Lencioni is not referencing destructive fighting and personal insults when he uses the word "conflict". Instead, he is encouraging productive conflict where the purpose is to "produce the best possible solution in the shortest period of time." According to Lencioni, teams that fear conflict:
Teams that engage in conflict:
Dysfunction #3 - Lack of Commitment Lencioni does a great job of showing how the five dysfunctions connect with one another. He writes, "In the context of a team, commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in. Great teams make clear and timely decisions and move forward with complete buy-in from every member of the team, even those who voted against the decision." True commitment does not exist without trust and conflict. Lencioni says teams that fail to commit:
Alternatively, a team that commits:
Dysfunction #4 - Avoidance of Accountability Buy-in is the foundation a business needs for accountability. An employee taking responsibility for a mistake seems to be a rare thing in today's work world and there is good reason for that. Lencioni notes that, "Accountability is a buzzword that has lost much of its meaning as it has become as overused as terms like empowerment and quality. In the context of teamwork, however, it refers specifically to the willingness of team members to call their peers on performance or behaviors that might hurt the team." Additionally, he writes that, "As politically incorrect as it sounds, the most effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards of performance on a team is peer pressure. One of the benefits is the reduction of the need for excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action. More than any policy or system, there is nothing like the fear of letting down respected teammates that motivates people to improve performance." Teams that avoid accountability:
A team that holds one another accountable:
Dysfunction #5 - Inattention to Results According to Lencioni, "The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of members to care about something other than the collective goals of the group." He continues and notes that "every good organization specifies what it plans to achieve in a given period, and these goals, more than the financial metrics that they drive, make up for the majority of near-term, controllable results." What does Lencioni say teams could be focused on other than results? Specifically, he references team and individual status as the biggest barriers to teams being focused on the overall goals. A team that is not focused on results:
A team that focuses on collective results:
One of the benefits of books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is that they offer a unique approach to business and team building. Hopefully you read this summary and see some things you are doing really well and want to continue to improve upon. Maybe you see that both you and your team have a long way to go before you are all working as a cohesive unit? Ultimately, we all know that our businesses and the teams that make them go are all a work in progress. What are some of the business books that have the biggest impact on you? We would love to hear from you and perhaps even read and write a review. Comment below and let us know!
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