The go to book on teamwork
The five dysfunctions of a team using an allegory of a team that is going through the challenges in working together effectively that you often see in group settings (and even more so in cross-functional teams in corporate America). What's great about this book is the story is believable and the solutions provided are easily applied in your own work. Oh, I should also mention that they really do work effectively to improve relationships among your team and, ultimately, the group's performance.
Very inspirational
This book is a must have for rooting out dysfunctional dynamics in team situations. The ideas are simple and somewhat common sense. That is probably why we as humans often ignore the signs. I recommend this to anybody who want to maximize the potential of their team. It is a very quick read.
Great lessons woven into a short story
I really enjoyed listening to this on the CD edition. The author makes the plot interesting without too much unnecessary fluff. Almost everything in the story has some bearing on the lesson point being conveyed.
The characters are very contemporary - one uses his laptop during meetings, another is very judgmental, another one too quiet, etc. The protaganist, Kathryn is a team building leader - very reflective and results oriented. She knows she needs to do the leg work to make a team before the real results start tallying up. This is more important than her trying to be just one more product expert or financial wizard. She gets pressure from the board of directors, her direct reports and other sources. She is not perfect but she is terrific. Great model of how an executive should be.
The team goes through the usual roller coaster ride of present day corporate life - opportunities to acquire competitors, opportunities to be acquired, pressing sales calls that could theoretically change the whole game, employee distractions, etc.
My favorite lesson from the book is the cascading messages. Meetings are usually about decisions, but those decisions are not firm enough until the message to communicate the decision is concrete. This usually invokes more debate since it crystalizes the decision in a way that the team must agree upon since they will deliver it. This one thing would substantially improve many of the meetings I attend. And I intend to start using it.
There is a good summary of the five dysfunctions given as regular discourse, outside the story, at the end of the book.
This book is new generation business management writing at its best.
There's a lot of common sense material here, but Lencioni does organize it well...
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, is a "how-to" book on facilitating positive group dynamics, but in story form. That is, author Patrick Lencioni makes up a senior leadership team with problems, and walks the reader through the thought-processes, actions, and results obtained of Kathryn Petersen, the new CEO of DecisionTech.
That story is pages 3-184 of the book.
Pages vii-ix is Lencioni's introduction. He attempts to set the stage for the importance of the topic: "Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare" (p. vii). This seems like management mumbo-jumbo. I'd say that product, niche, and marketing have a LOT to do with "the ultimate competitive advantage." Teamwork didn't help the Kodak film division, or American Motors, or the manufacturers of VHS or vinyl records technology. Or Enron.
"The fact remains that teams, because they are made up of imperfect human beings, are inherently dysfunctional" (p. vii). A number of authors use this concept of "imperfect human beings" as a straw person. There is no such thing as a "perfect human being." So is Lencioni saying teams made up of identical robots are inherently functional?
Back to the story.
The story includes an endorsement of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (p. 54, 199). "Emotional intelligence." Arrrgh! Many people also refer to an astrologer's forecast every day!
The author discusses a "team" versus "a collection of individuals" (p. 83). Interesting.
"If we cannot learn to engage in productive, ideological conflict during meetings, we are through" (p. 101). Again, interesting.
Then the author's team framework ideas start on page 185. Pages 188-189 are really the heart of this book, because they deal with the five dysfunctions:
1. absence of trust
2. fear of conflict
3. lack of commitment
4. avoidance of accountability
5. inattention to results
Here's the most powerful thought I got from this book:
"It is... ironic that so many people avoid conflict in the name of efficiency, because healthy conflict is actually a time saver. Contrary to the notion that teams waste time and energy arguing, those that avoid conflict actually doom themselves to revisiting issues again and again without resolution. They often ask team members to take their issues 'off-line,' which seems to be a euphemism for avoiding dealing with an important topic, only to have it raised again at the next meeting" (p. 203).
Okay, I'm going to work on this.
I think I started reading this book with a negative attitude ("Not another book on..."). However, the fable was entertaining and easy to read. The wrap-up at the end was short and to the point. The five dysfunctions probably will give the reader (even me) something to try, or at least observe. I'd like the MBTI de-emphasized, or at LEAST critiqued, but perhaps managers feel at home with this labeling exercise.
Mildly recommended.
Great inspiring leadership book
Wonderful and inspiring book. I also would recommend the newly published, "Running with the Rhinos" as well for good companion book. Running with the Rhinos: Courageous Leadership for a Complex World
(222 reviews)
