Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

A friend of mine is a good listener. She understands the challenges of navigating the complex relationships in the workplace. If there's an answer to a problem, she'll find it. Recently, she came to the East Coast for a work event, we met for dinner, and she gave me a book. I had to wait a week to read it, but I devoured it in a weekend (maybe it was just a Saturday afternoon, if I remember correctly).

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni was fun to read, insightful, and thought provoking. Told as a story, the characters come alive and exhibit common behaviors in the workplace. I liked that the CEO character was a woman who was not a shark nor a bitch, but down-to-earth, smart, respectable, and strong. Personally, I could relate to her background as a teacher since teaching is my natural gift.

Throughout the story, the author illustrates the five dysfunctions and how they can be overcome. The five dysfunctions of a team are:
1.  Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to Results

My takeaways from the book are:

• There needs to be a foundation of trust. If something or someone threatens that trust, it should be addressed. I see that a team needs to have channels for communication and the environment for voicing concerns (which is how trust and conflict intersect positively).
• Conflict, disagreement is a positive. Without it, a bad idea may be implemented, which hurts the team.
• The inattention to results referenced the importance of a team goal and vision, which should be put first in front of individual ego. I remember a situation in my team where someone put their ego first and it ended up hurting the team. I will speak up if such a situation happens again (since I now know that conflict is OK).
• It's important to consentiously bring together a team for a purpose, to be strategic about leading and guiding, to be attentive to the team's cohesiveness and interpolitics.

The story was entertaining and used great examples of how each dysfunction shows up in the workplace, as well as ways that the dysfunction can be reversed.

I noticed a few pieces were missing. No character was described as being non-white. Maybe as a white reader, I assumed all the characters were white when in fact the characters trascended race and culture. But I doubt it. Also, the common behaviors I didn't see included were undermining each other and trash-talking, which seems to happen a lot in the workplace. I also found it unbelieveable that the former CEO let his position be taken by a woman and he took a lower position without any backstabbing and drama.

I found  it difficult to read the last 40 pages that weren't part of the story, but typical non-fiction prose. After enjoying a story, it was difficult to get into reading the instructions on how to apply the principles illustrated into the story. Since I still don't have a deep understanding of how the author recommends overcoming the dysfunctions, I should probably re-read those pages and consider reading his other book about overcoming the dysfunctions of a team.

This book has wide applications. In any situation when two or more people need to work together to accomplish a goal, they can learn from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I can see it helping a group of volunteers, PTA, small business, executive team, sports team. I would recommend the book to anyone looking to understand how to create an effective team to achieve a goal.