Michael Roller

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team lays a great foundation for how all teams should interact. Like so many good business books, you can read the whole thing on a long flight. The book walks through a “leadership fable” in which a new CEO helps a Silicon Valley startup become a functional, successful team. Here are the five dysfunctions, along with the leader’s role in avoiding them:

Lencioni creates a framework that is easy to remember and  use. Basically, the author shows how seemingly little problems like a lack of trust quickly turn an organization into an ambiguous place without a shared set of common goals. Without shared goals, employees lack direction and can easily become self-serving of their own egos and careers. My only complaint is the relative negativity in the title. The book itself provides plenty of positive messages, but I wish that the leader’s role in building teams would be celebrated even more. It’s impressive to realize that by simply setting a good example and “going first,” leaders can teach their teams to work through the healthy conflict required in creating and achieving those essential common goals.

Check out Patrick Lencioni’s site for more info!

Tags: books, storytelling, teams

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