THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
By Patrick Lencioni
Jossey-Bass, 2002, 229 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
The work, subtitled A Leadership Fable, uses a fictitious company CEO replacement based on poor company performance to show common leadership issues. The new CEO brings in a fresh approach to how strategic decisions will be made going forward. Some of the leadership adjust, some don’t. Those that can’t adjust to the new approach leave, or are asked to leave.
The dysfunctions center on trust and honesty among members of the C-suite. They are depicted as a pyramid. The list starting from the bottom of the pyramid and ascending to the top are: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results. Lencioni makes the argument that each item in the pyramid links to, or fosters, the one just above it. The “fable” depicts attitudes, reactions, and interactions among the various C-team members and the positive and negative effects that result.
The last section of the book gives some suggested ways to approach the five dysfunctions. There is a follow on volume that more deeply addresses how to overcome them. That’ll likely be a future read for me.
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