The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

That's the question this book sets out to answer. "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" shows leaders how to identify the five most common reasons that teams fail to perform at their best. And, it gives you a clear model to develop strategies for overcoming them.

The result? You'll have a team that knows how to engage in healthy, constructive discussion to resolve conflicts. They'll trust each other. They'll commit to the team's mission and goals. They'll be accountable for their actions, and they'll be willing to call their teammates out on any unproductive comments or actions.

Some of you might be rolling your eyes at this point. After all, this does sound very ambitious. However, after reading "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," you may well be convinced that you can get your team to this level of effectiveness.

"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" is written as a fable, with just the final part of the book devoted to the author's "five dysfunctions model" – his practical guide for working better together. This means most of the book is taken up with the fictional story of Kathryn, the newly appointed CEO of a troubled Silicon Valley start-up.

Now, this format may not appeal to everyone. After all, how effective can a team leadership book really be if 75 percent of it is fiction? The content is aimed at managers and leaders, but do they really want to spend their time reading a business fable?

In this case, the format really works. The book is highly readable, and it does a great job of illustrating the five most common dysfunctions in a team. We should point out that the dysfunctions covered in the book are core dysfunctions, such as lack of trust and fear of conflict.

The author believes that most teams experience at least one of the dysfunctions covered here, but they rarely make an effort to get to the root of it. Instead, they spend time glossing over it, or focusing on team-building activities that never address the real issues. As a result, they never reach their true potential.

In this book, using the central character Kathryn, the author shows us what we need to do to get to the root of these important issues. And, he offers strategies to bring them to the surface so they can be addressed.

What's great about the author's five dysfunctions is that they're simple to understand and remember. But while the key ideas may be simple, transforming your team is not easy. Seeing Kathryn work through the struggles with her own team makes us realize what's involved. It's hard work, but it can be done.

Patrick Lencioni is the president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in the development of executive teams and their organization. He's the best-selling author of several books, including "The Five Temptations of a CEO" and "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive."

So, keep listening to find out how to tell if your team is lacking in trust, how to get team members to trust each other more, and how to encourage healthy conflict in your group.

As you heard earlier, the bulk of "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" is written as a fictional story about a young technology company, DecisionTech. The company is only two years old, and although it started out full of promise, the CEO has already been replaced because of poor sales, missed deadlines, poor employee retention, and rock-bottom morale.

Kathryn, the woman chosen to turn around DecisionTech, is not used to Silicon Valley. She's a 57 year-old retired executive from the automotive industry and knows nothing about the technology industry. Her greatest strength, and the reason why she is chosen, is that she's an expert in rebuilding teams. And, rebuilding is exactly what the executive team at DecisionTech needs.

Everyone on the leadership team is dumbfounded, and immediately distrustful, when the Board tells them about Kathryn's background. And for her first few weeks on the job, Kathryn does very little at all. She walks the halls, talks to the staff, and watches everyone constantly. Then, she schedules an off-site retreat for the executive team.

As you might imagine, animosity is high. The team is resentful of Kathryn, and none of them believe she's qualified to run the company, especially since she's done nothing since she started. So imagine how they react when, during this first off-site retreat, Kathryn begins to show the team how truly dysfunctional they are, and how their inability to work effectively together is causing the company to miss important opportunities.

One executive barely listens to what Kathryn says because he's checking email on his laptop. Another spends time rolling her eyes, and making sarcastic comments. Another obviously feels he's wasting his time at the meeting, so he sits with his arms folded, brooding.

This may sound all too familiar to many leaders! These executives are showing classic signs of core dysfunctions.

So, what are these core dysfunctions? Well, as you might expect from the title of the book, there are five. Absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

Let's look at a few of these in detail.

Absence of trust in a team is probably the most damaging dysfunction. When team members lack trust, they're unwilling to be vulnerable in front of the group, keeping good ideas to themselves. They can be unduly suspicious of each other's motives, and make assumptions that have no basis in truth. All this is harmful to the team.

A lack of trust leads directly to the next dysfunction, which is fear of conflict. Fear of conflict prevents people from saying what they truly think. They guard what they say, or attempt to be nice and keep peace at all costs. This can hold back progress and lead to damaging tensions within the team.

Don't worry about writing all this down while you're in the middle of Kathryn's story. The author's model at the end of the book wraps up the most important lessons we need to learn.

Although the team makes some great progress during the offsite, especially in rebuilding trust, even Kathryn is dumbfounded by how quickly that progress evaporates once the team returns to work Monday morning. Most managers will identify with this disappointment. How often have you seen progress go up in smoke after an away day, or team retreat?

This just goes to show how important it is to tackle the problems consistently, over time. One away day or weekend retreat won't solve anything, at least not when Monday morning comes around. We feel this is an important point the author makes mid-way through the book. Dealing with these core issues properly takes time.

So how does the story end? Well, as you might guess, Kathryn goes through some serious struggles with her team. It isn't easy. And yet, you'll find yourself cheering her on through her successes, and rooting for her through her challenges. By the end of the fictional portion of the book, you'll have a clear idea of the results you can get if you're able to truly turn around a dysfunctional team.

Now, you might be wondering what to do about your own team. You've probably realized that your group is suffering from one or more of these dysfunctions. So let's turn to the short chapters at the end of the book that help us apply the lessons we just learned from Kathryn and her team.

This is a short practical guide, and it starts with trust. You can tell if you team has a lack of trust if they conceal their weaknesses from each other, if they don't like asking for help or providing constructive feedback, or if they bear grudges. They'll also jump to conclusions about other people's intentions, and find reasons to avoid spending time together.

What can you do about it? Thankfully, the author gives us some great advice here, as he does for all five of the dysfunctions.

You can take one step that Kathryn took in her first off-site, in the story. You can do a Personal Histories Exercise. This takes less than an hour, and it's an effective first step because it's low-risk for everyone involved. All you do is spend time asking each team member to answer personal questions in front of the rest of the team. For instance, what was their first job? What are their favorite hobbies? Where did they grow up?

These questions sound simple, but they allow your team to get to know each other on a personal level. The more they can relate to each other, the easier it is to build trust.

Fear of conflict is the second core dysfunction. The author says all great relationships require productive conflict in order to grow. This is an interesting idea, which may well ring true for you. The key word here is productive. Plenty of teams have conflict. But, is it good conflict?

Productive conflict is kept to concepts and ideas. It avoids personal, mean-spirited attacks, and politics. It can still be passionate, and even frustrating. But it's done with a spirit of openness and shared values that are lacking in regular, personally-focused conflicts.

How do you know if your team has a fear of conflict? Signs to watch out for are: consistently boring meetings, a work environment where politics rule, an avoidance of controversial topics, posturing, and a failure to ask the opinions of everyone on the team.

To overcome this, you need to coach your team not to back off from healthy debate. You can help your team move forward with a strategy the author calls Real Time Permission. For instance, when your team does get involved with a good debate, you might notice some of the group are getting uncomfortable with the conflict. They might even start to back off from their own opinions.

Interrupt the discussion to remind them that airing different viewpoints is necessary and good. This can help give them the confidence they need to continue and see the debate through to its conclusion.

You also have a role to play in this conflict. As the leader, you might feel an urge to protect certain team members from getting battered in the crossfire. However, this can interrupt the flow of ideas, and prevent your team from developing the skills they need to cope and move forward through the conflict.

According to the author, all leaders should try to restrain themselves from protecting team members. Let the debate happen naturally, he says.

There are many more strategies and tips here, as well as for the other three team dysfunctions. Without a doubt, managers will find the information here relevant and practical.

So, what's our last word on "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team"?

Well, we're happy to say we loved this book. Not only is it an entertaining, quick read, but it's also highly useful and informative.

Perhaps surprisingly, the book works very well as a fictional story. You'll quickly be pulled in to Kathryn's story, and her sincere desire to turn around her executive team. You may identify with many of her struggles and frustrations. And you'll likely recognize members of your own team, and their behaviors, in these fictional characters.

In fact, the author did such a good job on Kathryn's character, and those of her executive team, that you'll be hard-pressed to put the book down.

One of the most useful aspects of the fictional part of the book is watching how Kathryn behaves, and getting into her thought process as she chooses what to say, and what not to. Most leaders will gain some valuable insight into how to be a better manager by seeing how Kathryn communicates with her team.

And fortunately, the author clearly defines his points and strategies at the end of the book. Managers will find useful tips for dealing with each of the five dysfunctions here. There's also a practical assessment leaders can do with their teams to work out their susceptibility to these five dysfunctions.

All in all, this is a valuable book that any manager or leader can learn from. The story is entertaining and compelling, and the lessons are simple but profound. We have no trouble recommending this book.

"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni, is published by Jossey-Bass.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.