Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions Of A Team

Abstract

In the book “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, the author describes the pitfalls that teams may face as they work together. The book looks at some of the underlying reasons that teams fail. The book is considered a motivational fable that is a fictional story that shares a moral or ethical lesson. Those lessons are intended to be used in the organizations to improve or transform its overall culture. The book tells a story to demonstrate the dysfunctions using a fictitious company and executive team as the setting. As a leader within my own organization this book really resonated with me. While no company is perfect in the manner in which they handle the dysfunction present, the book does not try to sound as if the strategies are

The author is describing the ability that individual team members to reveal their weaknesses openly to each other. Lencioni is conveying that when team members are not willing to share their weaknesses and trust each other including their intentions there is a tendency for group members to shift into a more protective state. In this state “they feel the need to be right, to be strong and competent, so much that they are unable to be vulnerable and open with one another” (O'Donnell, K. S. 2011). According to the author, trust necessitates that a group have confidence in each other and therefore have no cause to be protective and careful in team interactions. The lack of trust for teams is generally considered a drain on the team’s productivity and energy as they spend too much time defending themselves and not enough leveraging each other’s strengths focusing on team and organizational objectives. In the book, the team completes a Myers Briggs assessment as a means to get the team engaging one another about strengths and weaknesses and sharing experiences, which allowed them to begin to build the trust the team needed.

Dysfunction 2: Fear of Conflict

Trust is the foundation of the pyramid Lencioni uses in the book. He builds upon the first dysfunction by stating that it is “trust that makes team conflict possible”. When teams become dysfunctional, they cannot productively address team conflicts. According

High performing teams prioritize the teams objectives and goals over that of the individual and they become more results oriented. “Our job is to make the results that we need to achieve so clear to everyone in this room that no one would even consider doing something purely to enhance his or her individual status or ego. Because that would diminish our ability to achieve our collective goals. We would all lose.” (Lencioni, 2002). Leaders should set clear expectations on how success is measured and what it looks like. Progress should be appropriately measured and that positive behaviors that benefit the teams continued advancement toward that goal should be rewarded. This will assist in keeping the team on the properly aligned with its