The Five Dysfunctions of a Team was written by New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni. Written as a business fable, Lencioni pens 230 pages in a distant third person omniscient narrative about the struggles organizations experience on their road to success:
5D is set in Half Moon Bay, just over the hills from San Francisco. This book is perfectly suited for a high-powered, self absorbed, inner focused workaholic and yet at the same time is equally beneficial to the stay-at-home CEO or student body president at a public high school. This book not only pertains to athletic teams, community groups but also business people and elective office holders. Lencioni wrote this book to teach and inform group members how to work successfully in such a setting. He is a great communicator. His use of descriptive words helps the reader to apply principles to a specific personal situation. The fable-like narrative keeps the reader engaged in the story.
This book describes a prestigious company, DecisionTech, Inc., which hires a new chief executive officer lacking experience in a specific industry but is very skilled at bringing people together to work as a team. 5D contains the thoughts of the new hire, Kathryn Peterson, as well as several other employees. Over a period of several weeks, Peterson observes formal meetings and less formal office interaction. When she has collected the information she needs informs the staff, or “team” about an offsite activity to take place in Napa and the entire group is expected to attend. Throughout this group experience, staff members grow close together by learning why they were not being successful. The five reasons Peterson shared (in no particular order):
Absence of trust
A fear of conflict
A lack of commitment
Avoidance of accountability
Not paying attention to results
One reason distrust was demonstrated at DecisionTech was the search for familiarity and comfort when it came to daily assignments. A desire to be safe, predictable precluded them from allowing co-workers to see their vulnerabilities. This is a primary driver of group think. Being safe reminds me of the large ship that was tied to the dock. It may look good tied up to the shore but that is not what ships were made for. Cut it loose and let it navigate the great oceans. To the second dysfunction, everyone, or at least a majority did not want to think outside the box to find new solutions and more effective ways of providing customer service. Number three, the fear of conflict is an issue because it makes you feel like you have harmony while it’s more accurately described as avoiding constructive discussion. Another factor that Peterson pointed out in dysfunctional teams is a lack of commitment. All staff members need to buy-in, and put all their chips on the table. This is probably the most common challenge manifest in unsuccessful teams, accountability. And lastly will be the ego of the employees. Personal ego can corrode team success quicker than anything. Peterson talks in detail about all these issues and offers group solutions which make DecisionTech one of the most successful companies in America.
