The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a work by Patrick Lencioni, author of eight previously well recognised books in the USA. Patrick is the founder and president of The Table Group, a management consultancy firm that specializes in executive team development and organisational health. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is essentially geared towards senior and board level team development, although Patrick argues that the themes contained within can be applied to most, if not all, team environments.

Without wanting to give too much away the premise for the narrative is that ineffective teams are usually guilty of some if not all of the following Five dysfunctions – Inattention to results, Avoidance of Accountability, Lack of Commitment, Fear of Conflict and Absence of Trust.  All this sounds on the surface too simple to be true, but Patrick argues that although the themes are basic, to contextualize them into a team environment is much more difficult, and hence is the reason why failing teams find it so difficult to break out of the losing habit.

The first three quarters of the book is presented as a ‘Leadership Fable’, and as such is a short story derived from Patrick’s prior experiences of team building. This is no bad thing. I must admit I had my doubts when I began reading but the story itself is held together admirably by the main plot line of Kathryn Peterson, the new CEO’s struggle in encouraging the dysfunctional board of directors to work with each other to achieve results as opposed to individually to satisfy their own ego’s. Patrick’s literary techniques, including the use of character development and cliff-hangers to keep the reader engaged, works well and as such as a reader I was keen to see the story through to its conclusion. If anything this could be seen as the book’s fatal flaw. I was able to rattle through all 200 pages in a little over two hours and whilst it proved entertaining, I did wonder how much would stick in terms of applying the themes to an actual work setting.

Luckily the final quarter of the book works well to address some of these concerns as it is dedicated to applying the theory demonstrated in the ‘fable’ into practical action. The Dysfunctions are each broken down and Patrick offers up potential exercises that managers can use in conjunction with their teams to try and address any niggling or major problems they have. As with the story, this section of the book is presented clearly and should be easy to use by senior management in a practical context.

Overall, Five Dysfunctions is an entertaining read and from a management perspective there should definitely be a few nuggets that can be taken away and applied to specific work environments.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Gary Holmes works for Arras People as a consultant, you can book an appointment with Gary through the careers clinics

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