The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

I finished reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and it was a book I really enjoyed. The book is actually written as a story of a new CEO of a company with a dysfunctional team, and as such very nice to read. It’s also not too long and gets right down to the point, aided by the fact that it is (as its a story) filled with good examples. The theory is easy to understand and yet very powerful. I included the general concept right here.

Now the middle of the pyramid holds the general dysfunctions and they really build on each other. The right side hold more or less the problem that is often present at this stage. Often team members don’t want to be vulnerable and hence aren’t fully open about their mistakes. In absence of this, no real trust can be built up. Without trust you will not be able to go into real conflict which is needed though. An artificial harmony might be in the team where there is no real conflict, as conflict is not always harmonic but it needs to be there for the next stage to work. You will either have ambiguity in your decisions or real commitment, which will only be reached if the conflict has been handled well and thoroughly. Then you also commit to high standards and will be able to be accountable to those and challenged by your team mates. Then you can also achieve your results, provided you put the team first, yourself second.

All this is brought out in great detail in the book and yes, it sounds simple and it probably is, if you really confront this brutally. Of course, there are a million nuances and not everybody fits in there. But it’s a very good starting point to build a team.