The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Book Review
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is a book that many new leaders will have on their reading list. Though I’m not early in my leadership journey, I finally sat down with it this month. And it’s a decent, quick read with a few sound ideas, especially around the importance of trust. However, it’s not a comprehensive guide to team building.
The book introduces a model of five common dysfunctions that prevent teams from performing:
Absence of trust
Fear of conflict
Lack of commitment
Avoidance of accountability
Inattention to results
These form a pyramid, with trust as the foundation. The core argument of the book is that a team must feel safe being vulnerable with each other, or the team can’t function and achieve results.
