On a recommendation from Christina, I recently raced through The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. Written as a “leadership fable”, the book drives home its points through a narrative account of a fictional start-up company and its leadership team. Though mildly entertaining in of itself, the story is used to walk through a model of effective teamwork based on the following:
- Genuine team work in most organizations remains elusive
- Organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they fall prey to five dysfunctions
- These issues cannot be addressed in isolation as they form an interrelated model
- Absence of Trust: stems from an unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group; team members who are not open about mistakes and weaknesses make it impossible to build trust
- Fear of Conflict: team that lack trust are incapable of engaging in passionate, unfiltered debate about important issues
- Lack of Commitment: with open discussions and airing of issues, team members rarely buy into and commit to decisions
- Avoidance of Accountability: without committing to a clear plan of action, people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive
- Inattention to Results: failure to hold people accountable creates an environment where individual needs or needs of groups are put above the collective goals of the team
- Though this model is simple, it is extremely difficult to apply effectively because it requires discipline and persistence