The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Canadian Association of Management Consultants

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Book Review


By Michael Kennedy, CMC
Kennedy Management Services
Tel: (416) 385 - 3942
E-mail: mkennedy@idirect.com


Book Title: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Publication Information: Published in 2002 by Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 0 - 7879 - 6075 - 6


Author Profile: Patrick Lencioni is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm based in San Francisco that focuses on executive coaching. His background prior to founding the Table Group includes consulting experience with Bain and Company and senior executive assignments with Oracle Corporation and Sybase. He is also the author of two previous bestselling books: The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive and The Five Temptations of a CEO.


Synopsis:
The content of this book is built around a fable concerning the management team of a fictitious high-tech company. The story begins when Kathryn, the principal character in the book, is hired to become the new CEO of the firm. Although the company Kathryn finds herself running was once highly touted for its future potential, by the time she assumes her new position it is badly floundering and the board has dictated that urgent action is required.


Kathryn soon determines that the root cause of the company's lackluster overall performance can be attributed to the inability of the senior management group to work together as a coherent and effective team. Much of the story line focuses on recounting the discussions that take place between Kathryn and her executives as she tries to build better working relationships between the various players and mould them into a real management team. The book identifies five key "dysfunctions" that undermine team effectiveness, and discusses how to address these problems.


Briefly, the five main dysfunctions are as follows:


  1. Absence of Trust
  2. Fear of Conflict
  3. Lack of Commitment
  4. Avoidance of Accountability
  5. Inattention to Results
    6. .

Why This Book is Useful to Management Consultants:
As consultants all of us have to deal work with management teams within our client organizations, and many of us are also part of teams within the firms where we are employed. Everyone agrees that teamwork is an essential prerequisite for building high-performing organizations, but the reality is that all too often executive teams fail to reach their full potential because of mistrust, politics, or inability to focus on the key priorities that really need to be addressed.


The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is useful reading because it shows that in many cases team effectiveness can be dramatically improved if group members are willing to take the time to work through the issues that are impairing their performance and make a real commitment to change their behaviour. The book presents a practical, well-thought-out framework for diagnosing the problems that are present and implementing solutions that will address them.