Book
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
A Leadership Fable
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a best-selling book by Patrick Lencioni, has sold over two million copies. Companies, business schools, churches, nonprofits, and professional sports teams have made use of concepts in this book.
Presented as a fable, this book about building a cohesive team is easily and quickly read. The model for describing why teams flounder is simple: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. The way through these common difficulties takes work, and the last part of the book provides concrete steps to assist a leader in moving a team to cohesiveness.
Publishers Weekly review
In keeping with the parable style, Lencioni begins by telling the fable of a woman who, as CEO of a struggling Silicon Valley firm, took control of a dysfunctional executive committee and helped its members succeed as a team. Story time over, Lencioni offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioral tendencies that he says corrupt teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results). Succinct yet sympathetic, this guide will be a boon for those struggling with the inherent difficulties of leading a group.