The Six Minute Book Summary of Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Executive Summary

Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, is his second work and is based off of his first book, The Five Temptations of a CEO.  The author was inspired to write The Five Dysfunctions of a Team after he saw that managers were applying his theories of individual leadership from his first book to leadership teams.  It is an informative read, and offers a simple model of the pitfalls that teams encounter along with practical, common sense ways to overcome them.  It is an engaging novel and very easy read because it is so very interesting and exciting, at least for a management book.  With nearly every page, the story leaves you wanting to know how the tension between the characters will be resolved and what direction the interoffice politics will take next.  The majority of the book’s two hundred twenty-nine pages consists of a fable.  The last forty or so pages gives a detailed overview of the five dysfunctions model, gives suggestions on how to recognize and overcome the five dysfunctions, and contains a two page questionnaire to administer to and assess the state of your own team.  The fable is about a fictional company called DecisionTech, the name of which is an allusion to the tough decisions the company and employees will soon have to make.  The company is a young technology firm based near Silicon Valley.  Founded two years ago, it was full of sparkle, high hopes, and great expectations, but it has since fallen from grace and is struggling to hold together emotionally and stay afloat financially.  That is when Kathryn Petersen, a fifty-seven year ago retiree with considerable experience building teams but no experience in the tech industry, is called in to become DecisionTech’s new CEO and that is where the story begins.  Over the course of a few months, Kathryn faces many challenges as she tries to build a team out of a diverse group of independent minded executives who perfect are character types every kind of worker you would expect to encounter in a dysfunctional organization.  Each has their own unique set of problems that must be dealt with.  For instance, one is haughty and condescending, another is simply somewhat socially inept and a poor communicator, and another is extremely helpful to everyone but does not get his own work done.  One employee quits.  Another Kathryn has to fire, but she must deal with the repercussions of those events while still trying to build the team into a cohesive unit.  The author, for the most part, does an excellent job of illustrating the five dysfunctions model through the actions of the characters and their reactions to each other.  In a few places there are some disconnects and minor inconsistencies in the story but not so much in the model, so those errors can be overlooked.  Although the model could have been more accurately explained during the fable, it is thoroughly explained and well outlined in the latter section of the book.  I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to build a team, improve a team, or improve their own leadership skills, and in my opinion, it was well worth my time to read it.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

1. The first dysfunction is “Absence of Trust”.  Unwillingness to be vulnerable within a group is what often causes this dysfunction.  Team members have to trust each other enough ask tough questions and admit their mistakes

1. The second dysfunction is “Fear of Conflict”.  Constructive conflict is essential for teams to work out their problems, get things done, and reach the best possible solutions to problems.

1. If members of a team do not trust each other, the first dysfunction, then they will not be able to engage in constructive conflict, which is the second dysfunction.  Team members have to trust that other team members will not take things personally when engaged in constructive conflict or it will become destructive conflict.

1. The third dysfunction is “Lack of Commitment”.  In order to commit to decisions, people need to know that their opinions have been heard.  Otherwise, there will be no commitment, and people will not care about the results and will not work their hardest to ensure the results are positive.  A major cause of the third dysfunction is the need for group consensus.

1. The forth dysfunctions is “Avoidance of Accountability”.  The members of a team need to hold each other accountable to high standards.  Most people have a problem doing this with their peers on their team because team members are supposed to be equal and no one feels like they have the right to tell their peers how they should do things, but it is important for the team to do so they see things being done wrong or not done at all.  It is also important that the team leader is not the only one holding members accountable and makes sure to let the team correct itself.  Otherwise, members will not speak when they see something wrong because they will assume that it is the leader’s responsibility.

1. If people suffer from the third dysfunction and did not commit to a decision, then it is hard to make them feel accountable for the results of their performance executing that decision, which is the forth dysfunction, because they will feel that they never really agreed to it anyway.

1. The fifth dysfunction is “Inattention to Results”.  Results refers to overall team results.  People suffer from this dysfunction when they let their desire for status, desire for personal achievement, and their ego get in the way of the goals of the team.

1. Related to the fifth dysfunction is the concept of having a “first team”.  If executive managers put their departmental teams before the executive team, that can cause them put departmental goals and results before overall company goals and results.  The executive team should be the “first team” so that the total success of the company comes first.

1. Every dysfunction is related, and the presence of anyone one of the dysfunctions can, by itself, bring down a team.

1. The Five Dysfunctions Model can be viewed in a more positive way by thinking of what good teams do instead of what hurts teams.  Good teams trust each other, engage in constructive ideological conflict and do not hold back, commit to the decisions and plans they make, hold each other accountable for working to make plans happen, and they are focused on collective results.

Full Summary of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Fable:

This is the story of the executive team of a fictitious company named DecisionTech after a new CEO is appointed to straighten them all out and fix the company’s laggard performance.  The new CEO must navigate through an onslaught of office politics and drama in her attempt to unite the executive team and reverse the company’s failing trend.  It is a process at the end of which not she or anyone else at DecisionTech is guaranteed to still be employed.

Luck

The Chairman of the Board of DecisionTech chooses Kathryn to become CEO less than a month after the previous CEO’s removal.  The company was “one of the most talked-about, well-funded, and promising start-up companies in the recent history of the Silicon Valley.”  Kathryn had no idea just what an awful state of disrepair DecisionTech was in.

Part One: Underachievement

DecisionTech was not geographically part of Silicon Valley, but culturally it fit the bill.  Two years ago it had the most experienced, expensive executive team possible, a great business plan, and top-tier investors, but after a few months it began its decline despite those immense advantages.  On DecisionTech’s two-year anniversary the CEO, Jeff Shanley, was demoted to head of business development.  None of the employees were surprised.  The company “had already developed a reputation … [as] one of the most political and unpleasant places to work”.  Kathryn, the new CEO, seemed to be “an old school, blue-collarish executive”, which was contradictory to the culture of DecisionTech.  DecisionTech’s board was uneasy about their Chairman’s choice of Kathryn for CEO, but the company was desperate for help, so they trusted him when he said not many good executives would want the job.  The Chairman choose Kathryn because he believed “she had an amazing gift for building teams.”  He knew her personally and had followed her career.  During her first two weeks as CEO, Kathryn observed meetings while the former CEO, Jeff Shanley, lead them.  Then, Kathryn announced “a series of two-day executive retreats in the Napa Valley”.  The executives were troubled by her behavior and the announcement because they felt that they should all be engaged in more “real work”.  Kathryn began to wonder if she should have taken the job.  She did not want to let the Chairman down and “tarnish her reputation … among friends and family”.  Kathryn believed that her lack of technical knowledge in computers and software programming was not a problem because “most of her staff seemed almost paralyzed by their own knowledge of technology, as though they themselves would have to the programming and product design to make the company fly.”  Next, the members of the executive team are introduced.  They are: Jeff Shanley the former CEO and a cofounder of the company, Mikey the marketing head, Martin the Chief Technologist and also a cofounder of the company, JR head of sales, Carlos head of customer support, Jan the CFO, and Nick the Chief Operating Officer.  All of them have problems working as a team, especially Mikey who is rude and condescending and Martin who just does not know how to interact with humans.

Part Two: Lighting the Fire

Martin tries to avoid the Nappa retreat because he wants to deal with a customer and try to make a sale.  Kathryn confronts him and, as politely as possible, tells him that he cannot skip the retreat because they need to get their “act together as a team, or we’re not going to be selling anything.”  Martin silently concedes but is not done fighting.  Then, Jeff confronts Kathryn about the Martin incident, but Kathryn convinces him, like Martin, that they need to build their team instead of focusing on sales.  Finally, the Chairman, the one who choose Kathryn, confronts her about the Martin incident.  She is a little shocked, but she calmly explained that to fix the team she is first going to have to break it and then rebuild.  She told him that she was hired because they did not know how to fix their problems, that the process will be dangerous and painful, and that if he cannot trust her and stand the pressure, she should just leave now.  The Chairman relents and gives her his full support.  After that, the first off-site team building meeting is about to start and everyone has shown up, except for Martin.  Everyone begins to wonder if he is coming.  The tension builds, but Martin comes in at 8:59am, right before the meeting starts.  Kathryn introduces the first of the five dysfunctions.  She draws a triangle on a board and separates it into five horizontal sections.  In the bottom section she writes “Absence of TRUST”.  She explains that great teams are not afraid to “admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns” to one another, and that it takes a lot of trust to be able to do that.  A team needs trust to achieve results.  The team argues about whether they have trust or not and about what trust really means.  Then, Martin begins typing on his laptop, which distracts everyone and kills the conversational momentum.  Kathryn sees this as a critical moment and confronts him about it.  Martin was taking notes but realizes that he was being rude, relents, and begins to get involved in the conversation.  Next, everyone is told to answer “five nonintrusive personal questions having to do with their backgrounds”.  They were all surprised about what they did not know about each other.  They all were enthusiastic and were becoming closer, but Kathryn knew this moment of joy would die when they started talking about work.  Then, the team takes personality tests and they tease each other about the results, but leave Mikey out.  Mikey and the rest of the team, amazingly, then argue about what a prick Mikey is.  Mikey sits quietly through the rest of the meeting, and Kathryn realizes that Mikey is having a hard time trusting the team.  After the meeting, Kathryn tries to talk to Mikey, but gets nowhere and decides not to press the issue.  The second day of the retreat begins, and, until an hour before lunch, the team reviews everything they went over the previous day.  Kathryn explains that “teamwork begins by building trust” and “the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”  She then wrote invulnerability next to trust on the board.  Then she has everyone tell their biggest strengths and weaknesses.  Kathryn says she is good at sifting through information and finding the facts that matter but bad at public relations.  Nick says that he is unafraid of negotiations but that he can come across as arrogant to his peers.  Jan has good management skills and admits that she is too conservative with money for their business.  Jeff is good at raising money from investors, but says he is afraid or failure.  Mikey gives trite and shallow answers.  Carlos is willing to do everything that the others do not want to but does not share is thoughts enough, or so Jan tells him.  JR is really good at building personal relationships with customers, but he often blows off tasks.  Finally, Martin says that he is good at solving analytical problems, but has poor communication skills.  Mikey pokes fun at Martin, but she was the only one laughing.  Kathryn wished later she had said something about it to Mikey then, but did not.  However, she realized that Mikey was bringing the rest of the team down.  Kathryn introduces the next dysfunction, inattention to results, which she writes in the top of the triangle.  Ultimately the team figures out that this means letting personal ego get in the way of team results.  The team comes up with and talks about goals to measure the success of their business.  They figure out that they all need to know and support the goals of everyone else and not just their own departments, but Mikey disagrees.  A much needed confrontation with Mikey almost erupts, but no one wants to push her, so they all let it go.  Through that exchange, Kathryn begins to understand more deeply the dynamics of the team.  The team later becomes frustrated with the process and JR asks Kathryn to tell them what the rest of the dysfunctions are so they can just fix their problems and move on.  Kathryn actually ends up pleased by this because she thinks that you cannot get real change without honest resistance.  She subsequently takes JR’s advice and introduces the rest of the dysfunctions.  In the triangle in the space above “absence of trust” she wrote the next dysfunction, “fear of conflict”.  Trust is necessary for “open, constructive, ideological conflict.”  The next dysfunction, written above the last one, is “lack of commitment” and failure to buy into decisions.  Kathryn explains that people need to give their opinions on a decision before they can commit to it and that people can commit to decision whether they agree with it or not.  Mikey asked what the last dysfunction, “avoidance of accountability”, is and surprised everyone because she actually seemed interested in the answer.  After that is explained, Mikey begins to come around and starts to enjoy the meeting.  After discussing the how conflict fits into meetings and makes them more interesting, Kathryn decides that they should get started and have their first decision making meeting right then.  Right before the end of part two, the author reveals that one of the team members will not still be on the team by the time they have their next off-site meeting, but that the one leaving will not be Mikey.

Part Three:  Heavy Lifting

Back at the office, even Kathryn was surprised by how fast any progress the team had made during the Nappa meetings disappeared.  Nick calls a meeting and tries to convince everyone that they should acquire a startup company called Green Banana.  The team is not convinced, sparks fly, and Nick winds up confronting Kathryn who then excuses the rest of the team to talk to Nick privately.  Nick explains that he feels underutilized and thinks about quitting the team to advance his career.  The next day, at their first staff meeting, Nick explains his feelings to the team and decides not to leave unless he cannot find something to do.  Then Kathryn drops a bomb by announcing that JR quit last night.  He went back to his old job because he “didn’t want to waste any more of his time at off-site meetings working out people’s personal problems.”  Carlos offers to fill in at the sales department till they can replace JR, but the group decides that Nick is the best person for the job.  Nick accepts the offer.  Later, Kathryn finds out that the employees know details about what the executive team has been doing at the off-site meetings.  The following week, the next series of off-site meetings begins.  Kathryn starts by asking what the team has been telling their employees about their meetings, and then explains that she does not care that much about maintaining confidentiality but wants to know who each of the team members considers their “first team”.  She further explains that she wants to know if the executive team is as important to them as the teams they head in the departments.  They all say that they are closer to their own teams, but Jan says that she is probably closer to her team than anyone else is to theirs because some of her employees have been under her at previous companies.  They all digest the thought of putting the executive team before their departmental teams that they have built such strong relationships with.  They thought that they should put the executive team first, but quietly doubted if they could.  Kathryn told them that they should just focus on building their executive team and then putting it first might not seem so hard.  After that, Carlos timidly, after some prodding by Kathryn and Jan, tells everyone that he thinks they are putting too many resources into engineering.  Martin gets defensive about the investment in technology and the team argues and then, after a long debate, agrees on a solution.  They all then went to lunch after Kathryn announced that when they get back they will be talking about “interpersonal discomfort and holding each other accountable.”  When they came back, they reviewed their progress toward the company goal of eighteen new customers, which they had set at the previous off-site.  Carlos had not even started on competitor analysis, but no one had called him out on that, which was shown to be an example of the dysfunction “avoidance of accountability”.  Then, Mikey and Nick clash because Mikey does not think that she needs to attend sales training with the rest of the team.  After they argue a little, Mikey says that she will be there, but Kathryn realizes that Mikey needs to leave the team.  Kathryn dismisses everyone for a break except for Mikey.  Kathryn tells Mikey that she does not think that Mikey is good for the team and that she probably will feel better somewhere else.  Mikey resists this assertion, leaves, and then comes back.  She tells Kathryn that she will not resign and that her husband is a lawyer and would help her fight the company.  Kathryn says that Mikey does not have to leave if she changes her behavior fast.  After awhile, Mikey finally relents and agrees to accept a severance package.  When the rest of the team comes back and Kathryn gives them the news of Mikey’s departure, they are more shocked and concerned than Kathryn thought they would be.  Kathryn then tells them a story of how she got fired from a previous job because she promoted an employee who everyone hated, like Mikey, when she probably should have fired him because his negative behavior was bringing down the performance of the entire department.  The team then understood why Mikey had to go.  Back at the office, they decide to hire someone externally rather than promoting from within.  Over the next few weeks, Kathryn pushed the team “harder than ever before”.

Part Four: Traction

The last of the Nappa Valley off-site meetings begins.  Kathryn tells the group that they still are not where they need to be as a team but that they are on the right track.  Kathryn says that they are going to assess the state of their team and redraws the entire five dysfunctions model on the board.  They go over the five dysfunctions and come to the conclusion that they are doing fairly well on all of them, but Kathryn does not want them to get too comfortable and tells them to be ready for tough times for the next few months and not to give up on building the team.  Three months later, Kathryn hosted her first quarterly two-day staff meeting and their new vice president of marketing, Joseph Charles, joined them.  To everyone’s surprise, except for Jeff who is a board member, Kathryn announced that Green Banana, the company that Nick had wanted them to buy, now wants to buy them.  The board had left it up to the executive team to decide whether or not to accept the buyout offer because they wanted to test the team’s commitment.  They all vote not to accept.  After that, the team went over the five dysfunctions with their new member, Joseph, and explained their roles, responsibilities, and collective goals.  “Over the course of the next year, DecisionTech grew its sales dramatically” and met its revenue goals most of the time.  Morale went up and employee turnover went down, and thus ends the fable.            

The Model:

The following section is a simple guide to using the Five Dysfunctions Model to build and improve teams.  It includes a brief overview of the model, a team assessment questionnaire, and a more detailed guide to understanding and overcoming the dysfunctions.

The Video Lounge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRKa700RaQ

This clip is an interview of Patrick Lencioni by Expanded Books.  In the first half, Mr. Lencioni discusses the five dysfunctions.  After that, he answers various questions about his other books and writing method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bOL1gzQePw

Scott Eblin discusses the book as part of a video book club.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

• The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $%, because:

I think the author may not be one of the most brilliant people around, but he has come up with a really good idea here.  I can definitely see how this applies to teams, and I have seen the dynamics played out in his story in real teams that I have been on.  I wish I had read this book a long time ago.  It could have helped me out tremendously and would have maybe kept me from making a few mistakes.  An excellent read indeed.

• With business conditions today, what the author wrote is – or is no longer true – because:

This concept holds true regardless of the business conditions.  In fact, with the economy in a recession, or just emerging from one, the concepts of teamwork outlined in this book are even more important and applicable.  When the money is rolling in, it is really easy to get along and for dysfunctional teams to ignore their problems, but it is in the tough, stressful times when those teams and businesses fail and the teams that worked their problems out beforehand survive or even thrive.

• If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1. I would have broke up the “Fable” with more coherent and detailed explanations of the model and how to apply it instead of throwing that all in at the end of the book.  I would still repeat it at the end of the book for easy reference and discussion.  It would be much easier to follow that way.

1. I would have worked on the model more before publishing it.  It is a very good model, but it still needs some work and could be more straightforward.  For instance, each dysfunction as a form of “evidence” associated with it, but exactly what that means is not explained.

1. I would have structured the chapters differently.  I would have combined a lot of them because some parts are one or two pages and I just do not like that.

• Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1. I had not really considered the idea of “disagree and commit”.  People need to express their opinions regarding a decision and have those opinions genuinely acknowledged and considered.  After that, most people are then able to fully commit and backup a decision.

1. I found out that trust is needed in a team for there to be constructive conflict.

1. Harmony in team can actually be bad because it might be an artificial kind of harmony which hides real problems.

• I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1. I might actually use this model if I am ever the head of a team.  I think it could be really helpful.

1. I will try to make sure that, if no one else, at least I am not suffering from or causing any one of the five dysfunctions.

1. I will not type on a laptop during a meeting unless I find out before hand that it is acceptable wherever I am employed.

• Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

At least one person found the model helpful in real business situations.  Most people enjoy how the book was written as a fable and thought that the story was well written and engaging, but a few others would have preferred it written with a more scientific approach with a focus on relevant management theories.  Some reviewers questioned the validity of the five dysfunctions model and several of the author’s points while others believed it to be spot on and applicable.  One reviewer said that the story and metaphors were very similar another book by the author “Death by Meeting”.  Ultimately, the majority of reviewers, even the ones critical of the work, agreed that the book is worth reading as a practical guide for everyday people who need insight on how to build and improve teams.

Bibliography

Ambler, G. (2007, March 21). Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team | The Practice of Leadership. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from The Practice of Leadership: http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2007/03/21/book-review-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/

Annonymous. (2007). STRATEGIC READING. Corporate Meetings & Incentives, Vol. 26 (Issue 11), 14.

Connelly, B. (2006, June 17). Book review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team | Slacker Manager. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from AllBusiness: http://www.allbusiness.com/management/change-management/3875696-1.html

Hackman, J. R. (2006). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 20 (Issue 1), 122-125.

Landry, J. T. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80 (Issue 4), 28.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco, Califorina, United States of America: Jossey-Bass.

Schofield, A. (2006). Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from Extensor Limited: http://www.extensor.co.uk/book_reviews/five_dysfunctions/five_dysfunctions.html

Schupak, H. (2005). Taking the Myth Out of Team-Building. JCK, Vol. 176 (Issue 8), 136.

Wise, B. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Book). Library Journal, Vol. 127 (Issue 7), 102.

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” please email elliott.bergeron@selu.eduor elliott.bergeron@gmail.com.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

• Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)
• Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and
• Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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