The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

A quick summary of the book written by Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of Team that explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics and team failure.

Key Takeaways

• The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team areas follows: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Avoidance of Accountability, Lack of Commitment, and Inattention to Result

When it comes to creating a healthy organization, the first and most important discipline is the building of a cohesive leadership team at the top which entails the overcoming of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Here are the five dysfunctions of a team:

Absence of Trust

The first dysfunction of a team is the absence of trust, trust is critical on a team, it's the foundation of teamwork. And what it requires is that people get vulnerable with one another, that they're very open about who they are, what they're good at what they're not good at, if they've made a mistake. Without trust, we cannot build a team, specifically, because without trust, we can't overcome the second dysfunction, which is the fear of conflict.

Fear of Conflict

You see, conflict is not only okay on a team, or even good, it's necessary and required, we have to engage in conflict. And when we have trust, conflict becomes nothing but the passionate pursuit of truth, or the best possible answer. Why is conflict so important? Because without it, we're going to encounter the third dysfunction of a team, which is the lack of commitment.

Lack of Commitment

teams that don't engage in open, honest conflict, don't really commit to the decisions they make, they're passive about it. Commitment is when everybody truly buys in, because they've weighed in on a decision, and they realize that's what they're all going to stick with. Now, why is commitment so important? Because without it, we're going to encounter the fourth and most common dysfunction of a team, which is the inability of people to hold each other accountable.

Avoidance of Accountability

Accountability is so important on a team, when people have committed, they're going to have more courage to actually confront one another about shortcomings in their behavior and their performance. And why is that accountability? So important? Because if people aren't holding each other accountable, they're going to encounter the next and final dysfunction, which is the inattention to results.

Inattention to Result

Now, you might say, “well, what are people paying attention to, if not results?” Well, maybe it's not the collective results of the team they're interested in, but just their own individual results, their budget, their department, their staff.

If we're going to focus on the collective results of the team, we have to trust one another. We have to engage in healthy conflict. We have to commit to decisions, hold one another accountable for those and achieve true collective results.