The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Enhanced Edition: A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series)

Kathryn thought for just a moment and then answered as though she were reciting from a book she had memorized. “Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”

smiled. Kathryn continued. “And I’m not joking when I say that. Our ability to engage in passionate, unfiltered debate about what we need to do to succeed will determine our future as much as any products we develop or partnerships we sign.”

“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict. And we’ll just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony.”

the course of my experience working with CEOs and their teams, two critical truths have become clear to me. First, genuine teamwork in most organizations remains as elusive as it has ever been. Second, organizations fail to achieve teamwork because they unknowingly fall prey to five natural but dangerous pitfalls, which I call the five dysfunctions

But in reality they form an interrelated model, making susceptibility to even one of them potentially lethal for the success of a team.

(Minimum time required: 4 hours.)

“Someone tell me what the single most important arena or setting for conflict is.” After a pause, Nick took a stab. “Meetings?” “Yes. Meetings. If we cannot learn to engage in productive, ideological

Personal Histories Exercise In less than an hour, a team can take the first steps toward developing trust. This low-risk exercise requires nothing more than going around the table during a meeting and having team members answer a short list of questions about themselves. Questions need not be overly sensitive in nature

decision is better than no decision. They also realize that it is better to make a decision boldly and be wrong—and then change

I’d trade that false kind of harmony any day for a team’s willingness to argue effectively about an issue and then walk away with no collateral damage.”