Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team

Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

The team leader’s ability to manage and improve team performance will be limited by his or her own authority and ability to influence others. There may be restrictions in terms of organisational policy; there may be financial, resource, or time constraints, or team members themselves may be reluctant to participate and to accept change.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is a leadership fable centered on a fictitious up and coming technology firm called DecisionTech. DecisionTech located outside of Silicon Valley. Patrick Lencioni used this fictitious technology firm and its executive team, also known as “The Staff,” with very diverse characteristics to explain his five dysfunctions of a team. In addition to how each of the dysfunctions can hurt not only the team but also the company.

Throughout the beginning of the book ‘The Five Dysfunction of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni it was apparent that the DecisionTech, Inc. executive team was not a team at all. This group of individuals lacked some of the key attributes that make great teams. One of the most important attributes that was being neglected was that the executive group did not have interdependent members. This attribute was highlighted in the beginning of the book when the author said “Backstabbing among the executives had become an art. There was no sense of unity or camaraderie on the team, which translated into a muted level of commitment” (7). Due to the executive teams lack of interdependence, critical deadlines began to slip and morale deteriorated.

She is expected to build a system that demonstrates trust, understands conflict, commits to collective decision making, and have the ability to hold one another accountable for the betterment of the company. Furthermore, Lencioni incorporates his real life theory the five dysfunctions of a team, into the fable in hopes to persuade the reader to use his methods in real world scenarios. Moreover, Lencioni then describes the five levels of dysfunctions in depth supporting his stance that teamwork is the most important aspect of any successful business. “Teamwork comes down to the mastering of set behaviors that are once theoretically uncomplicated, trust.” (Lencioni, 2002, pg. 21) Furthermore, inspiring the first team dysfunction in absences of trust. The absence of trust ultimately stems from a team being unable to open up to one another about their strengths and weaknesses. “Trust is the foundation of real teamwork and failure also referring the failure on the part of the team members to open up to one another.” (Lencioni, 2002, pg. 42) Furthermore, supporting the authors purpose of the fable, in which is, success depends being committed to enforcing

The recent victory of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers gives us a clear view into the dynamics of what makes a strong team. The Cavs collectively pulled together when the odds seemed impossible, but their efforts made them victors. A group is a couple of people put together for no apparent reason. The team is like a basketball team; every player has a position. On a team there 's a leader, being the coach, and that leader can choose to disseminate information to the players through the team captain. Everyone is not meant to lead and there are some people that prove that they have the ability to do more than just follow directions. Throughout this course we have learned the importance of team cohesion, communication, conflict resolution, motivation, inclusion, and the importance of diversity. It is important to know the different dynamics between that of a group and that of a team.

running one group for six months or longer seems quite exorbitant! The theme of this book was based on an organizational approach to effective team building skills. The fable began by giving a brief background of the cooperation, DecisionTech, Inc. which was what this story was centered around. There was a new CEO, of the corporation, Kathryn, and her main task was to create effective teamwork among her staff who were the key leaders of this company. After observing the interaction and dialogue of all team members for several weeks, she finally decided to call an off-site meeting and invited her staff members to attend. The meeting was to take place just far enough to where

In one of my prior jobs, I have observed and been affected by group-level problems resulting from ineffective management. Most of the team problems began when upper management changed the responsibilities of each member of the team. The team consisted of six university financial aid officers tasked with seeing students to fill out financial aid paperwork as well as packaging their financial aid awards in the school’s software program. Each officer had a few of the school’s programs assigned to them and would work only with the new students and continuing students in these programs of study. It is a fast-paced and challenging position.

I found the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team very interesting. I have never really set down and thought about dysfunctions of a business or a team for that manner. This really hit home to me because as I kept reading I found that I had seen some of the dysfunctions that the book talks about in my own personal work experience. After reading this book I know that I will be able to recognize theses dysfunctions in other companies that I am a part of. I really liked how easy it was to follow what was going on in the book. It all took place in a logical order. I think that the pyramid worked really well. I think that if I was part of the company in the book that the pyramid would have got the idea that Kathryn was trying to get across

Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.

I enjoyed reading your post. It sounds like you’ve been reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. I find myself relating characters and situations in the book to staff members and circumstances at my school. You mentioned that during staff meetings, teachers “do not engage in heated debates to really figure things out”, that’s the case in my school as well. During staff meetings, our principal encourages the staff to speak freely and offer opinions regarding certain decisions, but normally everyone just agrees with whatever the speaker says. The textbook offers suggestions for developing trust that I found useful, “To provide leadership needed for a school to become a learning community, they must be open to engaging in dialogue with

If we were randomly asked to define the word “team” many of us would have numerous variations of this multifaceted word; some would proclaim it means helping others, backing one another while others might define it as unanimity or culpability. The French associate the word team, with the slogan “Esprit de corps” a majestic word that was adopted by the United States Marine Corps. This matchless catchphrase means: “a sense of unity, of enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities.” As early as childhood it has been ingrained into us that teamwork is congenial and effortlessly achieved. When in fact it wasn’t until society was introduced to Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, written by Patrick Lencioni, did civilization start to realize that teamwork is hard to measure and even harder to achieve because the has been loosely used as well as misinterpret. Lencioni understands that teamwork is a difficult thing to measure and achieve, his book reminds us that the power that comes from teamwork cannot be denied. It would be hypothesized that through the authors’ comprehensive exploration and methodical examination, he reveals ways for civilization to comprehend the term as well as employ each other successful; conversely this can’t be done until the dysfunctional factor is properly identified and controlled. Hence the reason for his in-depth plunge in explaining the five dysfunctions and method that can be utilized by teams to overcome the dysfunctionalities.

As you stated, Jeff is clearly a talented leader. I think the answer that portrays his leadership the most is the question asking him his approach to communication. I believe that communication can make or break a leader. Having effective communication can make the biggest difference. This answer explains that effective communication may not come easy to him, but he knows it is important, so he works on it (Jagiela, 2001). A leader does not have to have everything already worked out; a leader will revolve and change over time. This is something we have learned in our book, leadership style is not sufficient in effective leadership; but, rather having the ability to adapt to new or changing environments (Ledlow and Stephens, 2014, p. 10). He understands that he most adapts to the person he is trying to lead.

Despite the advantages associated with a shared leadership approach, some disadvantages also exist. One disadvantage originates from individual interpretations of teamwork (Baghai & Quigley, 2012). In other words, not all people in a work environment view working together the same, posing a leadership challenge to clearly delineate the organization’s concept of team. Other disadvantages arise when workers chose to bypass or overlook some team members, or when an individual lacks the confidence to exhibit leadership skills resulting in organizational loss of leadership potential (Pearce, Wassenaar, & Manz, 2014).