The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team: A Leadership Fable By

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

Miller, Riley and Davis (2009) question whether there are behaviors that affect the ability of a team to achieve high

In this case, the new teams are breaking up established social relationships. Developing teams may also lack knowledge and/or the skill set required to fulfil their job role, and therefore may affect the morale, confidence and/or efficiency of the team.

“Teamwork is critical to successful use of talent, skills, knowledge and labor in a globally competitive marketplace. All members of a team and organization have something to share with others and something to learn” (Kaye, & Hogan, 1999). Combined “Learning Team D” has a lot of strengths some of the innate tendencies are that a majority of the team is tenacious. As a whole they seek to get things done quickly. The members all express confidence in their ability to achieve and make things happen. They are able to create a plan of action and follow-up routines. The team is able to take calculated risks when making decisions. The team is able to see things in black and white. This makes it easier for them to delegate and take charge when it is required. Members often downplay

SOC/110 TEAMWORK, COLLABORATION, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION WEEK 1 - TOPIC 1: TEAMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

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.

Patrick Lencioni is an American writer, who focuses on writing books particularly in relation to business and team management. He is best known for ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’, an allegory following the journey of DecisionTech’s new CEO, Katheryn Peterson. In this tale, Lencioni revels the basics of teamwork by creating a fictional business, in which is struggling to grow as a company, due to lack of commitment by its employees. The company fails to accept responsibilities and to come to any agreements, ultimately, resulting a plummeting disposition. Furthermore, throughout the fable, the five dysfunctions of a team become more evident, in which are, absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment avoidance of accountability and

The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted

The team leader’s ability to identify, understand and correct any dysfunctional teams is also an important process to stay productive. There are three types of dysfunctional teams (MCMANUS, 2014) the “war zone” team is an environment where everyone is watching their backs and jockeying for position behind closed doors. There is usually a struggle for power and is generally a very completive environment between team members. The “love fest” team is heavily focused on

To be a leader and to have a successful team, it’s critical that this plan is implementing and make necessary change when needed. I believe that my team is well-rounded; some

This fable was a great way to promote the importance of a team and its functions. This book had many highlights throughout the context and I would highly recommend it to leaders of a corporation or of that of a team like setting. This book offered many great implications of the model and how to use it in many diverse settings when trying to build and manage successful teams.

What are the five dysfunctions of a team, define each dysfunction and give a real-world example:

“A team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role which is understood by other members.

The final aspect of a dysfunctional team was the avoidance of accountability. In the book it was said that teams setting low standards for one another are less likely to be accountable. If they set high standards, teams are more willing to hit bench marks. I found this concept to be very intriguing