The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Very easy to read and/or listen to. It is written and read in a way that is entertaining while still very informational and empowering.We read this book as a team in our office. My only issue with the book was that when all was said and done, my boss didn't really follow along with the principles taught. Obviously not this book's fault, but it did leave me with a sour taste for the experience.Given that I really liked this book, and the not-so-great circumstances mentioned above, I look forward to the day when I can read/listen to it again. Hopefully the next time around will be with a leadership team I am a part of and can provide a more positive influence and experience.

I purchased this book for each member of the development team at Kansas City Rescue Mission. We work well with each other overall, but needed to learn to trust each other enough to allow healthy conflict and confrontation. This is a very quick read because it is written as a story, and we got caught up in each character's personality as she or he related to the team. We have used this book to improve our weekly meetings so they are productive with outcomes all can agree on. The Mission has since purchased the book for all department heads and is using it in weekly meetings as well. It cuts to the chase, helping the reader to identify challenging relational issues. After these issues were identified, we felt compelled to DEAL with them -- instead of deny or simply hope they'd go away. We are grateful for the changes this book has made and will continue to make in our staff.

As a leader in a company that follows EOS this is a must read. Hopefully the members that are below the line will get it and become better team members. I bought the audio version to listen on my long commute. I didn’t want to stop until the book was done.

This book was mentioned by an executive with whom I was interviewing. Of course when interviewing at that level, you have to latch onto any little reference to build on the relationship; so I bought the book and read it before the next interview with him.This book contains three parts--a story illustrating the vagaries of team building at the executive level (184 pp), a description of the author's teamwork model (37 pp), and an 'afterword' (7 pp).The story is quite good. The challenge at a senior level is how to get people who are used to working in abstractions (..we have 'people' who handle the details) ...to actually absorb the specifics of a new method or process. Clearly, the story-telling approach overcomes this obstacle.The 'chapters' were actually short scenes designed to illustrate a bite-sized piece of the puzzle. Each piece built upon it's predecessor--no sleuthing necessary! The interactions were all perfectly believable, and the protagonist's observations were insightful.Why only four stars? Well, the summary of the model itself was far less tightly-wound than the story. Each part of the 37 pp section starts out with solid, succinct summaries of each part of the model; but then, each subsection trails off into unfocused fragments that seem to convey little additional information.In fact, the afterword suffers from even less focus and editing. It's not even worth reading in my opinion.Summary: The first 80% of the book is great, the first paragraph or two of each subsection in the next 15% is useful, and the last 5% is an annoying time-waster.Cheers!-j.

It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare, according to Patrick Lencioni in this book. Because they are made up of imperfect human beings, teams are inherently dysfunctional. Teamwork requires mastering a set of behaviours that are theoretically uncomplicated but very difficult to put into practice.The leadership fable tells the story of DecisionTech Inc, a promising and well-funded Silicon Valley start-up with an experienced and expensive executive team, which is underachieving and experiencing low morale because of poor teamwork. We watch as a new CEO, Kathryn Petersen, diagnoses the problems and systematically deals with them, confronting and overcoming resistance, and building the executives into a true team.The five dysfunctions which cause lack of teamwork, according to Lencioni's model, are:* Absence of trust, which causes team members not to be open with each other.* Fear of conflict, which prevents unfiltered debate of ideas.* Lack of commitment, because there is no opportunity for team members' views to be aired and taken into consideration.* Avoidance of accountability, which flows from the lack of buy-in by team members.* Inattention to results, which is the inevitable result of avoiding accountability.Lencioni is a skilled "business fiction" writer, and he manages to inject plenty of tension and interest into what could otherwise be fairly dry management theory. I found the book an enjoyable and informative read, and I believe that many of the organisations I have encountered would benefit greatly from taking the author's team-building lessons to heart.

This book is a great book to read and learn from. It is well written, but not boring. The author uses a story to get several points across and absolutely nails it! If you are a manager or a team leader this is a must read. The five dysfunctions are presented as you read along you can see members of your team who match the characters in the book. I will admit I read this book with low expectations but quickly realized this was a gem. The book is long enough to be effective, but not so long it is a drag to read. Enjoy this book, it is a great one!

Great book for teams liking to transform

Great book, I've read other work from Patrick too. Also saw him at the 2013 Willow Creek Global Leadership Conference

Quick read but gives you enough to think about the teams you are working with - are they effective or not? do they trust each other, can they have healthy debate?? Fable style makes it really easy to get the core messages.Great model and questions to work with too

Disgusting quality print. The photo says it all… the pixelisation is not the photo but how it’s actually printed.

Enjoyed this audio, it provides different perspectives and great scenarios.

The third CD is the best which gives advice on how to over come the dysfunctions. I would have preferred it to have been largely factual as opposed to wrinting a play to demonstrate the concepts. Worth buying.