The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Patrick M. Lencioni

Once again using an astutely written fictional tale to unambiguously but painlessly deliver some hard truths about critical business procedures, Patrick Lencioni targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. And like those preceding it, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an entertaining, quick read filled with useful information that will prove easy to digest and implement. This time, Lencioni weaves his lessons around the story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and its unexpected choice for a new CEO: an old-school manager who had retired from a traditional manufacturing company two years earlier at age 55. Showing exactly how existing personnel failed to function as a unit, and precisely how the new boss worked to reestablish that essential conduct, the book's first part colorfully illustrates the ways that teamwork can elude even the most dedicated individuals--and be restored by an insightful leader. A second part offers details on Lencioni's "five dysfunctions" (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), along with a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings. Like the author's previous books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, this is highly recommended. --Howard Rothman

1 Written by someone who has been there!
My favorite thing about this book is the dynamic between the individuals in the story. As you read the characters' reactions to the challenges of working together, it will remind you of those you work with and stimulate thoughts of new possibilities for better teamwork.

I purchased this book along with the Amazon recommended pairing "The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book" and enjoyed that book as well. It has a foreword by Patrick Lencioni, great stories and it lets you go online and test your emotional intelligence (EQ).

2 I'm not afraid of Conflict!
Everything is just great! Everybody gets along great as a "team"; just like the Osbornes as a family...

False harmony (fear of Conflict) is one of the five dysfunctions. It's amazing how the dysfunctions of a team were condensed into five categories that are all inclusive.

The style of the book makes you forget that it is a "fable". You feel like you are personally witnessing all of the action.

3 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni
The author tackles at least 5 dysfunctions which can lead to team stumbling blocks within a bureaucratic organization of any
significant size or complexity. These classic stumbling blocks are:

- Lack of trust
- Fear of commitment
- Organizational conflict
- Accountability
- Inattention to results

Trust is difficult to develop unless team members have substantial goal congruency. By fear of commitment, the author
refers to "analysis paralysis" and the fear of failure which
everyone has in one form or another. Some team leaders do not like to deal with conflict of any kind. Conflict can have benefits in refining the methodology employed in the project or
dealing with disagreements which can delay or derail a project.
Accountability is a difficult notion to instill because it inevitably involves assigning some credit or blame to specific
persons. Without accountability, there would be no methodical
or fair way to map outcomes to personal responsibility centers
in an organization. Lastly, the inattention to results is a critical failing point because there can be no improvement without measuring performance against realistic goals .
Overall, this work provides realistic measuring rods for moving
teams of people toward a successful conclusion of any project.
Unless a project manager deals with these classic dysfunctions,
it will be nearly impossible to move any project to finality.

4 A leadership fable -- emphasis on the "fable"
This book is making the rounds at the Silicon Valley company where I work. Last week I was asked to read it by one of our technical leaders. I have a couple of major issues with this book. First, as the title says, it's a "fable" -- the people are fictitious, and none of the situations in the book really happened. The author can make up anything he wants to. Second, the author states that the foundation of teamwork is trust. "Trust" is defined as being comfortable enough with your fellow team members to be vulnerable with them. The fictitious characters in the book begin to establish trust at an offsite when they reveal events from their childhoods. I guess this could work if we lived in a perfect world where people don't come from dysfunctional families and everyone you work with is trustworthy. That's just not reality. I'm giving this a 2-star rating because it's an entertaining read -- as fiction.

5 Good Business Lessons
One of the important take-aways from this book is that for a team to be successful, all persons on the team must be loyal to the team. This is a concept from successful sports teams that us in the business world could learn from. I enjoyed this mentality and feel that if more businesses were loyal to their work-teams we would have successful cross-team communications instead of the push and pull that often exists. I would have liked to have seen more of a story-line with the marketing versus analytical teams, but nonetheless this is a good fable for any manager or team leader.

From the author of The Difference Now, A New Dish, and At the Coffee Shop.

6 Surprised Again!
I bought this book in an effort to learn more about my least favorite NBA franchise--the Los Angeles Lakers. Unfortunately, the five dysfunctions of the title are not the starting five for the NBA runner-ups. Instead, it's some kind of business leadership book and pretty good, actually. I replaced the cover with a picture of a smiling Kobe Bryant and placed it prominently on my bookshelf next to my favorite James Carlos Blake novel. Another fine mistake.

7 A powerful and useful book
Lenconi describes fundamental issues that create dysfunctional teams in a gripping tale. The Silicon Valley context provides a lively, interesting context to discuss the shortcomings of such teams. When conflict is feared, trust, commitment, and accountability are absent, and we don't pay enough attention to results, teams and companies experience suboptimal consequences. Lenconi provides a great questionnaire to help us understand the flaws in our own teams and how to overcome them. This is an excellent book. There is an additional factor that needs to be addressed which is described in Dr. Rosalene Glickman's brilliant book, Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self. She writes "The purpose of a relationship is to be your best self, regardless of the circumstances." When individuals and teams commit to the standard of highest and best with Optimal Thinking, the best results are achieved. Optimal Thinking is unequivocally the mental software to achieve personal and team optimization. I strongly recommend each of these books.

8 You need to search to find the nuggets
I read this book for my graduate class in orgainizational behavior. The book has some good nuggets that can easily be applied to any inter-personal situation, and is an easy read. My complaint about the book: I didn't like how the author treats the reader as less-than-intelligent. Throughout the book we are told "but that was nothing compared to what happened next." This book isn't exactly a crime novel, so I don't think we need to be told every other page that something unexpected is coming up. Plus, we can determine that for ourselves from the context of the narration. This style of story telling can be very grating, and distracts from the lesson that the story is trying to make.

9 an excellent fable
This is the first book by lencioni that i read. I loved reading it. It's a very quick read and i have to say i learnt a lot during the 2 hours. (...)
-rav

10 Highly Recmmended!
Patrick Lencioni offers a satisfactory fable about an executive wrestling to take hold of a company and create a smoothly functioning executive team. The narrative moves right along as he addresses the problem of feckless teamwork with the fictitious Decision Tech company as a test case. The novel is interesting, and you can read through it easily, getting to know the characters and participating in their business decisions. However, if you just want to learn about better teamwork quickly and leave, skim to the final chapters. Here, the author outlines a detailed model for diagnosing the five dysfunctions of a team and provides exercises and techniques to ameliorate those dysfunctions. The advice is complete and concrete. We recommend the meat and potatoes diagnosis and solutions as well as the cake and ice cream story, but how much narrative you want to read may depend on what shape your team is in when you start, as well as on your taste for tales.

11 Things to look for and fix on teams at all levels
This book is great because the simple narrative makes the 5 different disfunctions more concrete by showing exactly how they can manifest in a team. These are common issues not only executive-level teams, but also teams of lower-level folks like myself, working on individual features of a product. Some of the higher-level concepts like understanding what your 'first team' are a little bit less relevant, but most of the book is still very pertinent and easy to directly apply.

The worksheets and exercises he has in the back are also great, no-nonsense ways to bring your team back on track. The only things I might've liked to see are some more information around what can go wrong when you try to "correct" the particular issues and maybe some more concrete details on what it means to be a leader by his definition. It's a bit vauge in places and seems to be more a matter of reporting structure than technical / feature leadership (i.e. a team of all true peers but where one person is the technical / business expert), though he works to call out some of the details at the end.

12 Inspirational
According to Lencioni, "the ultimate test of a great team is results," and in this fable told in the style of similar books, such as The Goal, and The Present, the author discusses how to build and profit from teams. This book is not about teamwork, so much as the deliberate creation of teams to analyze and resolve problems within an organization. The book is highly readable and informative for any executive aspiring to learn about teams or share an inspirational book with his or her workforce.

Lencioni identifies 5 reasons teams fail: lack of commitment, failure to embrace conflict, lack of results focus, lack of accountability, and lack of trust. The author concludes his book and his philosophy with the statement success is a matter of "embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence."

Read this book and share it with your fellow employees. I would also recommend you read Goldratt's book The Goal (ISBN: 0884270610) in conjunction with this book.

13 Better business book
I liked this quick read and the survey at the end of the book- practical- applicable and a great discussion book for any team- and any leader...

14 Excellent book
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an interesting, easy to read fictional story about a Silicon Valley company in a turnaround situation. Lencioni did a really good job of creating characters that everybody can relate to.

The one theme that I took from this book is the importance of open, frank communication between team members. That is the core of the five dysfunctions. Most of the time when people are in a group setting, their primary goal is not to get the job done right, but instead it is to not offend other members of the group. This leads to some terrible decision making since nobody ever objects to bad ideas for fear of making another co-worker look bad. This book drives home the important point that conflict in groups is good as long as it is respectful because it leads to much better decision making.

In addition, as another reviewer mentioned, one of the most impressive parts of the book is that the author doesn't shield you from the fact that there is going to be some pain and struggle when working through problems. As a reader, there are a few times when I genuinely wondered: "Are they going to make it?" This is important since in real life you will probably wonder the same thing when you hit some obstacles along the way.

I highly recommend this book.

Greg Blencoe
Author, The Ten Commandments for Managers

15 An Awesome Read
This book is an easy read with clear cut points that can help any organization. This common sense book is well-contructed; written in such a way that you can identify with it. Lencioni creates personalities that are familiar in the workplace, types that we deal with daily. I see such value in this piece that I purchased copies to hand out to the partners at a design firm where I work.

16 Fabulous book
This ficitional tale goes to the heart of team disfunction and provides clear solutions. The ficitional leader restores trust, deals with conflict, inspires commitment, creates stategies for accountability, and is attentive to results. Some words of advice from a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who deals with these issues on a daily basis. If you are a team leader or part of a team, you must get this book. If you want to give each of your team members the mental resource to be their best and optimize results, add Optimal Thinking--How To Be Your Best Self to your reading list and give it to all your team members.

17 Fabulous book
This ficitional tale goes to the heart of team disfunction and provides clear solutions. The ficitional leader restores trust, deals with conflict, inspires commitment, creates stategies for accountability, and is attentive to results. Some words of advice from a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who deals with these issues on a daily basis. If you are a team leader or part of a team, you must get this book. ...

18 Pure Gold
Patrick Lencioni has written the most practical and helpful guide I've ever read on the subject of team building. Through the power of a story you will learn how to take your team through the stages of trust building, instigating healthy conflict, producing commitment, establishing accountability, and achieving common objectives.

I've applied these principles to my teams with revolutionary results. Attending one of his lectures on the subject was even more helpful than the book. Yet, the book is a wonderful augment to his teaching. If you want to build a healthy and an effective team I highly recommend "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team." When it comes to team building, the material is pure gold.

19 Five Dysfunctions of a Team - 31/2 Stars
The fictitious story used to expand on the five dysfunctions was very entertaining at the least. Ultimately, the principles outlined in the book are the utopia of teamwork. However, they are not really practical. I find myself after reading through the book still waiting for the true message on team work that I could really apply in the real world. The author does attempt to expand on his view at the end of the book but falls really short in my opinion of adding any real value.

20 The Five Dysfunctions Of a Team
Outstanding book for your organization. Even if you feel your team is "functional" you will learn how to bring them to the next level. Buy a copy for your staff and have each person take a dysfunction and discuss how it applies to your firm. I bet you will learn something.... My team really opened up.

21 Fictitious P.O.S. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND MOVE ON!
It's easy to say that there are 5 dysfunctions of a team in a business conetext, especially when you make up that business context. I wish I could take the time back I wasted readingthis book. This book is a COMPLETE waste of time!!! DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!! The book follows a fictitious CEO, and her wildly unbelievable executive board through an equally unbelievable sequence of made up events. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THIS BOOK IS THAT THERE ARE NO REAL PEOPLE AND NO REAL MONEY INVOLVED.

22 The best book yet on what it means to work as a team
This book has been like medicine to my software engineering soul. I have just recently been involved in a VERY DYSFUNCTIONAL team experience and was totally blind sided by the immaturity and pettiness this "professional" group was caught in. Naturally, production was out the window. I had to exit!! I just finished reading this book and it has provided the insight I needed to understand just how dysfunctional this last team was and most importantly how to deal with this situation in the future!! The greatest book ever written on teamwork!!!

23 Finally! Another VERY helful and applicable management book!
By dedicating 90% of his book to a so-called leadership fable, Patrick Lencioni very effectively conveys the very essence of the model he proposes in order to deal with dysfunctional teams. Though the story he presents is that of a hypothetical newly appointed CEO of a distressed start-up and (in the beginning of the story) her highly dysfunctional executive team, the model is perfectly applicable to any team throughout most organizations.

The model consists of a pyramid with the five dysfunctions of a team (from the bottom, up):
1) Absence of trust: stemming from an unwillingness in the team members to be vulnerable and genuinely open up with one another about their mistakes and weaknesses.
2) Fear of conflict: inability to engage in unfiltered, passionate (yet constructive, though it may strike you as odd) debate.
3) Lack of commitment: no buy in and commitment can be expected when ideas and opinions have not been aired and genuinely taken into consideration prior to a decision.
4) Avoidance of accountability: without commitment to a clearly defined set of goals, team members will hesitate to call their colleagues on their actions and behaviors that are counterproductive for the team.
5) Inattention to results: Lencioni brings it all home through the realization that avoidance of accountability leads to a state where team members tend to put their individual needs above the team's collective goals.

Throughout the last leg of his book, Lencioni contrasts how dysfunctional teams behave by comparing them to a cohesive team in the case of each of the five dysfunctions. He also provides suggestions on overcoming each of the dysfunctions and insights into the role of the leader in this process, all in a very structured and to-the-point way. Complementing this, he provides a Team Assessment tool to help determine where your team is at in terms of each of the five elements of the model.

As much as the book can be digested without too much trouble in 2-3 straight hours, it is inevitable (unless you are fooling yourself or you operate in a very healthy team) to have your managerial wheels in your mind turning at full speed by the time you are done with it. As a manager and an avid reader, I welcomed this book with open arms because I found it to be very useful and readily applicable. Now comes my challenge in putting it to use.

24 Know what's wrong, explore options and choose the best
When team members don't trust each other, fear conflict, lack commitment, avoid accountability, or are inattentive to results then the team is disfunctional. Bravo Patrick Lencioni for writing a book that gets to the core of team disfunction. I recommend this book highly along with my favorite book, Optimal Thinking: How to be your best self which showed me how to optimize the toughest situations, bring out the best in others and create optimal results.

25 A True Fable
A fable is a make-believe story and this author insults the intelligence of the reader by pretending to present an adult story about adult lives. The narrative destroyed the message of what could have been true guidance.

26 great book
Sound (and usable) tenets of teamwork wrapped up in a very readble story. Great way to get the points across, and the characters are definitely believable. You'll recognize most of them.

27 Good book, but there is more than the Five Dysfunctions
Although I really liked the focus by Lencioni on trust and conflict, I felt that too much emphasis was placed on explaining in detail trust issues and using conflict creatively and not enough on examples and concrete advice on several ways to create trust and encourage creative conflict. In other words, I would have liked less on definitions and more on solutions. Ultimately teams will also suceed or fail based on the composition of the team and their personalities and how they interact. Communication skills, listening, learning styles, clarity are needed by team members. It is possible that the players are the wrong players and how do we know which ones and what and how strong their dysfuctions are? The Myers-Briggs is a start, but with the wrong players the team skill sets and training don't work (there are 3 or 4 great tests that will help build team). I wish he had spent more time on those issues. The last few pages of the book are very powerful and Lencioni demonstrates a wonderful grasp of ways to fix teams. The exceptional storybook style and then the more common business book style give all types of readers a way to relate to his message. We are a nation of story tellers and Lencioni tells a very compelling story; as a matter of fact, United States uses storytelling as a way of illustrating points more than any nation in the world!

In business we continually experience the issue of "lack of creative conflict" and I feel it is a bigger problem than any of the other 4, because we do not like to rock the boat. Lencioni does an exceptional job in strongly making that case and illustrating it well.

One of the most powerful things that Lencioni pointed out was that teams must be loyal to the team and not undermine team loyalty...we do this by placing the needs of our department or division ahead of the teams! Teams need to really believe that they have a common fate and not just a common goal! This was the most powerful book I have read on team dysfunctions. I liked it so much that I reviewed it in my monthly newsletter. It captures the essence of why teams fail and presents it in a clear and entertaining style.

28 Fascinating Read
I just finished this book tonight (I have been on a reading binge lately) and was very impressed. Dysfunctions is structured more like a short story or novelette than a traditional business book. This allowed me to get very involved in the story. Indeed, I believe a good story is always the best way to approach life and business. Whether you are writing a resume or trying to solve difficult business problems, a good story can illuminate the issue better than any combination of charts and reports.

The end of the book contains a more "business-like" restatement of the lessons, for those who want a more traditional review.

More importantly, I saw many aspects of my past business dealings echoed in the book. I think that anyone who is involved in business, in any form, has faced many of these same problems and issues. I requested this book from the library after seeing a short mention, possibly just the title in some magazine I was reading. I had no preconceptions about what I might find within, and I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and importance of Dysfunctions.

While telling a good story helped to clearly explain the concepts, there were a few times when the characters came around too quickly to the lesson.The main character, a newly minuted CEO brought in to build a better executive team, seems a bit too assured with her process, but yet exhibits some moments of fear and regret.

Overall, this is a great book and I would highly suggest that it be recommended to your employees and your peers as a way of explaining how teamwork can and will develop if everyone is committed to making it happen.

29 You gotta read "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team"
Before I read "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni, I was unaware that professionals who work together in groups and teams face the same problems as teenagers in high school. Lencioni disscusses the five dysfunctions that teams face. He uses a spectacular model to explain them.... a story line about a major company facing troubles because the survival of the company depends on a team of about 7 people who are in such a disarray and "just can't get along." Lencioni told the story in the point of view of a new CEO of the company, who was challenged to piece the team and the company back together.

There were pros and cons to this book, although I really really enjoyed it. The discussions among the CEO and group about why they are failing as a team and at succeeding (i.e. lack of trust, avoidance of conflict/accountability) were so general and so obvious, but at the same time so necessary. I believe that people can relate to some of the characters on the team. It will help you to understand your team members, it allows other teams members to understand you, and it allows everyone to be able to relate to each other. Because I guarantee, if you are in a team, you have experienced much of what was discussed and experienced in the story. This book will allow you to overcome those obstacles and hopefully work towards a better work atmosphere and create healthier, more understanding relationships with your co-workers.

Another positive aspect of "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" is that the story is told through the narrations of the CEO. This allows people to get a closer sense of what she is dealing with and how she is feeling at the time.

However, the story is a bit long, and if you are reading the story and trying to apply it at the same time, it would not be much help right away. Also, the story sometimes went off on tangents when in the group discussions, which caused them to get off of the subject at task. There could have been more stress on how the teams overcame their hurdles, instead of elaborating so much on explaining each dysfunction. Because the dysfunctions were the obvious part, it was the overcoming part of it that is important in guiding readers to overcome the same hurdles.

Overall, I really believe that this book is really effective in teaching a lesson, guiding readers to success, and even giving people a reality check as to why they may be hurting their own team. I would definitely recommend this book to CEO's and team leaders/members. If you are in a dysfunctional team and wonder why, I guarantee this book can explain it and guide you to success, also!

30 Dysfunctions
This books was interesting to me as I am part of a seven member team that suffers at times from inaction. This pointed out things that could help me in the future.

31 Insight Made Easy
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni attracts and captures your attention with his intriguing business story. Before going into thorough details of the five dysfunctions, Lencioni tells the story of a fictitious executive team working to revive a technology company near Silicone Valley. The characters are as realistic as can be and extremely easy to relate to. The story is quite simple to understand and keeps a quick pace. Typically, I have found educational books to drag on and only share stories that few people could relate with. However, this book leads readers through a reasonable, professional journey. The dysfunctions are practical and truthful. Often teams and groups feel that they have all of the possible resources necessary in attaining and mastering their goals, when in fact, they have a plethora of various hidden problems holding them back. Lencioni breaks apart each of these difficulties and explains how it will deny the team of their full potential. I felt that Lencioni's method of applying knowledge prior to teaching a lesson was much more effective than the traditional method of teaching then applying. When the author is finally "teaching" the lessons towards the end of the book, it seems as if you have already learned the information. Patrick Lencioni also provides a useful team assessment and a thoroughly detailed model of the dysfunctions. Insightful suggestions on overcoming the dysfunctions are included as well. Overall, this short, quick book is packed full of invaluable knowledge that can be applied to teams at all levels.

32 Good Parabole
This book will orientate you the things you have to deal when you are in power position, however I think this is an Introductory book of the art of relationships. Most people would agree that the book is a little superficial and is not very good guide for pros. I will recomended to beginers in management.

33 What does he have against Marketing?
As a marketing exec, I find it pretty tough to stomach Lencioni's not so thinly veiled hatred toward marketing. In this and "Five Temptations...," marketing personnel are portrayed as negative influences on the team. In this story, the marketing exec even is fired without due cause. When this book was assigned to our "team" they left the book discussion with hatred for my department, as opposed to a renewed spirit of teamwork. It did more harm than good.

34 Outstanding Read
This was a phenomenal book. I only read it for a paper I had to do for school but I ended up loving it. This book not only helps you to get a better understanding of how to overcome problems in a team, but was also very interesting to read. Once I started it, I was not able to put it back down until the very last page. The fable that was used in order to illustrate the key points was very well written and it kept my attention till the end of the story. I am certainly looking forward to reading "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive" which was written by the same author.

35 Truly and Epiphany
I work in an environment that should have this book plastered all over the doors, walls, and ceilings anywhere that managers meet. Dysfunctional is a not a good enough word to describe the place, t's more like "toxic".
However I am a manager, and I like to look at the solution rather than focus solely on the problem, and I see where we went wrong, or where we go wrong everyday. This book makes me recognize my role, both good and bad in contributing to the toxic environment in which I work: I don't hold anyone accountable, and I allow unacceptable behavior go un-checked. and from time-to-time I wallow in victimization which is just as bad as victimizing or rolling my eyes, or not participating in the process. If you are not a part of the solution then you are part of the problem.
Every manager at every level, in every business should read tnis book twice, and then sit down and make happen what Kathryn made happen at DecisionTech.

36 Perhaps Lencioni's best book, superb teamwork wisdom
Great teamwork represents tremendously valuable organizational capital. We all know of groups of excellent individuals who seem unable to work as an effective team. Using the same approach as in his last book, Patrick Lencioni again does a superb job of conveying the elements of potent teams. Most of the book consists of a story or "fable" about a high-tech company full of top performers who are utterly failing to function as a team. A new CEO is brought in from a different background with the challenging task of melding them into a unit. The story format functions well in conveying the ideas in an engaging, clear, and well-illustrated manner. Following the story, an overview of the model presents the ideas in abstraction for quick reference and for wide application. The five dysfunctions-absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results-seem simple. And they are, yet implementing them, as Lencioni and his fictional CEO emphasize, will always be difficult. Lencioni's overview provides some productive ways of applying the model. Almost anyone who works in a team can benefit from this book. The pleasure of reading it will be soothing in the face of the continuing struggles of team-building-struggles which must be embraced and not avoided.

37 Very practical and insightful!
This is a genuinely significant book for anyone who works in a team environment, whether at work, in sports, in the community, at home, etc. Of all the business books I have read on team building, "Five Dysfunctions" stands at the top of the pack. The strength of this book lies in the fact that it gets at the ROOTS of team failure. Anyone who has been forced to go through corporate "team building" sessions and sing with their fellow co-workers knows that it is an approach that doesn't work! The principles presented in "Five Dysfunctions" are solid and will get results.

The organization of "Five Dysfunctions" is as follows. The bulk of the book comprises of an extended fictitious example of a dysfunctional group, and slowly works through the underlying principles. These principles are then succinctly presented in the last few pages of the book, along with further analysis and suggestions on implementation. This organization allows the principles to slowly sink in through the book, but then gives the reader a very focused section the use for later reference and review.

A great strength of the book is that it avoids the all-too-frequent tendency of creating tension and then resolving it more quickly than would happen in real life. Reading the story gives you a sense of the effort needed to work through the dysfunctions of a team. The tools are presented to the reader, but without the illusion of a quick fix. Rather, "Five Dysfunctions" gives a simple message that inspires, energizes, and creates a vision of hope for how thing could be in a team.

One "a-ha" experience I had while reading this book is that some of the teams I have been on - teams where we all got along just fine - shared at least some of the five dysfunctions which made them less than effective. While these teams were quite accomplished at the superficial types of team building activities that are so popular, we avoided the core issues that Lencioni discusses in his book.

This book is one that I will review often, and recommend to anyone.

38 Help for Dysfunctional Teams
Patrick Lencioni has written an exceptionally interesting fable on optimal team performance. He has prescribed guidelines for team success and applied them in an interesting, easy to read story with a twist. He has defined easy to follow principles that with practice can lead any group or team, large or small to be great.
The book begins with a story of a potentially great company with a dysfunctional executive staff. Even though this company assembled some of the best executives and attracted top tier investors (compared to their closest competitors), the company was on a downslide. Morale was slipping and key employees were leaving. The CEO (and co-founder) was relieved of his title by the board and the search for his successor began.
This company, Decision Tech, was a high profile, two years old company with much at stake. The chairman of the board pushed for hiring Kathryn, an ancient fifty-seven years old by Silicon Valley standards. Employees and the executive staff were stunned with the news of the new hire.
The story develops by weaving Lencioni's team dysfunctions into its web. The fable is enticing and not typical of your "how to produce" guidelines book. The author keeps your interest while at the same time introducing and teaching his methods.
At the end of the story, Mr. Lencioni reviews all levels of team dysfunctions and summarizes and reiterates each. Therefore reinforcing his principles and eliminating confusion.
This is the first book I have read by this author. I found it entertaining, yet very informative. I enjoyed the novel format while receiving important informational steps for success in a team or group.
I would highly recommend this book to any person or group seeking to improve or turn around the team in which they belong. It would be a great tool for corporate teams or even the local high school basketball team. All teams would greatly benefit from Mr. Lencioni's advice.

39 very good presentations on managerial teams
I listened to the unabridged Audible version and would recommend this to all managers trying to establish a cohesive team, especially a team of managers and leaders.

The first part of this book is an engaging novel about a new CEO taking on a diverse executive management team. The second part of this book is a discourse on the theory and practice of the concepts in the novel. I could have used more discussion of the how-to's in the second part, but still extracted much insight from both segments of the book.

40 Excellent Team Insights
This is a very well written book on the dysfunctions that teams experience. I highly recommend this book as a primer to an off-site team building session.

41 Hit me where my team is.
This was bull's eye for me and my team.

I'm in the 4th year of a leadership position at a university. We've got a great team and have accomplished a lot in the last 4 years. Now we've had budget cuts because of a reduction in state allocations, and everyone's morale has suffered. What has worried me, though, has been a deterioration in the apparent commitment of my leadership team to the success of our college. This showed up initially in fights over resources after reallocation decisions had already been made, and in complaints about the decisions that were broadcast outside the team. "The Five Dysfunctions" identified the very things that were worrying me, assured me they were problems, helped me recognize the root cause, and showed me a way to deal with them. I'm eager to go to work tomorrow!

42 Eye Opener
After recently reading two other books on the subject of teams, Patrick Lencioni's "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" takes the cake. Mr. Lencioni's book is not only insightful but also entertaining. In just a few short hours, I had finished reading his thought-provoking work. He pinpointed the exact areas my team had been struggling with. As a leader, I am now striving to put the philosophies he shares throughout "The Five Dysfunctions" into practice with my own team.

43 This book is excellent
This book is excellent. Lencioni does a superb job at making tangible the sometimes-elusive art of management and leadership. Having a finance / accounting background and now working in general management I always find the "soft stuff" (HR, organizational development, management, leadership) is really the "hard stuff" (as opposed to finance, engineering, programming, etc.).

Lencioni's success is based in the fact that he unequivocally understands, as he states, "The ultimate test of a great team is results".

While many authors and management tacticians obfuscate the skill of management through complex theory and practices Lencioni brings clarity.

Very similar to Jim Collin's "Good to Great", the beauty of this book can be summed up in its third to last line:

"Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon level of discipline and persistence."

44 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
This book summarizes hundreds of hours of training in team building that I have had. It should be and can be used as a how to book on team building.

Well written and easy to read!!

45 Truth in the Dysfunctions
Great book. The author puts the lesson in a very easy to understand story! I had my team read it as ag roup and review it. It pointed out our dysfunctions, allowing us to fix them. I highly recommend this book to anyone leading a group of people, from a manager to a preacher to a coach!

46 Simple & Excellent
This book is excellent. Lencioni does a superb job at making tangible the sometimes-elusive art of management and leadership. Having a finance / accounting background and now working in general management I always find the "soft stuff" (HR, organizational development, management, leadership) is really the "hard stuff" (as opposed to finance, engineering, programming, etc.).

Lencioni's success is based in the fact that he unequivocally understands, as he states, "The ultimate test of a great team is results".

While many authors and management tacticians obfuscate the skill of management through complex theory and practices Lencioni brings clarity.

Very similar to Jim Collin's "Good to Great", the beauty of this book can be summed up in its third to last line:

"Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon level of discipline and persistence."

47 Wonderful book!
The book is quick reading and if you've read Lencioni's other fables, the style will ring familiar. The short chapters end with foreshadowing that makes you want to read on and see what the team finally comes to learn. His message is crisp and clear and while it is simple, really most management principles are. What is difficult in real world practice, is delivering on the ideas. He provides good food for thought in "Kathryn", the company CEO, who strategically brings her team to their own understanding of why "working at teamwork" can be more important than closing deals and gathering market share. In the final chapters he provides some good ideas for additional exercises companies can try to bring forth some of the same outcomes.

In today's economy, a lot of companies have downsized to the point where executive teams are carrying very heavy loads, while constantly looking over their shoulders to see when the next train might be coming. We'd be wise to start looking at the impact of these changes on company productivity.
While one reviewer here suggested the mythical company used in the case example sounded too contrived, I saw in the myth several different companies I've worked for described to the detail!

48 One of the best books...
I bought a copy for everyone in my company. They have already started to work as s team. The book is easy to read, entertaining and relavent to the real world. This book has changed my life and my company, forever.

49 Superficial non-"real world" advice
I am an avid reader, especially of books in the self-help and management classification. I must honestly say that in the last 10 years, this book ranks as the WORST book I have read in the area of management and leadership.

To be fair, it is well written, and an easy read. In fact I was able to read it in just two sittings during travel. Moreover, the overall concepts that the author presents are clear and seem reasonable. So why the bad review?

The fact is the author takes a far too simplistic approach to dealing with the frailties and motivations of individuals. The fictional case study is far too perfect. It is like watching a re-run of "Father Knows Best" and using that as the typical American Family. It is nice to think it, but in practice the world is not that way.

The book does not do justice to some of the real world issues in team leadership: backstabbing employees, co-dependent relationships, substance abuse, neurosis, and overall un-manageable people.

While the book presents some general principals which might work in a "laboratory setting" the leader who trys to follow this verbatim may be in for a shock at the results.

50 There is No Better Book About Managing Teams
I have to admit that I had somewhat limited expectations for this book. I was worried that this book would simply be a re-hash of the same material written in the first two books by this author. So often, it seems that the creator of a very successful and revolutionary paradigm (and Pat Lencioni's first books were certainly both of those) will put out a whole series of books that explain the same concept with a slightly different spin. Fortunately, that isn't the case here - - This is one of the most powerful business books I've ever read.

While the themes in this book are very consistent with the author's first book, the approach is completely different. The first book forced me to constantly look inward and ask myself what I could be doing better as a CEO. This book was much more team oriented, helping me to guide everyone of my direct reports in how they could be better managers and how we can function more cohesively as a team. I can't say enough about how eye opening the book was in terms of my ability to instantly improve the effectiveness of my entire team. I'm going to give this book to everyone on my team and plan to have a group discussion of what each of us learned from the book.

The book is a VERY quick read (probably an hour cover to cover) and will make a thoughtful manager completely re-think whether his or her team is optimally managed. The book allows you to quickly diagnose the area where your team has weakness and almost instantly chart a well defined course for a much more productive team.

I sincerely believe I'm a much better manager after reading this book and my approach to guiding my team is much more enlightened. For those with the courage to truly examine the way they manage and the commitment to seek out a better way, you won't find a better investment of 60 minutes of your time.

51 Highlights obstacles to winning teams
Teamwork is the key to effective business strategies, yet despite the hype, real teamwork remains an elusive goal for any business managers. Five Dysfunctions Of A Team highlights obstacles to winning teams and tells how to overcome them, using a fictional type narrative to demonstrate points. Entering the new breed of business novels is a title which uses a fictional overcoat to impart the basics of solid business suggestions. Recommended.

52 Teamwork Personified in Fable Fashion
Lively writing of a corporation plagued with dysfunction bigtime. Enter Kathryn, team leader, who offsites them with five dysfunctions, then step by step leads them down path to success and team harmony.

There are many gems in this, e.g. "As soon as the reality of business problems in reintroduced to a situation like this one, she thought, people revert back to the behaviors that put them in the difficult situation in the first place." "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." "Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they're doing it because they care about the team."

Much here to digest, ponder, meditate on. Helpful are wrapup section along with constant application thought starters.

Excellent resource for team leaders and players.

53 A Project Management Professional
One of the most difficult challenges when starting a new project is forming a team ready to row in the same direction to achieve project objectives. I have long searched for a tool to overcome this challenge and have found just what I need in Patrick Lencioni's new book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. His easy to read style of writing allows readers to grasp the material quickly. The story of a new CEO unfolds in the first five minutes and keeps unfolding until one is finished with the book at around ninety minutes. I found my answers in "The Model" which follows the fable. This book will be on my desk for easy reference every time a new project is started, for this book is an absolute must for project managers as well as CEO's.

54 Fantastic Job
Lencioni rocked my managing world. This fictional tale illustrates the reality behind team efforts. It opened my eyes to a new world on cooperating. I heartily reccommend that you read this.

55 Give to your staff; I did.
I love these easy to read fables that make valid points that are useful. His story is very real life and the problems were ones that I could relate to in my 20 years of management experience.

56 Can I staple this to your head?
This is a great read. If everyone in my office understood these concepts it would be a much better place to work. Now then...where is that stapler?

57 Goodbye Machiavelli -- Hello Lencioni !!!!
To the chagrin of Machiavelli & Sun Tzu warriors everywhere, the top-secret-code for achieving optimal productivity via "The Team" -- on a basis of TRUST instead of the ever-tiresome, industry-standard "CYA-protocol" -- has FINALLY been broken; and the code word is "LENCIONI"!

Once again, the "Jossey-Bass Management Series" folx have delivered a superior-quality book.

The "Lencioni Way" is more or less that of the 3 musketeers: "All for one & one for all". He prescribes repairing the problem of "low-trust" in organizations by eliminating silo's of accountability. Silo's of functionality are o.k. & normal -- but silo's of accountability will KILL a group.

How to specifically do this is a SECRET -- you'll HAVE to read the book!!

Though the book is 225 pages long, it can be read in a single sitting during a long afternoon because it uses the most effective teaching tool of all: the "Fable".

However, for all you way-too-serious, no-fun-allowed, "old-school" management types that never even heard of blue-jeans, you'll be relieved to know that you can skip the Fable & go straight to Lencioni's "Team Model" in the last 40 pages of the book.

FINAL WORD OF CAUTION: the CRITICAL success factor for applying Lencioni's method to eliminate Machiavelli from your organization is personified in Lencioni's fable by "CEO Kathryn". Her role follows Dr John Maxwell's "The Law Of the Lid" (21 Laws). If you're gonna attempt a Machiavelli-must-die Lencioni initiative, then be sure that the leader of this initiative can WALK THE WALK, be "real" (no 2-facedness allowed), & is strong enough to take lengthy, pointed-criticism from people in the organization that he/she may neither like nor respect. The "Lencioni Way" will require true courage.

Now BUY THE BOOK here at Amazon.com -- hurry!!

58 Chief Innovation Officer, SmartLeadership.com
This book is helpful to anyone who serves on a team and specifically helpful for team leaders. You will see yourself and your team in this book. More than that, you will find specific steps you can take to make your team better. Through a real life fable, Pat leads you through the steps you need to take to move a team from dysfunction to health. You will find a clear model as well as examples that are as relevant as your last meeting.

As I read this book I discovered:

1. A vocabulary I can use with my team to discuss dysfunction.
2. A self-analysis that will get the discussion started.
3. A clear model for implementation.

As a team leader, this book challenged me to:

1) Lead selflessly
2) Take risks
3) Encourage conflict
4) Embrace the power of meetings
4) Direct my team around a common theme

This book is simple, practical and filled with wisdom. Highly recommended.

59 an excellent and illuminating read -- again !
this is the third lencioni book i have read...and maybe the best. He has such a knack for real characters in real situations -- the grey area of leadership -- that its easy to be entertained and almost forget how applicable the examples and advice are. Unlike other fables (like the cheese and fish things) this is not a simplistic tool of employee oppression but a well written and versed story that actually provides some very useful insights. highly recommended !

60 Another Great Lesson for CEOs from Patrick Lencioni
I have enjoyed each of Patrick Lencioni's books and each one has been better than the last. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team provides more than just 5 fundamentals of team building. Using his exceptional story-telling skills, Patrick gives CEOs a roadmap to building high-performance executive teams. Many of our Alliance of Chief Executive members have already read the book and put it to practical use. I give Patrick 5 stars for another sure-fire best seller.

61 Really understands team dynamics
This book does 3 things that really hit home for me and justify the 5 star rating I gave it: it's completely in touch with REALITY, it's brilliantly SIMPLE in it's presentation of both the problem and the diagnosis and it's 100% APPLICABLE to every management situation I've ever been part of. Too many times, I've encountered management books or consultants who will assemble a list of things to do that's too long to act upon, out of touch with the reality of working on the planet earth or narrow in their application (eg - how to lead teams to develop better software). Lencioni takes the universe of issues that prevent apparently smart managment teams from succeeding and distills it to the most important 5. As you read this book, I can guarantee you'll have that "I've been in this situation before" feeling. The characters are people I've seen repeatedly in my business career, the situations so familiar they made me laugh. The best aspect of Lencioni's analysis of the dysfunctions is that he takes you materially beyond the diagnosis and offers a real world approach to treating the problem.