I had read many books on teams and team development prior to stumbling upon Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. This turned out to be a good thing. Had this not been the case, I don't know that I would have realized just how different - and accurate - this book was.
Lencioni has a flare for weaving a good tale, and a good tale it is! He introduces us to a fictional CEO by the name of Kathryn Petersen. Petersen is a newly hired CEO who must unite her new leadership team or risk the company failing outright. We meet each member of her executive leadership team and quickly get a sense of their individual personalities and priorities, as well as how the team functions (and doesn't) as a whole. Hence the title of the book.
Through this fable, Lencioni introduces us to his model: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Personally, in my work with countless teams over the years I have come to see this model play out time and time again. I believe it is an accurate reflection of the challenges that can be faced when bringing a group of people together to do complex and meaningful work - and provides valuable insight and action for tackling those challenges.
Lencioni also introduces us to something I have come to believe is the most important concept for a team - especially a senior leadership team - to grasp and understand. Team One. More detail on this is available below under Key Concepts.
Once again, Lencioni offers up two great talents to his readers. The first is his ability to cut through the fog and complexity of some of the most important dynamics occurring within our work places and to present these to us via simple, yet meaningful models and frameworks for easy application. Lencioni's second talent? His storytelling. He shares his frameworks with us by creating fables filled with characters we can all relate to and learn from.
If you are interested in other noteworthy fables by Lencioni, consider the following: