The Five Dysfunctions of a Team was written by Patrick Lencioni. Prior to founding The Table Group, Lencioni worked at Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation and serviced on the executive team at Sybase. He founded The Table Group which is a firm that provides tools necessary to improve teamwork. Lencioni was also recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top Ten Gurus You Should Know.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team provides insight as to why teams struggle to be productive and successful. The book is written in a story format in which a fictional technology company, DecisionTech, which has top notch executives and staff, cash …show more content…
A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.
Every business is only as strong as its teams. The dilemma is that most teams do not function in the true sense of the word. In his book, Lencioni has provided a blueprint that would provide the needed guidance to establish successful teams.
As the author introduces his purpose in writing his book he indicates that it is teamwork that is the true cornerstone of every business. He uses a quote from a friend who is a very successful business man, to relay the underlying message that businesses must embrace to understand the goal and that is this: “If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” This sound simple enough but how is it achieved? What would it look like and what sacrifices would need to be made along the …show more content…
The third dysfunction is the Lack of Commitment. When team members say they will live up to their deliverables but fail, it is because of a lack of commitment to see the process through. Teams must be able they can trust each other to get to the end goal. This then lead them to being able to commit to each other and follow through with what they agreed to do.
Again the leader must be the one to know what has been committed to, by whom, and when the deliverables are due. This must also be communicated to the team so all are clear on what is expected by each member.
The fourth dysfunction is Avoidance of Accountability. If communication is not clear and concise, it can often lead to team members not knowing what the expectation is of them and also of their peers. Team members need to have understanding in order have buy-in and commitment. Team members must also be comfortable with each other and be ready to hold each other to be accountable. There should also be some form used to measure progress. Tools that can be helpful in this stage are Gantt Charts or Critical Path