Book SummaryThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick M. Lencioni

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Why do some teams fail? It’s typically not because of bad strategy, too little money, or lack of talent—it’s because they don’t know how to work well together. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002), management consultant Patrick Lencioni argues that a well-functioning team is a powerful advantage in business and beyond. It remains rare, though, because teams are made up of imperfect humans who fall into predictable behavioral traps related to trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a fable about a fictional executive team learning to work together, illustrates these five traps as a pyramid of interconnected issues where each feeds into the tier above it. To solve them, you have to start from the bottom and work your way up. This isn’t easy, because although the traps are conceptually simple, they require people to change their behavior. But if your team can do it, Lencioni says, you can rise to the top of any field.

Lencioni is a renowned public speaker and the author of books including Death by Meeting and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a follow-up that builds on this book’s concepts and solutions. He also co-founded The Table Group, a consulting firm. As part of this group, he coaches executive teams and hosts At The Table, the firm’s podcast about leadership and business.

In this guide, we’ll describe each of Lencioni’s five behavioral traps, explaining what they look like, why they’re so damaging, and how to overcome them. Our commentary will relate Lencioni’s ideas to perspectives from other experts on teamwork, such as Amy C. Edmondson (Teaming) and Stanley McChrystal (Team of Teams).

Behavioral Trap #1: The Team Lacks Trust

As we mentioned, Lencioni’s five behavioral traps form a pyramid. In this section, we’ll begin with the lowest-tier behavioral trap: a lack of trust among team members.

According to Lencioni, a lack of trust underpins the other four behavioral traps. You can’t address any of them without building trust first , because trust isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s the basic prerequisite for a functional team.

(Shortform note: In pointing to trust as a foundational element of teamwork, Lencioni is in good company. Experts in psychology, the military, and business agree: Teams that trust each other do better work. In Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal emphasizes that trust enables teams to communicate and coordinate skillfully on the fly and under adverse conditions. So if you want an agile, resilient team, start by building trust.)

When Team Members Don’t Trust One Another

When they lack mutual trust, team members won’t feel willing or able to be fully open with one another. Lencioni says that without it:

• People can’t or won’t communicate honestly. If team members are worried about being judged or sabotaged later on, they can’t have productive discussions or debates. A culture of mistrustful politicking poisons the well of any team.
• People waste energy. Instead of asking for help or clarification, people hide what’s wrong and trudge on anyway. This emotional labor wastes tons of energy that would be better spent on productive work.
• People struggle to collaborate. Nobody feels safe enough to ask for help, offer help, or share resources freely because they’re caught in a fear-driven culture of transactional relationships.

(Shortform note: In Teaming, Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson agrees that if team members don’t feel they can speak their minds, the team will miss out on all manner of insights, solutions, or potential breakthroughs. Why does this happen? Edmondson writes that when a team member fears retaliation or judgment, it triggers her brain’s threat response. This takes up mental and emotional bandwidth—as Lencioni says—and that fear prevents her from effectively contributing to the team. Edmondson adds that open communication doesn’t have to be perfect—rather, it’s about creating an environment where people feel free to spitball and share half-baked ideas.)

How to Build Trust

Lencioni writes that building trust takes time—often months. Crucially, the head of the team needs to lead by example. Team members take their cues from the top, so when the leader willingly admits their mistakes, acknowledges their limitations, and asks for help, others will feel more comfortable doing the same.

According to Lencioni, the best place to start building trust is in structured, low-risk settings, like team offsites (meetings or retreats held away from the office) where team members can practice vulnerability in small, manageable ways. For example, team members can share basic personal information (such as where they grew up, favorite childhood experiences, or places they’ve traveled). This builds human connection without risking sensitive information. From there, move to slightly higher-stakes exercises, like having teammates recognize each other’s professional strengths and offer words of praise. The idea is to create a series of small, vulnerable moments that...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary An Executive Team Divided

Five Dysfunctions of a Team explores the dysfunctions that prevent teams from working cohesively as a unit and outlines some key strategies that teams can employ to identify and resolve them. The book does this through a parable about a troubled (fictional) company called DecisionTech, whose executive team exhibits all five of the dysfunctions.

Missed Opportunities

DecisionTech seems to have everything going for it. They have a seasoned executive team, a solid business plan, plenty of startup capital from investors, and leading-edge technology.

Unfortunately, they find themselves unable to capitalize on these advantages and are instead mired in dysfunction. With missed product delivery deadlines, a growing turnover problem, and an eroding cash position, the company is on the brink of failure.

The problem is the executive team, which is:

• Mistrustful of one another
• Unable to discuss issues
• Ambiguous and unclear about priorities
• Unwilling to hold one another accountable
• Overly focused on individual and departmental goals

Amid this turmoil, the Board of Directors asks the CEO and cofounder to step down, replacing him with their new choice,...

Shortform Exercise: Testing Teamwork

By thinking about DecisionTech’s flaws, you can improve your effectiveness as part of a team.

Have you ever been part of a team that was unable to work together and achieve its stated goals? How do you think you might have contributed to this dynamic?

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Dysfunction One: Absence of Trust

DecisionTech suffers from an absence of trust.

“Trust” is an often-misused word, and tends to be used to signify predictability in someone’s behavior (as in, “I trust that you will get this done”).

When discussing interactions between members of a team however, it means something deeper. Trust is the quality of being able to feel safe and unjudged by one’s teammates. It is the ability to be vulnerable with one another (by being willing to admit mistakes and reveal weaknesses). The root of this is fear that exposing your weaknesses will be used against you. You don’t believe that other people have your best interests at heart.

Without trust, teams miss important opportunities and channel their energy into unproductive behavior, suppressing their true feelings. Instead of honesty and openness, you get politics—people acting and speaking based on how they believe they will be perceived by others, not on...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Dysfunction Two: Fear of Conflict

Passionate, ideological conflict is necessary for teams to learn from past mistakes, take decisive action, and tap into the full team’s talent and experience. This requires healthy conflict, but dysfunctional teams have a fear of conflict.

Fear of conflict is a direct outgrowth of the first dysfunction, absence of trust. Without the guardrails that trust provides, teammates will be fearful that any conflict will devolve into personal sniping and unproductive arguing—so they avoid conflict altogether. Trustful teams don’t have this problem, because their conflicts are about substantive issues, not personal feelings.

Productive, ideological conflict is different from interpersonal conflict. Ideological conflict is driven by concepts, ideas, and goals.Teams avoid these discussions because they fear...

Shortform Exercise: Digging Into Discomfort

These questions will help you identify sources of discomfort and examine why you might be holding back from your colleagues.

Do you feel comfortable admitting your own weaknesses among your team? Why or why not? Describe a recent example.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Dysfunction Three: Lack of Commitment

Teams need to be committed and on the same page in order to succeed. There can be no ambiguity around what goals the organization is trying to achieve, and all team members must fully buy in to the plan. Most importantly, they must decide.

Dysfunctional teams, however, fail to achieve commitment and lumber from one non-decision to the next.

This problem stems from a fear of conflict. When teammates haven’t had the opportunity to hash out disagreements through productive, ideological debate, they feel that their ideas haven’t been proper consideration. It is also harder to make any decision when alternative points of view have not been considered, because it feels there might be better options that lay undiscovered. The result is a lack of commitment: ambiguity about goals, confusion regarding individual responsibilities, and indecision.

Lack of commitment also stems from a desire for consensus and certainty.

Consensus—universal agreement—is impossible to achieve and is actually counterproductive. Striving for it will...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Dysfunction Four: Avoidance of Accountability

Effective teams hold other accountable in order to correct problematic or counterproductive behavior and maintain consistent high standards.

Dysfunctional teams, however, are unable to call out their peers for unproductive behavior and falling below standards

This avoidance of accountability stems from the first three dysfunctions.

• Lack of trust inhibits constructive pushback, since every criticism in such an environment would either be taken personally, cause interpersonal discomfort, or be met with defensiveness and retaliation.
• Fear of conflict makes teammates unwilling to puncture the false harmony they’ve created and shy away from any controversial topics.

Lack of commitment has the most powerful effect in fostering avoidance of accountability. Without clarity and buy-in, teammates feel they have no right to call others out over team priorities that were either 1) unclear or 2) never bought into in the first place. Moreover, when a team is suffering from the indecision that defines lack of commitment, **there...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Dysfunction Five: Inattention to Results

Functioning teams are focused on achieving results. They have an ultimate mission and clear, defined objectives along the way to help them achieve that mission.

Dysfunctional teams, however, don’t define their goals or establish clear, universal benchmarks for success.

This stems directly from the fourth dysfunction: without clear decisions, defined goals, and well-articulated responsibilities for everyone, teammates will be unable and unwilling to hold their teammates accountable to high standards. In the absence of accountability, people will naturally pursue whatever is best for themselves.

If individuals know they can get away with blowing off deadlines on team projects without having their feet held to the fire by their colleagues, individual egos will rule the roost. This leads to the team devolving into a collection of individuals...

Shortform Exercise: Defining Disarray

Use these questions to see if you’re on the same page with your teammates.

Do you know what your teammates are working on? Explain why knowing this is important.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Solving Dysfunction One: Building Trust

Now that we’ve identified the dysfunctions and examined their causes and effects, we can work through some strategies for overcoming them.

The overall goal is to build a healthy environment where all five dysfunctions are solved. Picture this high-functioning team:

• They trust one another and are comfortable sharing weaknesses and knowing other people have their best interests at heart.
• Given this trust, they have healthy conflict and discussions to arrive at the best ideas.
• Given that everyone feels heard, they confidently commit to the final plan.
• Given the commitment to the plan and clear responsibilities, they hold each other accountable for executing the plan.
• Given the accountability, they pull together as a team, rather than focusing on individual outcomes.

This needs to be approached from the ground up, starting with the first dysfunction.

To review, Dysfunction 1 is an absence of trust, where people are uncomfortable being vulnerable with one another. This leads to people withholding feedback from each other, being unwilling to ask for help, and playing politics.

The general theme to fixing this is to** provide structured...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Solving Dysfunction Two: Empowering Constructive Conflict

To recap, Dysfunction 2 is fear of conflict, in which teammates avoid having productive, ideological debate and steer away from discussing controversial topics. When this happens, problems go undetected, mistakes are repeated, and opportunities are squandered.

The general theme to fixing this is by encouraging teams to deal directly with sources and topics of disagreement, rather than ignoring them. Once they see that conflict can be a productive endeavor, they will get comfortable making it a more regular part of their decision-making process.

Here are some specific tactics teams can use to get comfortable leaning into conflict.

Mining

This involves teams bringing up previous disagreements and forcing them to work through issues that they would otherwise avoid. This direct acknowledgment is key, since not talking about a conflict doesn’t resolve the underlying issue at all—it just causes it to manifest in other, more destructive forms (like...

Shortform Exercise: Getting Comfortable with Conflict

Think about these questions to see how you can get more comfortable with your teammates.

How much do you know about your teammates on a personal level? Do you find yourself working better with people when you know more about their lives?

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Solving Dysfunction Three: Fostering Commitment

As a refresher, Dysfunction Three is lack of commitment. This is when teams don’t have clarity around priorities and fail to get their members to buy in to the plan. It leads to ambiguity around team and individual priorities and wasted time, energy, and opportunities due to indecision.

To solve this dysfunction, teams need to create clarity around specific responsibilities and expectations and encourage decisiveness. Below are some tools that can help teams move in this direction.

Cascading Messaging

At the end of every meeting, review key decisions and agree on what needs to be communicated to stakeholders who were not at the meeting. Think through the messaging to each successive layer of the organization. This reveals any points of disagreement between the team and fosters clarity about next steps. It also gives clear instructions on what should be conveyed to subordinates, so that all parts of the organization are receiving the same message.

Deadlines

Assign clear timing around project deliverables. This will reduce ambiguity, since everyone will know when and what they are expected to deliver. Deadlines must be...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Solving Dysfunction Four: Promoting Accountability

To recap, Dysfunction Four is avoidance of accountability. This is when teammates fail to hold each other to high standards of performance and force the leader to become the sole source of discipline. It results in the spread of low standards across the organization, an exodus of achievement-oriented people, and resentment towards those who refuse to pull their weight.

In general, this can be fixed by making clear what goals the organization is meant to achieve and incentivizing individuals to work for the group rather than for themselves. For accountability, teams should engage in peer pressure tactics, which is scalable and reduces the bureaucracy needed for oversight.

Below are some tools designed to achieve this shift in behavior.

Publication of Goals and Standards

This clarifies what the team needs to accomplish, everyone’s individual responsibilities to the team, and a code of conduct so people know how to behave.

Creating public goals and standards puts everyone on the same page. It facilitates accountability, since everyone knows what the proper measurement of success is and what...

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Solving Dysfunction Five: Delivering Results

To recap, Dysfunction Five is inattention to results. It’s when teammates let their personal ambitions and egos get in the way of achieving team priorities. Inattention to results leads to a failure to capitalize on new opportunities, lost ground to competitors, and whipsawing back and forth between competing personal agendas.

The best way to resolve this dysfunction is to define clear goals for the organization and articulate how each individual’s work aligns with these broader goals.

Public Declaration of Results

Clearly express and publicize results and expectations. This brings clarity, as everyone knows precisely which goals the organization is working toward, and how their work fits into the overall goals.

Results-Based...

Shortform Exercise: Achieving Alignment

Use these exercises to help get on the same page with your teammates.

Have you ever been part of a team where there was a lack of commitment around goals? After reading the section above, describe which strategy for overcoming this dysfunction would have been the best to use in this situation.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Epilogue: Realizing Results

As a result of the team’s in-depth exploration of the Five Dysfunctions, DecisionTech undergoes a series of large-scale changes. These changes do not suit everyone’s personality and working style, but they are necessary: those who are unable or unwilling to adjust their behavior and thinking will only drag the organization down. The team emerges as a stronger and more cohesive unit by losing those members of the team who can’t make this transition.

A New Direction

The team ultimately decides on new customer acquisition as the company’s overarching goal for the year, landing upon 18 new deals as the target number. They reason that the achievement of this goal will generate positive press, create references for the subsequent round of customers,and prove that there are customers interested in DecisionTech’s products.

JR Quits

JR’s attitude indicates that he was not a good cultural fit for the company DecisionTech needs to become in order to succeed. **His ego, inattention to detail, and refusal to set aside his own agenda demonstrate why he had...