If something feels a bit "off" with how your team works together, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team is the book for you. Our summary will help you get to the bottom of those tricky interpersonal dynamics before they escalate.
When teamwork fails, every day in the office might seem like a recurring nightmare. The sound of missed deadlines whizzing past you, stacks of unfinished tasks, the passive-aggressive grumbling of stressed-out colleagues, and a deep feeling of frustration.
If the unique "something" that made your team work well together suddenly breaks down or vanishes entirely, you'll know about it.
But how can you know what that “something” is? And how do you get it back? Patrick Lencioni has an answer for you.
In his book “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team,” Lencioni presents a 5-level model that explains possible issues a team might face and how these issues impact each other. The root of evil could be hidden at any level, causing a domino-effect damage to the whole team.
And to fight the beast, you have to find it first.
We’ve summarized Lencioni’s ideas in a nutshell, so you can get down to fixing your dysfunctional team ASAP. And if you want to apply a quick, diagnostic test to see where your team might be struggling according to Lencioni's model, we've got you covered: you can find it at the bottom of the article ⬇️
Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another. And if that sounds touchy-feely, let me explain, because there is nothing soft about it. It is an absolutely critical part of building a team. In fact, it’s probably the most critical.
According to Lencioni, trust is the most fundamental principle of team cohesiveness, without which a team falls like a house of cards. Despite the traditional definition of trust as the ability to predict how a particular person would act, Lencioni puts different meaning into this concept, making it more human-oriented.
For him, trust is a state when people are confident that those surrounding them wish well and, figuratively speaking, do not hold a knife behind their backs. Trust is essential for psychological safety: it allows people to be sincere and let go of fears of getting judged. Logically, if there is no trust, the team will not feel comfortable being vulnerable with each other – the evidence of the first dysfunction.
The ambience of trust makes it possible for people to focus on their actual work instead of dispersing their energy on trying to make the right impression. Feeling comfortable with their colleagues, people won’t hide their vulnerabilities. They'll feel comfortable asking for help, and they will want to upskill themselves - as they won't be afraid to show that they don't have all the answers already.
Unfortunately, says the author, this approach is not alway accepted in contemporary companies: on the contrary, people tend to get competitive and defensive, playing their cards close to their chest. This way of behaving in the workplace is so ingrained for some people, that their suspicion and hesitancy may not change easily.
Suggestions for overcoming. Naturally, trust cannot be developed overnight; however, there are some tools that can help it thrive. When consistently applied, they can have a long-lasting effect. Here are some of the techniques the author speaks about:
Personal histories exercise. This is a very simple exercise: during a meeting, people ask each other questions about their family, education and so on. The questions do not need to be over sensitive. The main goal is to get to know your colleagues better because it often appears that we know nothing about people we see every day at the office.
Team effectiveness exercise. This exercise requires team members to pick one area in which their colleagues do the best, and one where they do the worst. It can sound like walking on thin ice, but in fact, it helps discover constructive decisions, as well as motivate people to continue doing what they do well.
Personality and behavioral preference profile. All people are different, and it doesn’t mean someone is worse and someone is better. Recognizing the uniqueness of every person, we can develop empathy and improve relationships. It makes sense to spend time and identify psychological types of those who work together on a daily basis, so they tolerate quirks and forgive excessive emotionality or other psychological nuances of each other.
The Role of the Leader. To develop trust, the leader must start with themselves, becoming the role model, says Lencioni. If they demonstrate their own weaknesses and failures, and don't allow team members to harshly criticize each other, the seeds of trust they sow will grow fast.
Connection to Dysfunction 2. The correlation between the first and second dysfunction is obvious: only when people trust each other will they engage in a productive conflict, as they won’t be afraid that the conflict will lead to irreparably burnt bridges.
Wanting to become a healthy team? Learn more tactical advice in our recent ebook:
Harmony itself is good, I suppose, if it comes as a result of working through issues constantly and cycling through conflict. But if it comes only as a result of people holding back their opinions and honest concerns, then it’s a bad thing.
It may sound paradoxical, but for a relationship to grow there must be conflicts. We are all used to the thought that conflicts are a destructive force. However, this is not necessarily so, says Lencioni.
First of all, there is a difference between interpersonal and ideological conflict. Interpersonal conflicts are really dangerous as they are directed at personality, which often means aggression.
Ideological conflicts, on the other hand, are about ideas - and they can be the fire in which brilliant solutions are born. The problem is, both types of conflicts can share some of the same features: they can both look emotionally loaded and full of frustration, so it’s quite easy to mistake one for another.
The lack of conflict leads to artificial harmony, says the author, and he adds that the irony of the situation is that while avoiding conflicts we only let the tension boil up. The result? When boiling point is reached and people have really had enough which each other, expecting shouting and angry words to fly. People may end up saying things that it's hard to walk back from.
This is why it is more reasonable to have debates and let everyone express their thoughts and disagreements. This will prevent people from holding grudges and transforming professional frustrations into personal attacks.
Suggestions for overcoming. The most important thing to overcome a conflict, says Lencioni, is to realize that it can actually be productive. Besides that, there are other methods that can be helpful:
Mining. Team members who usually use the tactics of avoiding conflict should assume a role of a “miner” and extract the problems covered under silent disagreements. This is not easy as it requires courage to point out sensitive issues, yet it is very effective.
Real-time permission. In the course of “mining” for a conflict, some people may get very uncomfortable and eager to end this whole story as soon as possible. To ease the tension, a leader can make a remark and remind them that the conflict they are involved in is "productive conflict", and that it is being encouraged on purpose.
Lencioni says that even though this may feel more like a technique for mediating family conflict rather than workplace disagreements, the permission to continue in fact gives confidence and strength to go on.
Other tools. Besides personality-type tests the author already mentioned, there are others specifically designed to identify how a particular person reacts to conflict situations (like Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument). Knowing your natural inclinations, you can adjust them to situations and choose the most appropriate approach.
The Role of the Leader. Very often leaders try to do everything possible to soften conflict, in order to protect their people. Though it can feel like losing control, it’s very important for a leader to step back, let the conflict flow, and let people develop their conflict management skills.
Connection to Dysfunction 3. Unless people feel that their opinion has been heard and taken into account, they will never truly commit. And to hear everybody’s views, there must be debates – and conflict, sometimes.
Consensus is horrible. I mean, if everyone really agrees on something and consensus comes about quickly and naturally, well that’s terrific. But that isn’t how it usually works, and so consensus becomes an attempt to please everyone.
Commitment on a team arises when all members agree with the decisions made. If they don’t, they won’t really commit, because they will be tempted to veer away from the plan and do things in their own way. This will create ambiguity - which is the best evidence of this dysfunction, according to Lencioni.
Lencioni talks about two aspects of a good decision: clarity and buy-in. To accept a decision and not just pretend that you agree, you need to feel that it is pretty clear, and that you don’t have any doubts about it.
This happens through debates, when everyone gets a chance to contribute to the discussion. Even if your own suggestion doesn’t appear to be final, you still support the one taken by the group.
Lencioni continues that two biggest obstacles to commitment are consensus and the need for certainty. As for consensus, instead of trying to find a decision that would please everyone, which is impossible, it is enough to make people feel that their ideas have been considered. And concerning certainty, we should remember that it can be an elusive thing:even though the decision you make doesn’t look good, you can always change it later – and that will be much better than no decision at all.
According to the author, this dysfunction - lack of commitment - is especially troublesome for the employees who report to the executive team. If executives are not on the same page, their direct reports will inevitably misinterpret the orders, and that will lead to discrepancies of different kinds.
Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 3. Obviously, to handle the lack of commitment, we need to reduce the need for certainty and consensus. The tools which can help with this, as well as teach us how to make decisions, are:
Cascading messages. Unfortunately, employees of lower levels often receive inconsistent information that confuses them. This can be eliminated if managers take message delivery more seriously: after each meeting, they should go over the key decisions and communicate them to their reports. Lencioni says that this exercise, which is basically summarizing the decisions, helps reveal the fact that executives don’t see the overall picture in the same way. Besides, it helps them figure out what information should be kept confidential, and what needs to be spread out.
Deadlines. It’s super banal, but setting time frames is incredibly effective when it comes to commitment. The author also points out that it’s very useful to set deadlines even for intermediate tasks, as it makes the process more consistent.
Contingency and worst-case scenario. While a contingency plan can be reassuring, developing a worst-case scenario can actually show that the world will not collapse if you make the wrong decision. In most cases, the damage caused is not so bad and can always be improved.
Low-risk exposure therapy. This exercise consists in making a decision after a profound discussion, but without deep research. Its goal is to demonstrate that often we make good decisions even without a serious analysis, which can actually paralyze our ability to think out of the box.
The Role of the Leader. The leader must be comfortable making mistakes and accepting them calmly, to set an example for their employees. They should also control if employees stick to the schedule to meet the deadlines. Crucially, they should never encourage consensus.
Connection to Dysfunction 4. Without doubt, if a person doesn’t understand what is expected, and therefore doesn’t commit, they will not feel accountable for the result.
Once we achieve clarity and buy-in, it is then that we have to hold each other accountable for what we sign up to do, for high standards of performance and behavior. And as simple as that sounds, most executives hate to do it, especially when it comes to a peer’s behavior, because they want to avoid interpersonal discomfort.
When team members refuse to openly discuss problems of performance or behavioral issues, a team becomes dysfunctional. The evidence of the fourth dysfunction, according to Lencioni, is low standards, which no one really tries to raise.
Scared to break up personal relationships, people prefer to turn a blind eye to any negative aspects of the work or behavior of their peers. However, by acting like this they only reach the opposite effect, provoking more dissatisfaction, which eventually deteriorates relationships instead of saving them.
Bringing issues to the surface, says Lencioni, shows respect and a belief that a person is capable of meeting higher standards. Peer pressure protects from bureaucracy (performance evaluations on managers’ part) and, what’s even more important, appeals to the sense of responsibility: hearing negative feedback from someone you respect and are friendly with makes you feel like you are letting them down. This is why it is a valuable instrument.
Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 4. The fourth dysfunction can be reduced using the next techniques:
Publications of goals and standards. Setting the goals, the leader should not leave any room for ambiguity: everyone must know specifically what they have to do, and when. It is also important to make sure that everyone does whatever is required, to not let them just forget about the initial goals.
Simple and regular progress review. Team members should give each other feedback; this can be done either in oral or in written form. It is better when a progress review is conducted not by a person themselves but by their colleagues: people tend to procrastinate when they need to honestly evaluate their own progress.
Team rewards. A good idea is to create a culture of accountability – in other words, reward the team as a whole and not a person as an individual.
After all, the essence of a team is the collective effort, so team members must realize that each and everyone is accountable for the overall result. Everyone must feel accountable for the mistakes made, even if the problem that arose was not the sphere of their responsibility: this isn't about introducing a blame culture that heaps guilt and shame on individuals.
The Role of the Leader. The leader must encourage the team to function as an accountability mechanism, even though this may be challenging as it seems natural for a leader to praise and to chastise. They should be ready to intrude when necessary, but overall, team members need to have freedom to create the environment where they can exchange thoughts and feel secure.
Connection to Dysfunction 5. If team members do not feel they are accountable for group work, they will not see the main team goal as their own one, focusing their attention on their own departments.
When everyone is focused on results and using those to define success, it is difficult for ego to get out of hand. No matter how good an individual on the team might be feeling about his or her situation, if the team loses, everyone loses.
Failing to keep in mind the ultimate goal shared by the whole team, team members shift their focus and pay excessive attention to their own needs, personal or professional. It is like not seeing the woods for the trees, and it obviously has a negative impact on the overall results. For this reason, the evidence of the fifth dysfunction is ego and status.
Inattention to results means that the attention is paid to something else. What can this be? Lencioni singles out two main distractions, namely team and individual status.
Team status. Sometimes team members are satisfied to be a part of a particular group, and this is enough for them: for example, representatives of nonprofit organizations feel their mission itself is fulfilling their ambitions.
Individual status. Staying self-centered and caring more about your own career prospects than about the well-being of a group, people sacrifice overall results.
Lencioni says that, unfortunately, teams are rarely results-oriented, and no matter how much trust, conflict, commitment, and accountability they put in, it all proves useless without an actual result.
Speaking about results, Lencioni notes that he doesn’t mean financial profit only: this also includes the goals on the way to achieving the final result (which is financial), since these goals set the direction.
Suggestions for Overcoming Dysfunction 5. To get focused on results, Lencioni suggests two main ways:
Public declaration of results. Public proclamations about future success can be dangerous in some scenarios. In sports,for instance, this can cause excessive pressure on players. But when it comes to business, boldly stating the intent to succeed can motivate people to work more passionately. Beware the phrase “We’ll do our best” as it subconsciously prepares you for failure, says Lencioni.
Result-based rewards. Financial rewards should not be the main trigger to work harder; however, they are useful if tied to a specific result.
The Role of the Leader. Lencioni underlines the fact that leaders must permanently emphasize the importance of results, and what’s more, fairly reward and recognize those team members who really deserve it.
A fractured team is just like a broken arm or leg; fixing it is always painful, and sometimes you have to rebreak it to make it heal correctly. And the rebreak hurts a lot more than the initial break, because you have to do it on purpose.
“Healing” an unhealthy team is a long process – because you have to start building a team all over again. But it would be fair to say that any team starts off in a state of dysfunction, since any team consists of people and people are imperfect.
And as we have seen from this “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni summary, it can be incredibly hard to overcome difficulties caused by human behavior, but trying to do so on a daily basis can make miracles. After all, practice makes perfect.
Lencioni’s ideas can help you look at your team from a different angle. By applying the 5 Dysfunction model to analyze the relationships among your team members, you might see something you didn’t notice before. And your findings might be eye-opening.
Let’s see how you can, in the first place, understand how functional (or dysfunctional) your team is. In the book, Lencioni offers a questionnaire for team assessment; however, you can also diagnose some problems by simply observing your team and asking yourself some questions:
If yes, that might mean that the level of psychological safety is low – and, consequently, so is the level of trust.
A positive answer means there is a barrier that doesn’t let people openly discuss their problems. In a healthy team, people talk to each other.
Well, playing politics is never a good thing in a team.
Again, this just means the absence of a dialogue, which, most probably, has roots in the absence of trust.
When people do not want to physically be around each other, that’s a huge red flag.
Boring meetings can indicate that people are not ready to speak up or share ideas – and that, in turn, can indicate that they are scared to be ridiculed or even punished for their thoughts. Better safe than sorry - that’s what they think.
When it comes to serious problems, no matter if you want to discuss them or not, you will have to deal with them. But the longer you wait, the worse the situation gets. For this reason, a healthy team tries to solve problems as soon as they pop up.
If not, then there is something wrong with the team dynamics. Some team members feel rejected, and that does not have a positive effect on their work. And most probably, they do not insist on being heard.
A failure to set a direction (as well as a failure to communicate it) leads to ambiguity and a loss of focus. And when people do not know what’s expected, how can they achieve good results?
Sometimes people spend too much time on analysis, and end up losing their chances.
It’s okay to make mistakes. However, it’s not okay when people do not feel confident enough to keep going, fearing another failure.
You might need to take action without hesitation before it’s too late. Revisiting discussions over and over again will prevent you from making a necessary step.
Peer pressure is not always a bad thing, when applied for positive reasons – it can encourage personal and professional growth, let alone the well-being of a team as a whole.
First, it’s a heavy burden for the team leader. Second, by holding each other responsible, people show respect – it’s like saying, “I know you’re smart and skillful, and I know you can do it. So please, do.”
Some things just do not work, and if you see that, it’s better to do something about it, instead of pretending it’s all okay.
After all, the only indicator of a team’s true success is tangible results.
Stagnation means a lack of interest in what you do. A functional team tries to retain result-oriented members because they can ignite the spark in others.
Business is business, and falling behind competitors can slowly get you out of the game. Healthy teams understand that, and work on it.
Deep focus on strategic, meaningful work is a mandatory condition for a team to achieve success.
Now that you have analyzed your team and diagnosed problems at different levels, you can start to improve them:
Remember, in a truly functional and cohesive team, people trust each other, they feel comfortable engaging in unfiltered but respectful conflict, and they commit to decisions and plans of action together. Not only this, but they hold each other accountable for delivering against those plans, and celebrate the achievement of collective results when this plans to come fruition.
This is a high benchmark for teamwork - but we believe it's well worth working towards.
📚 Interested in reading other book summaries on management from Runn? Take a look at our library:
