
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
A leadership fable about a new CEO repairing a dysfunctional executive team, followed by the model: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, inattention to results. It is simple, memorable and widely used, and the fable form makes it quick.
Read it if…
your team is polite, non-committal and underperforming.
Skip it if…
you dislike business fables; the model is in the last forty pages.
Three things you will actually use
- Trust first; everything else sits on it.
- Mine for conflict; silence is not agreement.
- Make commitments explicit and public.
Do this first
Run a short personal-histories exercise at your next team meeting to start building vulnerability-based trust.
Our verdict
Simple, memorable and useful.
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