Book SummaryOvercoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“Teamwork” is one of the most common buzzwords in the modern business world, but what does it actually mean, and how do you foster it? In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, renowned business consultant Patrick Lencioni answers those questions and teaches you how to turn a group of individuals into a true team.

This book is a followup to Lencioni’s 2002 business fable The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. While the earlier work focused on identifying the problems that stop people from working together effectively, Overcoming teaches you how to solve those problems and explains why, according to Lencioni, all teamwork must begin with trust.

Lencioni is an author, speaker, and consultant specializing in leadership and business management. He’s also co-founder and president of The Table Group, which specializes in...

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Introduction: Creating a Team

Lencioni starts by giving his definition of team: a group of up to 12 people who come together and work collectively to meet shared objectives and put the group's needs above their own. He adds that smaller teams are often the most effective, and you should rarely—if ever—try to make a team larger than a dozen people. Groups larger than that have too many opportunities for interpersonal conflicts, making it exponentially more difficult to arrive at decisions they all agree with.

(Shortform note: In many cases, even 12 people on a team can be too many. Some reports show that the average size of an executive team of a large company is now 10, and even that’s proving to be expensive and cumbersome—team members get paid for attending meetings that often don’t concern them, and those meetings frequently run over time as the large groups try to reach a consensus that satisfies everyone. It’s therefore wise to...

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Impairment #1: Distrust

Lencioni says that any great team is grounded in trust. However, in this case, trust doesn’t just mean trusting your teammates to do their work. It means feeling safe around each other: Teammates who trust each other aren’t afraid to share unusual ideas or admit to their mistakes and worries. Trust means knowing you can share anything (whether business-related or personal) with your teammates—you trust that they won’t use that information to make fun of you, steal your ideas, or harm your reputation.

(Shortform note: A trusting, psychologically safe environment has numerous benefits beyond fostering teamwork. People who trust their coworkers and leaders are generally happier, more engaged, and more productive at work than those who don’t. The benefits even extend to their personal lives—people who work in trusting environments tend to be less stressed and enjoy higher life satisfaction.)

Lencioni argues that distrust is the first and most important impairment to surmount because if you and your teammates don’t trust each other, then you can’t operate as a...

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Impairment #2: Lack of Healthy Disagreements

Once your team trusts each other, they’ll be ready to start working through Lencioni’s second team impairment: a lack of healthy disagreements. In other words, now that your team members trust each other to act in good faith, you can teach them how to disagree with each other respectfully and productively.

(Shortform note: As Lencioni says, trust is crucial for healthy disagreements because your team members need to understand that their teammates always have good intentions, even when arguments get heated. In Difficult Conversations, the authors describe a skill that supports this understanding: separating intent from impact. Team members should recognize that their teammates didn’t mean to make them feel hurt or uncomfortable, even if they ended up feeling that way. This is especially crucial because people often subconsciously associate bad intentions with bad people, and they’re far less willing to cooperate with someone whom they view as a bad person.)

Lencioni notes that ideally, disagreements and disputes get a lot...

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Impairment #3: Lack of Unity

The ability to disagree with each other respectfully and productively is crucial for a team, but it naturally leads to Lencioni’s third impairment: a lack of unity. Some team members may resist going along with a decision even after it’s been made. For example, they might genuinely think the team made a bad decision, or they might simply feel slighted because their ideas weren’t chosen.

(Shortform note: Having team members support a decision they disagree with goes back to trust. If they genuinely trust their teammates’ abilities and judgment, then they can also trust that the decision the team reached was a good one, even if it wasn’t the decision they’d personally have made. By establishing trust—and reminding your team members that they trust each other—you’ve already gone a long way toward overcoming this team impairment.)

In this section, we’ll go over Lencioni’s method for...

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Summary Impairments #4 and #5: Fear of Accountability and Self-Interest

Discussing unity naturally leads to the last two impairments: fear of accountability and self-interest. These both hinder team unity by keeping people’s attention focused on themselves. This final section will explain these two impairments and discuss ways to keep team members accountable to and intent on meeting the team’s shared goals.

Impairment #4: Fear of Accountability

Lencioni argues that accountability involves team members—including the team leader—holding each other responsible for their behavior and their results.

Holding people accountable for their results is easy. If there are clear expectations regarding, say, sales numbers or company profits, it’s easy to tell when someone isn’t meeting them. In that case, there needs to be a conversation about why they’re falling short and how to address the problem.

Lencioni says it’s much more uncomfortable to hold people accountable for their day-to-day behavior. But, it’s just as important because behavior leads directly to results; by correcting behaviors, you can stop poor results from happening in the first place. For example, if one of your team members seems disengaged or hostile during team meetings,...

Shortform Exercise: Consider Which Impairments You Currently Face

Now that you’ve read about Lencioni’s five team impairments and how to work through them, think about which impairments are currently holding your team back or preventing you from fully committing yourself to a team or company.

If you’re currently part of a team, which of the five impairments (distrust, lack of healthy disagreements, lack of unity, fear of accountability, or self-interest) do you think the team struggles with most, and why? If you’re not on a team at the moment, which impairment do you anticipate you’d personally struggle with on a team, and why? For example, maybe you’re uncomfortable with disagreements (lack of healthy disagreements), or you can’t imagine yourself publicly supporting a decision you think is wrong (lack of unity).