The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

March 25, 2002
In keeping with the parable style, Lencioni (The Five Temptations of a CEO) begins by telling the fable of a woman who, as CEO of a struggling Silicon Valley firm, took control of a dysfunctional executive committee and helped its members succeed as a team. Story time over, Lencioni offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioral tendencies that he says corrupt teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results). Succinct yet sympathetic, this guide will be a boon for those struggling with the inherent difficulties of leading a group. 100,000 first printing.

April 15, 2002
Building a cohesive team is not complicated, declares Lencioni, president of his own management consulting firm and author of The Five Temptations of a CEO. Departing from the dry, theoretical writing of many management books, he presents his case in the context of a fictional organization, and in doing so succeeds at communicating his ideas. The story is about a female CEO who is hired to bring together a dysfunctional executive staff to work as a team in a company that just two years earlier had looked promising. The scenarios that follow are recognizable and can be applied anywhere teamwork is involved, whether it is a multinational company, a small department within a larger organization, or a sports team. The five dysfunctions discussed are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. At the end of the story, the main points are summarized, and clearly written suggestions and exercises are offered to help bring about change. Concise and easy to follow, this book is recommended for academic and public libraries with management collections and for anyone who is a member of a team that needs improvement. Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2002
The final installment in a trilogy that includes "The Five Temptations of a CEO" (1998) and "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive" (2000), this fictional story demonstrates how a new CEO reforms a dysfunctional executive team with a series of sometimes-painful off-site meetings designed to break them of bad habits. The company has superior tangible and intangible assets yet is behind its competitors in terms of revenue and customer growth. When Kathryn is brought on board to figure out why, she forces her reluctant team to examine their interpersonal behaviors, such as letting individual ego get in the way of team goals. She demands healthy conflict and accountability among the group and vigilantly prevents them from sliding back into old habits. Losing a couple executives in the process, she succeeds in turning the company around. Lencioni demonstrates his points effectively by getting the reader involved in the characters and the tension between them. He wraps up this "leadership fable" with a brief discussion containing additional suggestions on overcoming the five deadly dysfunctions. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)