The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

by Patrick Lencioni

“What about when the conversation is not relevant to everyone? Sometimes it seems that we talk about issues that would best be handled off-line. One-on-one.” “That's a good point.” Kathryn was reeling Martin in now. “If there is ever a time when that happens, when we think that we're wasting the group's time by dealing with issues that should be dealt with outside the meeting, then everyone here should feel free to speak up.”

The key is to make the collective ego greater than the individual ones.”

“Well, 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.”

Publication of Goals and Standards A good way to make it easier for team members to hold one another accountable is to clarify publicly exactly what the team needs to achieve, who needs to deliver what, and how everyone must behave in order to succeed.

Simple and Regular Progress Reviews A little structure goes a long way toward helping people take action that they might not otherwise be inclined to do.