The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

by Patrick Lencioni

“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”

The fact remains that teams, because they are made up of imperfect human beings, are inherently dysfunctional.

moments of truth, she knew, are best handled face-to-face.

“First of all, I only have one priority at this point: we need to get our act together as a team, or we're not going to be selling anything.”

“Jeff, I understand your opinion, and I'm fine with your disagreeing with me, especially when you tell me face-to-face.”

“You've probably heard my husband say that 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.”

And as concerned as she was about the attitudes of the people sitting around the table, Kathryn could not deny that moments like this were a big part of why she loved being a leader.

“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.

“Great teams do not hold back with one another,” she said. “They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

“So you don't agree on most things, and yet you don't seem willing to admit that you have concerns. Now, I'm no Ph.D. in psychology, but that's a trust issue if I've ever heard one.”

“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”

“We are going to the top of the chart now to talk about the ultimate dysfunction: the tendency of team members to seek out individual recognition and attention at the expense of results. And I’m referring to collective results—the goals of the entire team.”

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

“And as harsh as that may sound, Ken always says that his job is to create the best team possible, not to shepherd the careers of individual athletes. And that’s how I look at my job.”

“The key, of course, is to define our goals, our results, in a way that is simple enough to grasp easily, and specific enough to be actionable.

Kathryn was smiling in disbelief, as if to say, I can’t believe that I have to tell you this. In a more patient tone, she said, “All of you, every one of you, are responsible for sales. Not just JR. All of you are responsible for marketing. Not just Mikey. All of you are responsible for product development, customer service, and finance. Does that make sense?”

“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”

“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict. And we’ll just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony.”

“It’s the lack of conflict that’s a problem. 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. I’d trade that false kind of harmony any day for a team’s willingness to argue effectively about an issue and then walk away with no collateral damage.”

“So where does the lack of commitment come into play?” Nick wanted to know. “Well, some teams get paralyzed by their need for complete agreement, and their inability to move beyond debate.”

“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.”

Every great movie has conflict. Without it, we just don’t care what happens to the characters.”

“Let me assure you that from now on, every staff meeting we have will be loaded with conflict. And they won’t be boring. And if there is nothing worth debating, then we won’t have a meeting.”

What we lack is teamwork, and I can promise you all that I have no greater priority as CEO than making you, I mean, us, more effective as a group.”

“During the next two weeks I am going to be pretty intolerant of behavior that demonstrates an absence of trust, or a focus on individual ego. I will be encouraging conflict, driving for clear commitments, and expecting all of you to hold each other accountable. I will be calling out bad behavior when I see it, and I’d like to see you doing the same. We don’t have time to waste.”

“But when a company has a collection of good managers who don’t act like a team, it can create a dilemma for them, and for the company. You see, it leads to confusion about who their first team is.” Jeff asked for clarification. “First team?” “Yes, your first team. And all of this relates to the last dysfunction—putting team results ahead of individual issues. Your first team has to be this one.” She looked around the room to make it clear that she was referring to the executive staff.

“I don’t know how else to say this, but building a team is hard.”

Some people are hard to hold accountable because they are so helpful. Others because they get defensive. Others because they are intimidating. I don’t think it’s easy to hold anyone accountable, not even your own kids.”

trust is not the same as assuming everyone is on the same page as you, and that they don’t need to be pushed. Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.”

Push with respect, and under the assumption that the other person is probably doing the right thing. But push anyway. And never hold back.”

the departure of even the most difficult employees provoked some degree of mourning and self-doubt among their peers.

“You are fighting. But about issues. That's your job. Otherwise, you leave it to your people to try to solve problems that they can't solve.

“I don't think anyone ever gets completely used to conflict. If it's not a little uncomfortable, then it's not real. The key is to keep doing it anyway.”

For those interested in a more rigorous analysis of team performance. The Table Group offers a comprehensive Online Team Assessment.

Visit www.tablegroup.com/dysfunctions for more information.

Trust lies at the heart of a functioning, cohesive team. Without it, teamwork is all but impossible.

teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another.

Achieving vulnerability-based trust is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of a team, but that is exactly what is required.

Personal Histories Exercise

Team Effectiveness Exercise

Personality and Behavioral Preference Profiles

Experiential Team Exercises

The most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first.

team leaders must create an environment that does not punish vulnerability.

All great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow. This is true in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and certainly business.

Mining Members of teams that tend to avoid conflict must occasionally assume the role of a “miner of conflict”—someone who extracts buried disagreements within the team and sheds the light of day on them.

Real-Time Permission In the process of mining for conflict, team members need to coach one another not to retreat from healthy debate.

Another tool that specifically relates to conflict is the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, commonly referred to as the TKI.

One of the most difficult challenges that a leader faces in promoting healthy conflict is the desire to protect members from harm.

Therefore, it is key that leaders demonstrate restraint when their people engage in conflict, and allow resolution to occur naturally, as messy as it can sometimes be. This can be a challenge because many leaders feel that they are somehow failing in their jobs by losing control of their teams during conflict.