The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has become the world’s most definitive source on practical information for building teams. The book’s impact extends beyond business schools, churches, non-profit organizations, professional sports teams and the military. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has sold over two million copies and continues to be a fixture on national best-seller lists week after week.
The Concept
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team outlines the root causes of politics and dysfunction on the teams where you work, and the keys to overcoming them. Counter to conventional wisdom, the causes of dysfunction are both identifiable and curable. However, they don't die easily. Making a team functional and cohesive requires levels of courage and discipline that many groups cannot seem to muster.
The Model
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Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust
The fear of being vulnerable with team members prevents the building of trust within the team.Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict
The desire to preserve artificial harmony stifles the occurrence of productive ideological conflict.Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment
The lack of clarity or buy-in prevents team members from making decisions they will stick to.Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability
The need to avoid interpersonal discomfort prevents team members from holding one another accountable.Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results
The pursuit of individual goals and personal status erodes the focus on collective success.
Characteristics of High Performing Teams
Teams willing to address the five dysfunctions can experience the following benefits. High performing, cohesive teams:
- Are comfortable asking for help, admitting mistakes and limitations and take risks offering feedback
- Tap into one another's skills and experiences
- Avoid wasting time talking about the wrong issues and revisiting the same topics over and over again because of lack of buy-in
- Make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time and fewer resources
- Put critical topics on the table and have lively meetings
- Align the team around common objectives
- Retain star employees
Free Tools & Resources
Download our free tools and resources that will supplement your understanding of the five dysfunctions model.
Teamwork Products and Services
Start a Teamwork Initiative on Your Own
For those of you who are interested in getting started right away and working on your own with your team, we have developed a suite of products based on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to help leaders address the behavioral obstacles to teamwork. These products include an Online Team Assessment, Facilitator's Guide, Participant Workbook Field Guide and Video Presentation.
Learn MoreThe Meeting Advantage
The Meeting Advantage is a web-based meetings management tool designed specifically to reinforce organizational health every time your team meets. Derived from the four disciplines of a healthy organization in Pat's book The Advantage, this tool redesigns weekly team meetings to ensure team members are consistently aligned around the organization's clarity, focusing their time on the most important issues, measuring progress on shared objectives, and clarifying post-meeting cascading messages.
Learn MoreLaunch a Teamwork Initiative with Table Group's Help
For teams that wish to avoid the natural human tendencies that can plague a team's effectiveness, our consultants can design and deliver a program around the five dysfunctions model tailored to suit a team's needs. Our principal consultants work with teams at all levels and industries helping companies implement the five dysfunctions model in a number of ways, including: senior leadership team off-sites, organizational wide roll-outs and training workshops.
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