The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is a leadership fable centered on a fictitious up and coming technology firm called DecisionTech. DecisionTech located outside of Silicon Valley. Patrick Lencioni used this fictitious technology firm and its executive team, also known as “The Staff,” with very diverse characteristics to explain his five dysfunctions of a team. In addition to how each of the dysfunctions can hurt not only the team but also the company.

She is expected to build a system that demonstrates trust, understands conflict, commits to collective decision making, and have the ability to hold one another accountable for the betterment of the company. Furthermore, Lencioni incorporates his real life theory the five dysfunctions of a team, into the fable in hopes to persuade the reader to use his methods in real world scenarios. Moreover, Lencioni then describes the five levels of dysfunctions in depth supporting his stance that teamwork is the most important aspect of any successful business. “Teamwork comes down to the mastering of set behaviors that are once theoretically uncomplicated, trust.” (Lencioni, 2002, pg. 21) Furthermore, inspiring the first team dysfunction in absences of trust. The absence of trust ultimately stems from a team being unable to open up to one another about their strengths and weaknesses. “Trust is the foundation of real teamwork and failure also referring the failure on the part of the team members to open up to one another.” (Lencioni, 2002, pg. 42) Furthermore, supporting the authors purpose of the fable, in which is, success depends being committed to enforcing

In his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, recognized analyst Patrick Lencioni (2002), employs the literary style of injecting tales to stretch out a down to earth message of the rights and wrongs of group leaders. Lencioni believes there are five dysfunctions at the focal point of why teams often fall short. Lencioni illustrates, through his fable, the common barriers presented, a dynamic model, and active steps that can be used to build an effective and powerful group.

After reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Pat Lencioni, discussing the function of effective teams in class, and completing various team building exercises, I have developed a much better understanding of the importance of a proper team in a business setting and how good team work can produce more efficient and productive results.

School counselors collaborate with other school personnel such as teachers who will help implement guidance lessons in the classroom. As a school counselor it is important to keep the teachers motivated to help implement these programs. Resource teachers typically work the special education students, collaborating with resource teachers ensures that all students are included in the comprehensive program. The resource teacher can help provide alternative to working with students in an inclusive manner. The principles and assistance principles of the school typically serve on the advisory committee, they provide resources to the program, and help communicate the important of the counseling program. School psychologist are there to assist with mental health services, doing assessments, and working with the school counselor during crisis situations. School nurses provide health services to the students. They monitor student medications and note changes in students behavior or effectiveness of the medication. Secretaries are equally important in the collaborative model. Secretaries are typically the first person a parent will come in contact with when entering the school. They are the ones that create that first impression (Erford, 2015). Community agencies can provide additional support to students outside of

The Five Dysfunctions of a team are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattentin to results. Each of these items will lead team to failure eventually. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team written by Patrick Lencioni address each of these in detail.

I chose to read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, this book is a fable about a fictitious company learning about teamwork and becoming unified. Lencioni uses a storyline to attract readers to understand his model of effective teamwork that the audience can relate to. The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kathryn was hired to make these executives into a unified team that can show results using the five dysfunctions model. The model is a simple process but can be difficult to get the all the executives on the same page.

The author, Patrick Lencioni, has experienced great success. He wrote eleven books and sold over five million copies, and his books were translated into more than thirty languages. The author is emphasizing the issues that will make a team come together and build a strong team. As he mentioned in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, first, the absence of trust; in every team, there should be trust in order to achieve one common goal. For any team that lacks trust, it is difficult to accomplish their goal. In addition, teams experience fear of conflict. When a team fears conflict, it happens because there is lack of trust. Trust brings togetherness to a team. When there is trust, no one fears conflict because every member of the team works on the same understanding. Thirdly, lack of commitment: a team has to be very committed to one another. When a team has a commitment to the company, it makes the team strong. The fourth point is avoidance of accountability. Every member of a team has to be accountable to themselves. Without commitment, it is hard to hold each other accountable for any issues on the team; every member of a team has to be responsible. Lastly, inattention to results: every organization needs a result, as a result of growth in the company, not a personal ego but collectively. These are the five dysfunctions a team that wants to be successful has to focus on. Leaders should be able to bring their best and possible changes into the system of their organization to better the company, just like Kathryn, who does not have any experience in DecisionTech.

Patrick Lencioni had an interesting and instrumental lecture about the five dysfunctions of a team.

I found the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team very interesting. I have never really set down and thought about dysfunctions of a business or a team for that manner. This really hit home to me because as I kept reading I found that I had seen some of the dysfunctions that the book talks about in my own personal work experience. After reading this book I know that I will be able to recognize theses dysfunctions in other companies that I am a part of. I really liked how easy it was to follow what was going on in the book. It all took place in a logical order. I think that the pyramid worked really well. I think that if I was part of the company in the book that the pyramid would have got the idea that Kathryn was trying to get across

Avoidance of accountability – with no commitment team member have a hard to calling others out, when their action are not productive.

As you stated, Jeff is clearly a talented leader. I think the answer that portrays his leadership the most is the question asking him his approach to communication. I believe that communication can make or break a leader. Having effective communication can make the biggest difference. This answer explains that effective communication may not come easy to him, but he knows it is important, so he works on it (Jagiela, 2001). A leader does not have to have everything already worked out; a leader will revolve and change over time. This is something we have learned in our book, leadership style is not sufficient in effective leadership; but, rather having the ability to adapt to new or changing environments (Ledlow and Stephens, 2014, p. 10). He understands that he most adapts to the person he is trying to lead.

Besides the issues that we were experiencing as a team, we also were experiencing other issues from the entire college. For six years out of ten years no one in the college received a pay increase with their evaluations. This added to the issues within our team, and increased a decline in employee morale. Adding no pay increases or no type of incentive for rewards of doing a great job made many of the team members feel like nobody cared about the type of work we did. Especially, about the work ethic that we were trying to uphold even within our declining work environment. The dysfunctions of our team became apparent to not just the team members but also the students, and some faculty and staff members.

Counseling at any level affords a unique opportunity to observe and interact with whatever developmental stage student is at the time. School counselors have a very good connection with kids. When students have someone to talk to about their grades or classes they go to a school counselor most of the time. Having someone to talk to about the position they are facing is very helpful because they get to open up more to someone that understands and can help them in many ways. School counselors arrange classes, keep track of grades, and solve problems so that the issue doesn’t get addressed with the principle. It was very fascinating to me to see how my counselor watched me as I grow up and finish high school in a successful way.

It is in the interest of the counselor to present with knowledge and a proper understanding of the job he/she has signed on to perform. In doing so, he/she will promote social emotional, career, relational and professional relationships. This will be done by utilizing the practices and theories of counseling to propel students, teachers, and administrators forward. The counselor is the common denominator, so he must keep abreast of all new policies and techniques constructed to engage the students, and professionals ensuring that he is a help and not a hindrance.