The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

 Inspired by Campbell Macpherson's inspirational speech could not resist reading this. It was 13th of 2021.

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

The book opens with a fable, about a fictitious company, in Silicon Valley, Decision Tech Inc.  which was one of the most talked about and best company, but had fallen, in a very short time. Company has a new CEO Kathrin Petersen who was backed by only one person in the company, the chairman as she was from Old school, blue coloured. She had an amazing ability to build teams.  Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.

The book ends with the model in pyramid form which is the solution to the Fable problem:

Lack of trust: In this bottom stage, team members are hesitant to open up about their fears or insecurities about a project.

Fear of Conflict: Fearing retribution or political consequences, team members avoid rigorous debate over the issues and decisions that matter most. Team feel if you get into conflicts you would not be with the company for long. Healthy, constructive conflict – or candor – is key to surfacing the best ideas. Fear of conflict hinders the creative process.

Lack of Commitment: Lack of vigorous debate does not prevent decisions from being made. Low team involvement in how decisions are shaped and carried out leads to weak buy- in.

Avoidance of Accountability: When commitment is low, excuses are readily available when results are not achieved.  Team would always feel that expectations are unrealistic, and it is created to hold team responsible for .

Inattention to Results: Team members are investing valuable time and energy in the politics of self-protection. Obsessive email trails are stored for easy retrieval, stories are honed that explain where the break down occurred and by whom. It’s every ‘team’ member for him or herself. The collective concept is crushed.

In highly functional teams the pyramid, inverted, is just as relevant: High levels of trust leads to healthy, constructive candor in the service of unearthing the best ideas. Fully engaged team members feel high levels of commitment, because while their particular idea may not have won, their perspective is heard and respected. This feeds a focus on individual and collective accountability to achieve the goals agreed upon, which requires near total focus upon delivering results.

Lencioni captures the human essence of teamwork and connects the dots from trust to profit. 

"The most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first. This requires that a leader risk losing face in front of the team, so that subordinates will take the risk themselves. What is more, team leaders must create an environment that does not punish vulnerability....Finally, displays of vulnerability must be genuine; they cannot be staged. One of the best ways to lose the trust of a team is to feign vulnerability in order to manipulate the emotions of others."