Menlo Book Club: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“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.” – Patrick Lencioni

The team at Menlo Group Commercial Real Estate recently read and discussed The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. We learned a lot and wanted to share our greatest takeaways:

The Fable

The author spends much of the book describing an underachieving tech company that hires a new CEO. The new CEO quickly realizes the company’s problems are due to a dysfunctional leadership team. She brings leadership team members together at an off-site meeting and forces them to face reality through a variety of exercises.

The Model

The five dysfunctions of a team listed in the book are:

• Absence of trust (invulnerability)
• Fear of conflict (artificial harmony)
• Lack of commitment (ambiguity)
• Avoidance of accountability (low standards)
• Inattention to results (status and ego)

Our Takeaways

Our team is one of the best parts of working at Menlo Group, and we were pleased to see how well we were doing and were inspired to further improve. We have completed the author’s Personal Histories Exercise and have seen our team grow stronger through vulnerability and personal connection.

We also discussed the importance of radical candor to ensure team members are held accountable for their metrics and goals. Open communication also enables us to have more productive meetings and more efficiently solve issues.

We enjoyed The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and look forward to continuing to find ways to strengthen our team.

The team at Menlo Group meets twice a month to discuss a variety of business and personal development books. You can check out our past book summaries or sign up for our Virtual Book Club to receive discussion questions right to your inbox.