4mat Five Disfunction's

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

4MAT BOOK REVIEW

OVERCOMING THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM

SUBMITTED TO DR. DAVID NEMITZ

IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COMPLETION OF LEAD 610

BY

SEAN L. RHEAUME

Abstract

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team is a book written by Patrick Lencioni. The purpose of the book is to look at teams and evaluate how they operate with each other and how they operate toward the accomplishing their end goal. Lencioni opens the book with the premise that not all groups that we work with are actually teams. In fact with team, teamwork and team building being such buzzwords today, many organizations may try to force a team where one does not exist. “You see, a team is a relatively small group of people (anywhere from three to twelve) that shares common goals as well as the rewards and responsibilities for achieving them.” So according to Lencioni team is not as simple as a group of people working in the same office.

Once the idea of team is established he goes through the five dysfunctions that he has seen over the years and proceeds to explain them and share how to overcome the dysfunction. He uses a pyramid system as the further up the ladder you go the fewer and fewer teams actually succeed. The bottom level is the largest dysfunction and that is the absence of trust. Hear is the greatest pitfall of teams and is a top down leadership principle. The leader must trust their team and they must trust the leader. Teams must be able to trust each other and communicate with each other without filters. The second dysfunction is the fear of conflict. Here a team must be able to share disagreements without fear of reprisal. Conflict sharpens the vision and allows for creative solutions to problems. The third dysfunction is the lack of commitment. A team must buy in even when one member disagrees. There must be a feeling that everyone will pour everything they have into the end goal. The forth...