author Patrick lenchoni believes that the real competitive advantage of an organization is teamwork many organizations fail to acknowledge this they look for the problems and processes and strategies and come up with solutions that only solve the symptoms and not the underlying cause of the problem they do not recognize the importance of teamwork but they have this notion that their teams are functioning well they have no idea most of the problems they face stem from having a dysfunctional team in this day and age it is a rarity to find a team that's operating to its full potential most teams are broken and beset by countless problems if nothing is done to fix them they will continue to function inefficiently and ineffectively much to the detriment of the team and the organization as a whole people in the organization's work as a team and have a clear understanding of the goals then it's possible to dominate any industry at any time many team leaders and managers would have no trouble agreeing to this the difficult part is making it happen it's difficult because leaders have to deal with individuals who are inherently dysfunctional the issues are not just about work processes and strategies but attitudes and behaviors and great teamwork is elusive but it does not mean it's impossible to achieve it requires mastering certain Behavior patterns that seem uncomplicated theoretically but are very difficult to put into practice if teams can overcome their negative behavioral Tendencies then half of the battle is one the other half is about applying the principles and theories and making sure they stick like the other books that are included in the leadership Fable series the five dysfunctions of a team starts off with a story of a fictional organization plagued by realistic problems by creating a story readers can easily relate to the scenarios and the characters this helps them understand the theories better because they have real world applications the complex theories and concepts are broken down into chunks that are easily digested this can help readers get an idea of how the principles are put into practice this way they can replicate the approaches that work and avoid the behaviors that contribute to the problem the book balances the theories and the applications so it comes out as a cohesive story with insights and lessons to make the retention rate even better the second part of the book reintroduces The Five dysfunctions and provides different solutions to overcome these dysfunctions in all of these the role of leaders becomes crucial in the process of transforming teams and organizations they have the responsibility of guiding the team in the direction it has to go in order to do that the leaders need to master the principles and know how to apply them this means the change must start with them this book serves as a tool to help leaders start the process of transformation in their respective teams it would also benefit individuals who are part of an organization and a team even though the story centers on a tech startup in Silicon Valley it doesn't mean the application is only limited to one area of business the principles theories ideas and insights in this book can be applied to other fields where teams exist it can be used by non-profit organizations charitable institutions Church groups sports teams and educational institutions to name a few the five dysfunctions of a team is a practical guide that also provides actionable steps to overcome the problems reading this book can help fix the problems in teams so they can have the best chance of succeeding even in the face of challenges the fable luck Catherine Peterson inherited decision Tech Inc a startup company that has fallen from Grace just two years after it was touted as the most promising tech company in Silicon Valley Catherine took the reins as CEO with all-out support from the chairman of the board she couldn't have known how dire the situation was in decision Tech and it was up to her to fix it part one underachievement backstory decision Tech was not part of Silicon Valley geographically because of its location in Half Moon Bay which is a coastal farming town south of San Francisco but the company fits within the Silicon Valley culture perfectly the location did not matter to venture firms who lined up to invest in the company with an experienced executive team at a shatterproof business plan decision Tech was primed to succeed the first few months of operations showed tremendous promise but it didn't take long for cracks in the company to show Key Personnel left unexpectedly deadlines were slipping off and the employee morale took a nosedive in the company's second year 37 year old CEO Jeff Shanley was asked to step down that was offered a job to have the business development unit Jeff agreed to the demotion because he didn't want to miss out on the potentially huge payout if the company went public Jeff was liked by the 150 employees but they couldn't deny the fact that his leadership created an atmosphere of divisiveness Discord among Executives became commonplace without a sense of commitment and team unity everything took so long to finish the company was wasting away because of company politics the board could not afford bad publicity but the company had already developed a reputation within Silicon Valley for being in an unpleasant place to work three weeks later Catherine Peterson was hired as the new CEO Catherine Catherine Peterson had no solid experience running a tech company the only involvement she had with a startup was being a board member of Trinity systems a San francisco-based company her career experience had been largely taking on operational roles and manufacturing companies and most notable of which was an auto manufacturer at 57 years old she was considered ancient in fact she had already retired from work three years prior she started her career in the military married a teacher and raised three boys nothing about her seemed to match the culture of decision Tech but Catherine had an affinity for business she completed a three-year business school night program which eventually landed her different jobs in the manufacturing sector interestingly her being a woman was never an issue high-tech companies at Silicon Valley are relatively more gender Progressive so having women in the management team was nothing unusual the bigger issue was the glaring cultural mismatch Catherine's background in Old School management style were a stark contrast to decision text management team which consisted of Executives and middle managers who had little experience outside of Silicon Valley despite the mismatch the chairman of the board convinced the board members that Catherine was the best choice to lead the company decision Tech were desperate and there was a dearth of qualified Executives willing to fix the mess the chairman argued that the board members should consider themselves lucky to have a capable leader run the ailing business after a few weeks after Catherine was hired the chairman regretted his decision rationale the job offer was a surprise to Catherine she had known the chairman on a personal level and they had been friends for a long time it never occurred to her that the chairman thought highly of her as an executive and as a leader in their relationship had been largely on a social level centering on family and school life since her husband taught the Chairman's oldest son in high school unbeknownst to Catherine the chairman had followed her career over the years and was impressed at how successful she had become with modest training she was known for building amazing teams within the company her achievements were remarkable and that she had become a chief operating officer of a successful automobile manufacturing plant which was a U.S Japan joint venture in fact the company was listed as one of the most successful Enterprises in the country during her stint this was enough to convince the chairman that Catherine had what it took to fix decision tax mounting problems grumblings it was obvious the decision to hire Catherine was met with doubts but it was the first two weeks that made the executives more defiant it was not because she changed things around but it was the fact that Catherine was doing nothing she would spend most of the time silently observing meetings and chatting up with the staff the most controversial move she made was to actually let her predecessor Jeff lead the weekly executive staff meetings she just sat there and took notes the only action Catherine took was to announce executive retreats in Napa Valley this boggled their minds because the last thing they needed was time away from work when there were so many things to be done no one was more shocked than the chairman he decided if things would not work out with Catherine the best thing to do was to leave along with her observations two weeks into her role as CEO of decision Tech Catherine wondered if she should have accepted the job in the first place then she realized retirement made her antsy and there was little chance she would have declined the offer she welcomed the new challenge however decision Tech was a completely different challenge for her and the prospect of disappointing the chairman frightened her just a little bit although she was very confident in herself she still worried that failure could tarnish her reputation so late in her career it was not the Legacy she wanted to leave behind Catherine believed she would be able to turn things around for the failing company but all she needed was a little more time in leeway she refused to be intimidated by the yuppies in the company she was so self-assured that her lack of in-depth software experience was not a concern to her she even thought of it as an advantage because the software experts were just completely paralyzed with their own knowledge of Technology she believed what she knew of enterprise software was enough for her to lead the company to success what Catherine was not prepared for was how dysfunctional the executive team was and how they defied her relentlessly in ways she had never experienced before the staff and was no accident that employees referred to the executives of decision Tech as the staff no one referred to them as a team the staff consisted of highly intelligent individuals with very impressive educational backgrounds however they showed little of that in their meetings there was no apparent open hostility and there were no heated arguments but the tension was undeniable during meetings discussions were slow because there were only a few exchanges of ideas no one seemed interested in being there Jeff former CEO Business Development Jeff shaneley was key in raising a substantial amount of money for decision Tech his expertise in venture capital and recruiting was What attracted the current Executives to the company his management skills were another story Jeff facilitated staff meetings as though he was a student body president everything was prepared and minutes of the meeting were distributed after the fact that nothing got done didn't bother him Mikey marketing Michelle Mikey baby's great reputation as a brand-building genius was well known in Silicon Valley so everyone on the board was ecstatic when she joined the company the only problem was that she complained a lot during meetings she talked more than the others and would come up with some amazing ideas but they were outnumbered by her complaints it was her lack of social graces that was off-putting despite her enormous talent and accomplishments she was the least popular in the team except for Martin Chief technologist Martin Gilmore was a co-founder of the company he was the closest thing the company ever got to having an inventor he single-handedly designed the original specs for decision text Flagship product but other people had done the actual product development he was considered as the company's most valuable human capital because of his track record Martin was not disruptive during meetings but he rarely participated he constantly checked his emails and was engrossed in other activities his peers tolerated him in his sarcastic remarks because they held him in high regard with the company's struggles it became a source of frustration for his colleagues J.R sales Jeff J.R Rollins was the head of sales as an experienced salesperson it was strange he rarely followed through he did acknowledge that some commitments were not fulfilled as expected he apologized profusely to people he had let down because of this he was able to maintain a bit of respect from his colleagues furiously J.R had never missed a quarterly Revenue Target before coming to work for decision Tech Carlos customer support although the company didn't have many customers the board decided to invest in customer service in preparation for its anticipated growth they hired Carlos Amador a former colleague of Mikey the two personalities couldn't be more different Carlos was the quiet type but when he spoke he contributed something important he was also constructive in his approach he was low-key and he worked long hours without complaints Jan Chief Financial Officer Jan mersino's role as CFO had been crucial to the company's operations Jan knew what she'd signed up for and she played a supporting role to Jeff the board trusted Jan to not let things get out of hand especially since the other Executives were given free reign when it came to spending Nick Chief Operating Officer on paper Nick Farrell's credentials were very impressive he had been the VP of field operations for a large computer manufacturing company in the midwest prior to joining decision Tech he got the position because he had demanded the title as a condition of accepting the job hence his responsibilities were ill-defined with the change in leadership Nick's responsibilities were put on hold he didn't openly complain instead he built relationships with his colleagues he believed he was the only person qualified to run the company as CEO part two lighting the fire first test Catherine had been on the job for a while when she received a message addressed to everyone in the executive team it was from Martin the company's chief engineer he wanted to let everyone know that he and Jr would be meeting with Asa manufacturing during the same week of the executive retreat this did not sit well with Catherine so she decided to confront Martin and tell him to reschedule the meeting with the client because the retreat was the first priority not used to being contradicted and confronted Martin became agitated encountered that Catherine had her priorities confused Catherine insisted that they should get their act together and there would be no selling until that happened Martin did not respond but at that moment he knew the fight was not yet over and run Jeff mustered enough courage to raise the issue that had prompted the lunch invitation to Catherine and Jeff opened up the topic of Martin's ASA meeting coinciding with the retreat Jeff sided with Martin at the customer meeting was more important than the internal meeting however Catherine was adamant and reiterated that she was hired to make things work in the organization she was intent on straightening out the leadership problem in the company Jeff decided any further discussion would be futile and possibly career breaking so he let it go Drawing the Line Catherine was unfazed by the talks she had with Jeff she had anticipated some form of backlash about the incident with Martin but she didn't expect it to come from the chairman himself the chairman raised his concerns and said Catherine was already setting things on fire even before building bridges Catherine didn't mince words and said the things she was doing were intentional and purposeful and would help the company get out of the rut it was in she insisted that a fracture team needs fixing and that it was not going to be easy the decisions were definitely not popular with the team but it was a necessary evil Napa everyone except Martin arrived at Napa Valley by 8 45 in the morning just in time for the 9 A.M meeting no one said anything about Martin but they wondered if he would be on time or if he would be there at all even Catherine was a little bit nervous because the last thing she wanted to do was reprimand someone for being late they all breathed a sigh of relief when Martin arrived at 8 59. the speech during the meeting Catherine reminded the team that decision Tech had the most talented team of any of their competitors she also mentioned that the company was more liquid and had the better technology compared to tech companies operating in the same field with all these advantages the company was still behind in terms of Revenue and customer growth she then asked the team why but was only answered with deafening silence Catherine told everyone the problem was that the executive team was not functioning as a team the tension was palpable because everyone shot glances at Jeff waiting for his reaction Catherine picked up on this so she said that this was not a stab at Jeff or anyone else Catherine continued with her speech and let everyone know that there would be big changes including possibly letting go of people who were not the best match for the company she assured everyone the only reason why they were in Napa was to achieve results she expected the company would get back on track and Achieve growth and profitability guarantee customer satisfaction and retention and possibly start in IPO Catherine then discussed the first reason why teams are dysfunctional absence of trust trust is the Cornerstone of teamwork without it the team would not perform efficiently team members should be able to admit their mistakes and their weaknesses without fear of judgment or reprisal it was clear from the start that the executives did not trust one another so it was an issue that needed to be addressed pushing back although things were starting to make sense Jan and the rest of the team started to ask questions which Catherine answered somewhat convincingly she mentioned that all her findings were based on data she pulled from months of observing the team she concluded that the team lacked passionate discussion or debate Mikey said it was because there was just not enough time to argue Jeff didn't agree and said everyone was not comfortable challenging others during meetings Mikey countered that because perhaps it was because the meeting was too boring and structured Nick spoke up and said that the problem was that the team members couldn't and didn't agree on anything Catherine said the team had trust issues for the first time some members agreed with Catherine Martin completely zoned out of the Lively conversation and started banging away at his keyboard which distracted everyone in the room Catherine knew this was her moment to prove her point entering the danger the tension mounted as Catherine watched Martin type away at his keyboard Catherine then made her move and asked him if he was working on something with just enough sarcasm to provoke a response Martin said that he was taking down notes Catherine reiterated that her rules for meetings were simple and that they just needed to be present and participate in the discussion she demanded that they'd be engaged Martin pulled back and joined the discussion as a conciliatory move Catherine was starting to get everyone's attention getting naked after the Icebreaker the first real exercise of the meeting was to share personal histories by answering five non-intrusive personal questions about their backgrounds one by one the executives provided answers they learned new things about each other that were outside of the Four Walls of the company they were amazed at the personal disclosures Mikey studied ballet at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York Carlos had eight siblings and he was the oldest Jeff was once a bad boy for the Red Sox Jr had a twin brother Jan was a military brat Martin spent his childhood in India Nick was a basketball player and played against Catherine's husband's team after 45 minutes of sharing personal information the team appeared to be more at ease with each other of course Catherine expected the Euphoria to diminish once the discussion switched back to Serious topics going deeper after the short break the team had already lost their glow from the fun morning session they spent the better part of the afternoon answering diagnostic tools to determine their behavioral tendencies one of the tools was the Myers-Briggs type indicator it was clear that everyone liked learning and talking about themselves but they didn't like listening to criticism it was going to come but Catherine decided to do that when everyone had taken a long break to energize themselves at dinner time the team was still in good spirits and was able to pick up the conversation from where they had left off they had acknowledged the differences in their personalities and the implications of being an extrovert and an introvert they were loosening up but getting a little deeper into the conversations Catherine was amazed at the progress they had achieved in just such a short time it was better than she could have imagined given the circumstances the team was finally willing to talk about the dysfunctional behaviors observed by Catherine among the executives it was Mikey who opened the door to her own issues when Nick made a remark about how accurate the personality descriptions were Mikey just rolled her eyes Nick didn't fail to notice it and asked her point blank what it was about Mikey acted like she didn't do anything Jan called her out on her behavior Mikey admitted that she was not into psychobabble the team shifted to business related discussions and linked the operational issues with behavioral ones it became clear to Catherine that Mikey did not trust her colleagues poolside after the session ended Catherine went to talk to Mikey to see if she could make some progress with her Mikey felt like she was made fun of and she did not like it one bit clearly upset Mikey said her colleagues didn't know how to make decision Tech successful this caught Catherine off guard because she didn't know what brought on that response Catherine said that they could talk about it but Mikey quickly said that the team was not going to hear from her rebound Mikey was in good spirits on the second day of the meeting she looked unfazed and even seemed enthusiastic following the previous day's events the team went over the materials they had covered the day before but Martin Nick and J.R became bored and distracted Catherine reminded everyone that they were reviewing what they had learned the previous day because repetition would help the lesson stick however the most important exercise of the day was something that would be the Moment of Truth for the entire executive team awareness Catherine explained that for teamwork to start there should be Trust in building trust means overcoming the need for invulnerability she asked everyone to list what they thought their strengths and weaknesses were she started the discussion rolling when she shared that her strength was her ability to see through Superfluous information and get through to the things that mattered she acknowledged that she was not good at speaking in public each of the executives shared their strengths and weaknesses in a lively discussion that pleased Catherine the fact that everyone was participating was a breakthrough for a team that didn't want the meeting in the first place even Mikey participated but she was not as open as the rest of the guys things got a little uncomfortable when Mikey reacted to Nick's strength and weakness and said he was just an arrogant SOB just like every Chief technology officer in Silicon Valley although it was said and just no one laughed Nick was melting inside Catherine regretted not calling out Mikey for her tactless remark she concluded that Mikey had a low emotional intelligence and her lousy Behavior was affecting everyone in the team in a bad way ego Catherine discussed the next dysfunction called inattention to results members of the team tended to seek individual recognition at the expense of results individual ego had a place on the team but it should not have been greater than the collective ego if everyone was focused on achieving the goals and reaching the results that they aimed for it would be difficult for the individual ego to get out of hand to Echo the guiding principle that her husband followed in his coaching career Catherine explained that the goal was to create the best team possible and not Shepherd the careers of individuals in the team athletes who play in team sports have massive egos but they are usually tied to a result the result is winning although athletes like getting into an All-Star team or getting multi-million dollar endorsement deals they like winning more if a team consists of people who only look out for themselves then success is hard to reach Mikey asked what all the sports discussions had to do with the software company Catherine explained that the concept could be applied to their company and that their Collective results should be regarded as important as a score in a sports game when everyone is clear about the importance of the collective results then there is no opportunity for individual egos to creep in Mikey countered that the company had already had a scoreboard in the form of profit Catherine clarified that Prophet was a big part of the result but it was not the only result if the company let profit to be the only guide they wouldn't know that the team performance before the profit numbers were disclosed the team's job was to define the goals or the results that needed to be achieved in simple terms that were specific enough to be actionable profit was not actionable enough so it needed to be related to what the team did on a daily basis Catherine then challenged the team to come up with a clearly defined goal goals the executive team was broken into smaller groups and they were asked to propose a list of results categories but could be the team's scoreboard in the medium term they decided on Revenue expenses new customer acquisition current customer satisfaction employee retention Market awareness and product quality these categories were to be measured monthly so that it would be easier to detect problems and find Immediate Solutions for them Martin and Jr commented the metrics were nothing new and were in fact the same metrics that the company had been using for nine months Catherine was amused at the predictability of the team as soon as they shifted to real business problems the team members returned to their old behaviors that put them in a predicament Catherine then asked what the company's PR goal was and that the team could not give a straight answer the Team Dynamics were once again Disturbed with one member blaming the other Martin and Mikey got into an argument about marketing and sales Mikey went in defensive mode and told everyone that the company's problems are not due to marketing she even said that her Department had done a remarkable job considering what they had to work with and just like that the conversation came to a screeching halt deep tissue Catherine reiterated to the group that the team should focus on the results instead of individual recognition the team should adopt a set of measurable common goals and use them to make a collective decision on a day-to-day basis she was able to prove a point when no one could give specific answers when she asked a series of questions about goal setting metrics and interdepartmental effort Jeff explained that when he was CEO he led the department heads to be accountable for their own actions in their own areas of expertise Catherine used a sports analogy to show that every member of the team should know what the other was talking about so that they could function as a team otherwise they were just a bunch of individuals doing their own thing this meant everyone was responsible for sales Finance marketing product development and customer service the truth and simplicity of the analogy made the team realize how inadequate they were as a team the unity that they thought they had was just an illusion things got heated up when Catherine said that the politics in the team astounded her the ambiguity of each one's goals made it easy for individuals to focus on their own success and not on the team's success the team completely disagreed with her they didn't think they were political at all and then they saw an opportunity to challenge Catherine Mikey was the most hostile when she said giving that kind of remark after just a few weeks was careless Catherine apologized but she made sure that she was still in control of the group she'd rather overstate the problem than downplay it because it was a way to help the company go where it needed to go Nick was confused and asked what Catherine meant by politics she explained that it's when people speak and act based on how they want others to react instead of how they actually think with that definition Martin said that the team was definitely political Catherine was still unsure if the team would Embrace her ideas but it quickly became clear that the team would attack her ideas attack of all the team members and was Jr who surprisingly challenged Catherine he said he could not wait for three weeks to find out what the other three dysfunctions were so he asked her to just tell them what was not working so they could get on with it Catherine wanted to reveal the three other dysfunctions gradually but she decided to heed Jr's advice to go through them right at that moment exhibition Catherine explained that trust was necessary because without it the team would not be able to engage in an open and constructive conflict without this conflict the team was just preserving an artificial unity and Harmony which did not help solve company problems Nick challenged her and said the team already had plenty of conflicts and not a lot of Harmony Catherine corrected him and said that what they had was tension she added that the team had no real constructive conflict passive comments and sarcastic ones were not the kinds of conflict that were required to make the team function well the reason why there was no constructive conflict was because the team had a fear of conflict which was the next type of dysfunction that was why they held back their honest opinions and were unable to communicate the real issues that plagued the company Martin was not convinced and said more arguments just take up a lot more time and would not accomplish anything amazingly this prompted the other team members to join in the discussion and even they defended Catherine's logic Jan was a little more vocal when said not being able to Hash things out was more of a waste of time the next dysfunction that Catherine revealed was lack of commitment which includes the inability to buy into decisions ambiguity is the evidence of this lack of commitment Catherine explained that if people didn't communicate their options they would not commit to a decision no one is forced to support a particular effort but people should make a case why they are not supporting that effort and that is when a constructive conflict starts in general reasonable people don't really need to have their way in any meeting or discussion but they want their input acknowledged and responded to the last dysfunction is avoidance of accountability when a team obtains Clarity of the results it wants to achieve it will commit to a decision once a collective decision is arrived at team members should hold each other accountable for the decision they made as a team the executives agreed that this was difficult because it brought interpersonal discomfort the act of calling someone out and telling him or her that their performance is subpar is something that many people try to avoid it's harder to do with peers because there's this notion that as peers are supposed to be equals however the one issue that makes team accountability difficult is not buying in this is because when team members don't buy into a decision they could just easily say that they never agreed to it in the first place film noir Catherine acknowledged that it was difficult to break through the wall that the team had built and the behavioral problems that stemmed from too much politics were hard to correct changes can't just happen overnight although her lectures were compelling enough to make the team pay attention and shift their way of thinking slightly Catherine felt that there was still a lot of heavy lifting to be done the discussion switched back to conflict conflicts happen in meetings if team members cannot engage in the productive exchange of ideologies and it's pointless to have these meetings the ability to engage in Passionate debates determines the future of the company because it is where great ideas come up and products are conceptualized Catherine compared to being in a meeting to watching a movie they both run for 90 minutes in meetings there is interaction while in movies there is no interaction movies have no impact on real life while meetings are relevant and sometimes even crucial based on this comparison meetings should be interesting and people should be attending them instead of dreading them however every good movie has one key element and that is conflict without conflict no one cares what happens to the characters in the same vein meetings without conflict will not make the attendees care with that poignant introduction Catherine opened the floor for the team's first substantive decision-making session application Catherine wanted to establish the overarching goal of the team for the rest of the year and was the goal they needed to accomplish between then and the end of the year evidently there was no consensus because each of the members had a different priority in mind with different opinions presented the team started to have a constructive conflict although they couldn't agree to one thing some of them conceded to reasons provided Catherine was pleased because it was the first time the team engaged in a productive conversation Catherine wanted the team to have a consensus in the next five minutes so she asked everyone to make a passionate plea for the goal they supported for every goal that was raised some members talked themselves out of the answer so the choices were narrowed down significantly Carlos provided the most compelling argument that customer acquisition was the best choice because he believed that it would give the press something good to write about the product which in turn would build employee confidence since there would be more customers they could provide feedback to the engineers and how to improve the product for the first time the team came to a collective decision Catherine wanted to be more specific so she initiated a debate on how many new customers should be acquired when they couldn't get a consensus Catherine took control and provided convincing reasons why some proposed targets were not the right ones she decisively set the target of 18 customers by the end of the year the team agreed that they had made tremendous progress in just two days most importantly they acknowledged that Catherine was right all along they were slowly warming up to her and her approach Catherine appreciated this but she firmly said in the next two weeks she would not tolerate any expression of dysfunctional behavior and wouldn't think twice of calling out the team if they slipped back to their old ways Catherine knew that things would get worse before they would become better she also knew that none of them would be surprised if one member was let go however they would be shocked to know that it wouldn't be Mikey part three heavy lifting on site Catherine was not surprised when the progress the team had made in the off-site diminished the team members were still guarded with one another and still wary of Catherine's leadership they were not interacting with one another worse they seem to feel vulnerable because of the things that had been disclosed about themselves during the off-site meeting Nick called the special meeting to discuss the possible acquisition of the company green banana Jr and Mikey were not asked to join the meeting they discussed it in detail and Catherine held back her opinions so that the team could develop their skills in the exchange of ideas the turmoil started when Catherine said Mikey should be in the meeting Nick harshly said Mikey wasn't going to add any value to the discussion because it was not about PR it was it without strategy Catherine did not appreciate Nick's Behavior but decided to wait for the right time to call him out it was clear that the team members were not keen on the proposed acquisition but it was Nick's rude behavior that shocked the team he told Catherine that she didn't know squat about the business this effectively ended a special meeting but Nick and Catherine stayed for a one-on-one Catherine didn't mince her words and reprimanded Nick for his mini tirade about Mikey and his behavior towards her it didn't take long for Nick to spill his guts about being bored and underutilized he moved his family halfway across the country with the expectation that he would run the company he also believed that his colleagues were screwing things up for the company Catherine asked Nick if he wanted to help the team or Advance his career she emphasized that they were not mutually exclusive but one was more important than the other Nick entered the conversation and left the room fireworks the first official staff meeting went a little dramatic when Nick apologized for being out of line at the meeting earlier he poured his heart out and told everyone that he made a bad career move by joining the company but he needed to make a change and wanted to contribute to the team if he could not do this he said he should leave but he was not yet prepared to leave the room fell silent but Catherine was thrilled that Nick was staying to make things right Catherine finally dropped the bombshell and told everyone that Jr quit but did not provide a clear reason why other than he had gone back to his previous company when they recovered from the shock of the news they discussed their next move and collectively decided that Nick was the right person to replace Jr leaks when Catherine started having problems with her laptop the head of the I.T Department Brendan immediately responded during the short time they interacted Brandon let out that he wished he was a fly on the wall in one of the off-site meetings because he wanted to see Mikey answer for her bad attitude Catherine didn't want to discuss the issue further with Brendan so she changed the subject in her mind she knew that she had to talk to the team about leaking information to other employees off-site number two in the second off-site meeting Catherine inquired about what sort of things the team members shared with the employees about the first off-site meeting everyone admitted to spilling out some secrets to their respective teams but to varying degrees Catherine then asked the team where their loyalties lay it appeared that everyone was more loyal to the teams they LED than the executive team to which they belonged they understood Catherine's point she explained that each member should be clear on who their first team was which was the executive team their loyalty and commitment should have been to the executive team and not to the Departments they LED plowing on Catherine didn't want to dwell on the issue so she asked how the company was doing everyone seemed to agree that the team was moving in the right direction but Carlos felt that they were not talking about the big issues he explained that the engineering team was the biggest in the company and perhaps more resources should be allocated to sales marketing and Consulting Mikey quickly agreed to the pitch being the head of engineering Martin didn't appreciate the suggestion but after being put on the spot he realized the best way forward was to figure things out and help the company get out of the rut it was in by some miracle and after hours of passionate discussion the team agreed on Jeff's solution of cutting one future product line and delaying another so the engineers could be redeployed and trained to help the sales representatives with product demos accountability with the momentum still strong Catherine focused on the immediate goal of closing 18 sales by the end of the year Nick took over and asked everyone for updates the lack of progress from Carlos's team prompted Catherine to talk about accountability she emphasized that some people were difficult to hold accountable because they were helpful in many ways just like Carlos other people get defensive or are just so intimidating that no one challenges them Nick then asked everyone to attend the sales training since their goal as a team was to close 18 sales then everyone should consider themselves as salespeople Mikey was not on board with this and shot back that she wanted everyone in the product marketing meeting as well Nick said if she thought everyone should be there then they would be there Mikey just said to forget it and she would be at the sales training she added that she didn't want anyone from the team in her product marketing meeting except Martin at that moment Catherine knew Mikey would have to go individual contributor when Nick asked Mikey about the product brochure she said the brochure was scheduled to go to print next week Nick said some of the sales people were hard at work doing research for the brochure and they would not be happy to hear that their input was not even considered Mikey didn't appreciate Nick picking on her but she relented and said she was okay with someone from his Department adding their suggestions to make the situation less awkward Jeff complimented Mikey on the brochure Mikey said it was what she does best the lack of humility on Mikey's part was the last straw that broke the camel's back Catherine could not wait any longer she needed to have that talk with Mikey The Talk Catherine did not want to prolong the agony so she said flat out to Mikey that she was not a fit for the team Catherine added that she didn't think Mikey wanted to be in the company at all Mikey was shocked at what she heard and she could not find the words to say Catherine felt comfortable that the issue was now on the table Mikey was not going to give up and demanded an explanation Catherine told her that it was her lack of respect for her peers and her unwillingness to open up to the team Mikey said the real problem was that the team didn't respect her and they didn't appreciate her skills expertise and experience Catherine was firm on her decision because she believed that taking Mikey off the team was going to help the company move in the direction it needed to go Last Stand when Mikey got her bearings back she said she was not resigning and she would not make things easy for them to fire her Catherine said she was not firing her and she didn't have to leave but she had to change her behavior Mikey was not willing to go through with that because she didn't think her behavior was the problem Catherine enumerated the times that she was rude disrespectful and out of line which stunned Mikey she demanded an exit package consisting of three months worth of severance pay all her stock options vested and an official record that shows she resigned in her own volition Catherine didn't promise anything but she was okay with her demands before she left Mikey said the company was screwed without the sales and marketing people she wouldn't be surprised if people from her team left with her she wanted to punish Catherine for letting her go Flack Catherine told the executive team that Mikey was leaving the company because she was not keen on changing her attitude and behavior the team was obviously rattled and started to ask questions about marketing and want to say to the employees and to the Press Catherine assured everyone that there would be someone from the company who could step up to the plate if the team worked together and made progress then there was no reason to worry about what the employees and the Press would say about the situation although the team accepted Catherine's reasoning the mood in the room changed dramatically she realized that she had to push the team harder to focus on the goal and put the issue about Mikey behind them heavy lifting although the team had made progress for the rest of the day it couldn't be denied that Mikey's departure dappened the spirits of the team Catherine addressed the group to assure them that they could deal with the issue as a team Catherine reassured the team by telling a story about her first management position job one staff member named Fred was the most reliable person in the company but the other staff could not stand him Catherine tolerated his behavior because of his skills and expertise however the output of the department began to slide many of her staff complained about Fred it became clear that Fred was contributing to the problem but instead of firing him she promoted him things got worse and three of her seven analysts quit the manager fired Catherine Catherine explained that it wasn't Fred's behavior that heard the team production Catherine's tolerance of his behavior she drove home the point that she didn't want to lose the other Executives in the room that's why she let go of Mikey rally the team discussed who would be best to replace the head of marketing there was a heated debate about promoting someone from Mikey's team but it ended in a stalemate Catherine decided to break the tie and declared that inasmuch as she wanted to promote someone internally the team must search for a new VP outside over the next couple of weeks Catherine pushed her team harder she forced them all to behave like a team working to reach a goal the team was slowly having a genuine sense of purpose hoped that she could keep it that way long enough for them to see the tremendous benefits part 4. traction Harvest in the offside meeting Catherine acknowledged the team for working so hard they were still behind two of their competitors but they were clearly on track they re-examined the model of five team dysfunctions to help them assess where they were as a team the discussion proved that they were a better team who could handle conflicts Catherine was happy with the progress so far but she didn't want to make the team too comfortable or complacent so she reminded them that things would be different they were not yet Out of the Woods but Catherine sensed that with the changes in their behavior they would soon reap the benefits of their efforts got check at their quarterly two-day staff meeting the new Vice President Joseph Charles joined the team the most important news of the day was that green banana the company they were considering acquiring made an offer to buy decision Tech they were told the offer was a bit more than the company's current estimated value this meant everyone would get a decent payout Martin passionately pleaded against the offer Jeff said the board thought it was a bad offer the board was leaving it up to the executive team to decide if they would agree to the acquisition as a form of gut checking they wanted to make sure that the executives wanted to stay and fight for the company they all agreed to vote against the buyout the team then introduced Joseph to the five dysfunctions and he experienced how the team operated during a meeting it was the most intensive executive team he had ever seen and he could not wait to be an active part of it the March in the next 12 months decision tax sales grew dramatically and met the revenue goals for the first three quarters the company jumped to the number one spot but was tied with its main rival employee turnover eased up and the group morale Rose steadily with the impressive performance of the company Catherine decided to trim down the number of Executives directly reporting to her to a manageable five Martin CTO Jan CFO Nick c-o-o Joseph VP marketing and Jeff VP Business Development with Nick assuming the Chief Operating Officer role Catherine believed that it made more sense if Jeff reported to Nick the team seemed concerned with the turn of events but Catherine assured them that it was Jeff's idea and it was best for the company this made the team admire Jeff even more the model an overview of the model genuine teamwork is still elusive in many organizations across the world the reason why teams fail to work cohesively and effectively is that they fall prey to five dysfunctions that a team these dysfunctions are interrelated issues that must be addressed as a whole because susceptibility to even just one Pitfall can hamper the success of the team one absence of trust among members of the team comes from their unwillingness to be vulnerable they are not willing to participate because they feel like they are being judged for their mistakes and weaknesses two fear of conflict stops team members from engaging in Passionate debate and constructive discussions of ideas members are highly guarded and often filter their comments three lack of commitment stems from not having said their unfiltered opinions they would rarely commit to decisions and would most likely feign agreement just to get through the meeting four avoidance of accountability develops when there is a lack of commitment to a decision without this accountability team members are not motivated to achieve the goals because they don't buy into the decisions five inattention to results occurs when they put their individual needs above the team's Collective goals even if the team exhibits just one dysfunction they will not succeed in what it's trying to do because these dysfunctions relate to one another and it's hard to isolate just one issue without affecting the others although they sound simple and easy to solve in theory it's very difficult to resolve them in real business situations because it requires discipline and persistence that many people are in short supply of team assessment before finding ways to overcome the dysfunctions that exist in an organization it would be helpful to First assess the team to identify the problems and see what areas in the organization need Improvement it's a useful diagnostic tool that will determine the team's level of susceptibility to the five dysfunctions each member of the team should complete the assessment and then the team should review and discuss the result to identify discrepancies and implications to the team's overall performance understanding and overcoming the five dysfunctions absence of trust team members must be comfortable with each other even during uncomfortable situations there's a tendency to climb up at the thought of revealing something to others because of fear of judgment to build up trust among team members they should be required to become vulnerable to each other but they should be assured that these vulnerabilities would not be used against them without trust teams are just wasting their time trying to fix and manage behaviors instead of focusing on their ultimate goals team leaders can do several activities like personal histories exercises team Effectiveness exercises personality and behavioral preference profiling experiential team exercises and 360 degree feedback to name just a few fear of conflict every relationship grows when there's productive conflict in business conflict is often avoided at all costs because it usually leads to bigger problems when it gets out of control teams must be able to distinguish productive conflict from destructive interpersonal fighting with productive conflict team members are discussing ideas exchanging opinions and ultimately finding solutions to the problems to overcome this dysfunction team members must develop the courage and confidence to call out sensitive issues and bring them all out in the open and work through them when team members start to become uncomfortable with a healthy debate they should be reminded that this is a necessary evil and that they should not Retreat from a debate without any resolution or agreement or a middle ground lack of commitment teams that cannot make clear and timely decisions are sure to fail the problem is that teams can only decide if there's a clear consensus and certainty the reality is not everyone in the team would buy into a decision but needs to be understood is that team members opinions and comments need to be heard and considered not everyone would be on the same page but there will be more understanding of each other's views so that the decision becomes an amalgamation of everyone's ideas avoidance of accountability team members are not willing to call out their colleagues on Behavior or performance that could hurt the team they just don't want to engage in difficult conversations so they cop out instead of entering the danger zone to overcome this problem there should be a publication of goals and standards which clarify what the team needs to achieve and who needs to do what and how everyone must act and behave in order to succeed supplement this with progress reviews and team rewards and you'll find that your team will be working better as a collective group inattention to results members have the tendency to put their needs before the needs of the team without focus on the primary goal of the team it would be difficult to achieve it team status and individual status are usually enough to satisfy some members that other goals are just secondary team members must put team goals above their individual goals one way to overcome this problem is to set a specific short-term goal and publicly declare the results team members who are willing to commit publicly to results are highly likely to work passionately to achieve the results to ensure that the team focuses on the results the rewards must be tied to the achievement of the result the five dysfunctions of a team not only succeeds in showing us the dangerous pitfalls that plague teams or groups but it also helps us acknowledge our own imperfections as individuals when we behave in a group setting Team Dynamics vary across organizations because of the differences in corporate culture but all these teams experience one or all of the five dysfunctions what sets this book apart from other management books is its skillful presentation of complex organizational issues by presenting a leadership Fable the theories Concepts and principles are put into context that make everything easier to understand the characters in The Fable represent the different types of personalities that you meet and interact with on a daily basis so there's a tendency to gravitate towards them and care for what happens to them it's a brilliant mix of fictitious tale and theories to depict real world scenarios this approach is effective in showing the transformation of an organization and how it ties in with the personal transformations of its executives the first half of the book shows that even if an organization is well funded and has the most talented Executives they can still fail spectacularly if they don't work as a team the executives at decision Tech had no clear understanding of how teams should operate they appeared like aimless individuals without a clue of how to resuscitate a dying company they unknowingly did things that hurt the organization because they didn't grasp the importance of working collectively to reach a specific goal it took an old school CEO and a traditional approach to lead a high-tech company to where it needed to go on the strength of sound theories and principles the second half of the book elaborates on each of the dysfunctions and provides a corresponding Solution on how to overcome the problem it emphasizes the role of the leader in the transformation of the team another important thing that this book effectively communicates to the reader is that changes cannot be achieved overnight it's a long process of unlearning learning and adjusting behaviors and attitudes even when there's a significant change in the team it's still easy to fall back to old ways of doing things that's why Catherine kept the off-site meetings going even if they were met with resistance holding those meetings was a great way to remind the executives of the five dysfunctions so they would take them to heart and keep applying the methods this book shows that great teamwork eludes even the best and brightest teams in large corporations because individuals in the team don't act with a common goal add to that the clashing personalities and different personal agendas then it becomes difficult to exhibit solidarity if teams can overcome their natural tendencies and behave openly without fear of judgment or criticism and then trust productive conflict commitment accountability and focus on results would not be so elusive the five dysfunctions of a team is not only a compelling read but also a valuable management Playbook on how to handle teams and the individuals that make up those teams it can help leaders and managers identify the problems and issues in their own teams and most importantly they can have the tools to tackle the problems confidently