The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is a business fable which uses the story format to explore what makes teams work (and fail). Set in the fictional business setting of DecisionTech, a Silicon Valley software startup, the book tells the story of a newly hired CEO who creates change at the stagnant company. The book is an easy read and has relevance to schools by examining what supports and builds positive cultures.
I recommend reading pp. 187-190 to get a sense of Lencioni’s model of the five dysfunctions. He turns the model around to make each dysfunction a positive building block.
- The Absence of trust is the first dysfunction and happens because team members are unwilling to be vulnerable with one another. Team members won’t share their weaknesses and failures and blaming becomes the common practice. Without trust, a team cannot move forward.
- Fear of conflict is the second dysfunction. Often schools will talk about this dysfunction without realizing it’s undergirded by an absence of trust. Teams cannot engage in discussions about the best path forward without conflict—and without trust you cannot have healthy conflict. There is artificial harmony and superficial relationships.
- Lack of commitment is the third dysfunction. There is a lack of buy in and sense of mission to these teams. There isn’t a common mission and common goals to frame debates and questions. Ambiguity is rampant.
- Avoidance of accountability then emerges because of the lack of commitment. Team members are less likely to call out colleagues for bad behavior. Have you ever seen that teacher who flaunts the rules and isn’t called to task by his/her colleagues? That’s a dysfunctional school which is satisfied with low standards.
- Inattention to results happens when the team members are selfish and seek out individual success only. How many teachers just want to shut their doors and be left alone? How many principals want to avoid contact with the central office? And how likely is it that you’ll find both types of behavior in the same school? Individual status and ego come first.
The bulk of the book serves to illustrate these points by telling the fictional DecisionTech story. The book serves as a great reminder of what makes a team work (starting with trust) and has great suggestions on how to confront dysfunctional school cultures.
Dr. Tim's Blog 
I get all freaked out how often the answer to a question is contained within the question itself. For instance, the question, “What can you do?” is readily answered by simply rearranging the same words: “Do what you can.” Sometimes there are simple answers, and sometimes elegant and even fun ideas are there we don’t see. Albert Einstein was a rather funny guy. When asked by a reporter to explain his Theory of General Relativity in the most simple way possible, Einstein thought for a second and then said: “Put a hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour; sit with someone good-looking for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity!”
A homeless man was asked by a reporter if money was a problem for him? The homeless man answered, “Well, if money is a problem, and you have no money, then you have no problems.” The answer again is in the question—the solution is in the problem: If trust, fear, commitment, avoidance and inattention cause dysfunction, then we also know what causes optimal performance… or do we?
I truly believe Patrick Lencioni’s book and Five Dysfunction Traits are valuable to the working success of any and all teams. At the same time, I believe Lencioni points us first to the all-important issue of relationships: Relationship wellness—characterized simply by how well we get along with others.
Years ago a medical colleague—who’s a bit BANANAS himself—and I were having a few shots of To-kill-ya and a political discussion ensued. Please do not get all excited but he was going on and on about how unhappy he thought the liberal democrats are and perhaps how they were either emotional unhealthy or mentally ill. The two terms stuck with me and I wondered if there was a distinction between a person who is not “emotional well” vs. a person who is “mentally ill.” So I consulted the chief of psychiatry at the University where I formerly worked before I retired.
Here’s the remarkable and liberating finding I was told: Just because someone is not “emotional well” does not mean that person is “mentally ill”—a large percentage of the time they are not experiencing “wellness in their relationships” with their loved ones, family members, co-workers, friends, or someone else close to them. They are living in or with “unhealthy relationships.”
The reason I bring this to your attention along with this dysfunction theme is
because we don’t invest enough time creating, building and maintaining relationships with one another—and thus, it’s almost impossible to engender trust, commitment, attention, and ameliorate fear and avoidance.
Here’s the bottom-line: People who are unhappy and emotionally unhealthy are people who have difficulty getting along well with others. They use these characteristics to try to control others: Criticizing, blaming, judging, complaining, nagging, threatening, and disbelieving.
Persons who are emotionally healthy and happy enjoy themselves because they invest themselves in their relationships by supporting, encouraging, listening, accepting, trusting, respecting, and negotiating differences.
So the gauge of your emotionally wellness is how well you’re getting along with others. You are mentally healthy if you enjoy being with most of the people you know, especially with the important people in your life such as spouse, family, children, friends, or co-workers. Generally, you are happy and are more than willing to help an unhappy family member, friend, or colleague to feel better. You lead a mostly tension-free life, laugh a lot, and rarely suffer from the aches and pains that so many people accept as an unavoidable part of living. You enjoy life and have no trouble accepting other people who think and act differently from you. It rarely occurs to you to criticize or try to change anyone. If you have differences with someone else you will try to work out the problem.
On the flip side of our happiness and our investment in our relationships, we must remember: We’re smaller than the persons we endeavor to make feel small. Each time we criticize, blame, judge or complain about anyone, WE feel bad and WE become more angry and unhappy—and WE make our relationships worse. For the sake of personal emotional wellness and professional accomplishment, we must always ask ourselves: Do we prefer to be right, or to be personally and professionally fulfilled? The answer this time is in the questioner.