Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

I couldn't resist grabbing the 3 CD audio book version of Patrick Lencioni's Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team when I last visited the library.  I had read the prequel several years ago and I figured 3 CDs wouldn't take that long to listen to. It turned out to be more like 2 or 2.5 CDs because the last bit was just checklists or something from the appendices.

In review, here are the five dysfunctions.

  1. Absence of trust.
  2. Inattention to results.
  3. Fear of conflict.
  4. Lack of commitment.
  5. Avoidance of accountability.
So, how do you overcome these things?  Apparently it involves having an offsite and discussing them and doing other stuff.  Honestly the book wasn't all that long and mostly served to remind me of the prequel.  I do know that he is a fan of using the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator to help team members get to know each other. (I'm an ESTJ.)

I'm not minimizing the basic premise of why teams don't work.  Fear of conflict is a real issue.  But this book on overcoming the five problems didn't do it for me.  Or maybe, as has happened in the past, non-fiction audio books don't work well for me during my commute.

So that's about it.  Probably should've just reread The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

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