add five dysfunctions writeup, closes swanson#13

Author: Matt Swanson

Diff for: _posts/2012-10-23-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team.md

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+---
+layout: writeup
+title: "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team"
+categories:
+- writeup
+---
+
+
+![](/static/five-dysfunctions.jpg)  
+[The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable][link]   
+Patrick Lencioni    
+ISBN: 0787960756    
+
+---
+
+**What's the point?**  
+There are five dysfunctions that plague workplace teams. A good team leader will identify
+how the dysfunctions are manifesting in their team and take action to overcome them.
+ 
+**How was it?**  
+The book uses an interesting format — a fiction company has hired a new CEO and 
+we see meetings and interactions from her perspective as she tries to improve her 
+executive team. The concept was new to me and helped to make the dysfunctions more 
+concrete and the interactions more authentic.
+
+I found the second dysfunction — fear of conflict — to be the most 
+eye-opening. When a team lacks trust (the first dysfunction), people don't feel like they
+can provide open criticism and have objective debates. Instead, you end up with stupid
+office politics and you start holding grudges against your team members.
+
+All the dysfunctions chain together nicely; the book uses a pyramid structure, which is 
+appropriate. A team that fears conflict will never get buy-in from everyone because 
+without an opportunity to voice their opinions, the team's vision will never be
+aligned. Without a collective direction, the team will fail to commit (the third
+dysfunction) and waste time waffling and revisiting decisions over and over again.
+
+One of my takeaways was to spend less time worrying about personal career advancement and
+to try focusing on helping a team succeed.
+ 
+**Who should read it?**  
+It's a quick read and good for those working on teams that you don't feel tight-knit; 
+while the fictional company does make software, a development background is not required
+to read this one.
+
+[link]: http://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
+