The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Year 2002
Pages 229

Worth buying if: You want a leadership fable that names the five dysfunctions by example.

Skip it if: You want academic citations or empirical research rather than a fictional executive story.

Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780787960759. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.

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Summary

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Lencioni dramatizes a struggling executive team to reveal absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results—and provides practical remedies and meeting tools leaders can apply.

Why this book now

Teams still fail in the same five ways; Lencioni’s 2002 fable remains a concise playbook for managers navigating remote teams, hybrid meetings, and performance pressure.

30-second preview

Two quick cards, fifteen seconds each.

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1-sentence hook

Patrick Lencioni’s leadership fable names five team failures and shows how leaders can fix them with stories, exercises, and blunt workplace prudence.

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Best for readers who...

Good fit if you want...

  • You want a leadership fable that names the five dysfunctions by example.
  • You seek practical team exercises and meeting tools from Patrick Lencioni.

Maybe skip if...

  • You want academic citations or empirical research rather than a fictional executive story.
  • You prefer long-form case studies over short prescriptive chapters and checklists.
  • You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.

Mood / Vibe Tags

practical direct workroom Medium length Published before 2020

Decided it fits?

Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780787960759

Worth buying if: You want a leadership fable that names the five dysfunctions by example.

Skip it if: You want academic citations or empirical research rather than a fictional executive story.

Buy This Edition on Amazon

Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.

Reader guide

Cues to help you decide faster.

Reading commitment

Light Short sit-downs

At 229 pages, this is a brisk, workshop-friendly read you can finish in a few focused sessions and immediately translate into team agendas and debriefs.

What stands out here

This Jossey-Bass edition preserves Lencioni’s leadership fable voice and the book’s well-circulated five-part framework and facilitation exercises.

Best way to approach it

Read aloud with a team or annotate solo: treat each dysfunction chapter as an action prompt to test with concrete meeting agendas and follow-up accountability.

Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780787960759

Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.