Book review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

A few days ago I reviewed Lencioni’s Death by Meeting, which was the first of his books that I’d ever read. I liked it, so I jumped onto this one right afterward.

I liked this one too, but just not quite as much as the other one. In fact, this one felt a little bit like a re-run. I understand that it’s a “business fable” and there’s only so much you can do with setting up tension, conflict and resolution, but both books had the same metaphors about movies, so that felt a little stale. Also, it seems like there’s a concept that underlies both books and that once you’ve read one, you kinda know what’s going to happen with the next one. If you read two, you feel like you could write the next one. But maybe that’s just me.

I don’t mean to sound like I didn’t appreciate the book–I did very much, and I’d recommend it to others. The 5 dysfunctions model is super helpful, and I’ll be keeping it around for my own use. Also, some of the team building exercises were pretty interesting, and I’ll probably give them a try as well. I’m not burned out on Lencioni yet–I’m still planning on reading all of his stuff (and they’re quick reads). It’s worth picking up a copy, but if you want to cut to the chase, you can probably sit in Borders and take notes on the last chapter and save a couple of hours.