Book Summary - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni
Note: This summary is in my own words, and does not contain excerpts from the book.
Overview
The book was a very fast read, 220 small pages, lots of white space, 8 hrs for a slow reader. (That would be me.)
The first 180 pages is a story, as enjoyable as most novels I’ve read (I know, this leaves me open to comments on my choices of novels.) The story is about a high tech startup company. They have more talented people, more money, and a better connected board than their competitors, but still, they are third in sales. Morale is quickly eroding. The CEO steps down and a retired manager, Kathryn, is hired as CEO. And so begins the story of Kathryn working to build teamwork among her staff.
The last 40 pages contain a model for teamwork, including suggestions for improvement in each component of the model, and suggestions for the leader. There’s also a 15-question assessment for evaluating each component of the model for your team.
Reading List
Notes
* = books I especially liked.
? = books I felt weren't worth my time.
“read alongside second translation" means I alternated somewhat between translations and read some paragraphs by both translators, for breadth of interpretation.
Business & Management
* Good To Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, Collins
* The Tipping Point, Gladwell
* Blink, Gladwell
* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni Book Summary
* The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Covey
The Emotional Inteligence Quick Book, Bradberry & Greaves
First Fireside edition. Copyright 2005. Hard cover.
ISBN-13: 987-0-7432-7326-8
Introduction
Quick is good. Many self help books in my opinion have too many pages. This book contains some guiding principles and a few motivational stories to anchor them. The book hits the mark for me in this regard.
The book does not contain a step-by-step roadmap. It does include an online self assessment test to evaluate four areas: self awareness, ability to manage yourself, relationship awareness, ability to manage your relationships.
Following is a high level summary, and my notes in my own words except where "(direct quote...)" is indicated.