Article Writing Homework Help

Hello, I am looking for someone to write an article on The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. It needs to be at least 500 words. Being a chef in a start-up store and about to handle a new team, I consider Patrick Lencioni’s “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team” a masterpiece. According to Lencioni, the key objective for every team is to get all the people in it to work or row in a single direction.

The reason why this primary objective is unattained by most teams, according to Lencioni, is they fail to overcome the five dysfunctions of a team. They are: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Lencioni believe that these five “feed on each other” in destroying the success of the group.

Lencioni emphasized the negative effects of the absence of trust in a team. Without this, any member of a team will not harmoniously work with each other. This breeds another dysfunction: fear of airing of constructive and genuine opinions to his group members. In a team with closed communication lines, team members rarely commit to clear and agreed upon decisions. Without lucid commitment to a clear plan of action, hesitation of each member to be accountable to his action will most likely follow. Whenever accountability is not held by members of a team, results of the team will be unnoticed. Inattention to results will consequentially create an environment wherein team members put their individual needs above that of those of the group. As we can see the existence of one creates a chain reaction that often results the emergence of the rest.

What engenders the greatest impact on me upon reading Lencioni’s solutions to these five dysfunctions masterpiece is the author’s solutions or countermeasures to the first dysfunction, the lack or absence of trust.

He first stressed the importance of having a competent leader in a group. He will instigate discipline and persistence that the rest of his team members need. He should initiate the solutions posed by Lencioni. Being a chef in a start-up restaurant, I need to first instill trust in and among my subordinates.

For Lencioni, to breed trust, the leader should collate the comprehensive personal history of each team members. This is done by identifying the most important contribution each member has through psychology tools to know the personality and behavioral preference profiles of each member, and by getting feedback from anyone in the organization about each team members. Being the leader, I should be the first one to be subjected under these tests. I should also create an environment that does not punish vulnerability.

Lencioni’s advice to create an environment where vulnerability is unpunished is very striking to me. We live in a world where leaders are taught to power exercise power by being strong from his appearance to his resolve and personality. Without the ability to intimidate, a leader feels powerless and ineffective. Lencioni’s advice is, at first glance, inappropriate for solving the issue on breeding trust. However, after reflecting on his imparted wisdom I realized that he is right. To trust someone, I have to know him openly and truthfully. I have to know his vulnerabilities and also let him know my own vulnerabilities too. This way we can mutually create ways to help each other improve our performance for the benefit of the group. This is then will serve as the spark plug for an effective and fruitful teamwork in the future.

Works Cited

Lencioni, Patrick M. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. New York: Jossey-Bass, 2002.