It’s not that The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni provides any new aspects to team building….wait, there’s more…it’s not that Lencioni provides any new aspects, yet it’s the clarity and simplicity with which the material is presented that makes this book a must-read. And no, I don’t mean a must-read for the manager caste. In fact, I truly believe that any member of a team no matter what role she fulfills will find the material worthwhile.

I read 3/4 of the book in one evening. It’s an easy read because the story revolves around a fictitious yet realistic case of a CEO and her dysfunctional team. I found myself constantly relating the events in the story to my own experiences at work.

The strategies presented in the book appeal to me so strongly because it all seems common sense. It’s not rocket science – at least not on paper. Yet, imperfect as we are, we seem to constantly fall back to behavioral patterns that only bring misery.
I’m a big fan of agile development and Scrum in particular. It’s easy to build a bridge between Scrum and Lencioni’s methods. I guess I love them for the same reason.