Five Dysfunctions of a Team

“The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, by Patrick Lencioni, is about a failing technology firm and a newly hired CEO named Kathryn Petersen. DecisionTech, the failing technology firm, was located in Half Moon Bay, CA. Looking in from the outside DecisionTech should have been top in their industry. They had an experienced executive team, an indestructible business plan, and top-tier investors! A few months after start up the firm started to slip. Deadlines were not being met, employees began to lose confidence for one another, and employees began to leave unexpectedly. Two years later DecisionTech is in critical condition and the board makes the decision to ask former CEO Jeff Shanley to step down and they hire new CEO, Kathryn Petersen. Kathryn Petersen was considered for the job by the Chairman of DecisionTech. The other executives did not think that Kathryn was ideal for the position, “Kathryn just didn’t fit the DecisionTech culture”, (p. 10). The Chairman had more confidence in Kathryn and believed that she could turn the firm around and lead them to success. He knew that Kathryn had worked for an automobile manufacturing plant and led it to be one of the most successful enterprises in the country! Kathryn began her first few days at DecisionTech observing the executive team and how well they worked together. She then scheduled a series of two-day executive retreats in the Napa Valley within a few months period. None of the executive staff was happy at first with Kathryn and her retreat ideas. They all believed she did not know what she was doing and she was just wasting their time. The executive team was known as “The Staff” because they did not operate as a team. Kathryn was there to teach the staff how to operate as a team! The staff thought this was absurd, they didn’t see any problem with the way they worked together. The staff consisted of Jeff-Former CEO, Mikey-Marketing, Martin-Chief Technologist, JR-Sales, Carlos-Customer