5DoaT

Lissa Millspaugh, I finished 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, and then for good measure consumed The Ideal Team Player as well. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm really surprised I'd not read anything from Lencioni before, and I'll put him on my fictional dinner party invite list for people I think it would be fun to talk with.

5DoaT does indeed reinforce the Google Project Aristotle findings on psychological/emotional safety as the key to effective teams, but adds the very valuable point that the purpose of such safety is to enable vigorous disagreement, thereby leading ultimately to better decisions with buy-in.

Lencioni certainly doesn't go as far with this as Ray Dalio in his Principles, but 5DoaT makes a strong case for what a functional team should be like, or rather not be like.

The nice thing about Google's study is that they had fairly quantitative results that match Lencioni's qualitative view from a decade before.

As a summary, 5DoaT listed these dysfunctions:
- Absence of Trust
- Fear of Conflict
- Lack of Commitment
- Fear of Accountability
- Inattention to Results

Project Aristotle listed these positive characteristics:
- Psychological Safety
- Dependability
- Structure and Clarity
- Meaning of Work
- Impact of Work

These look more different at a glance than they really are, since the structure and clarity for Google come from the open discussions and willingness to have productive conflict from Lencioni. Impact of Work and Accountability and Results are pretty close, too. Commitment and Dependability rhyme as well, from a team perspective.

There are a few other items not on these lists that I think really help create a good team, though. One is a sense of urgency, like a crisis or high-profile goal. Another is having vision that represents a stretch goal, something worthwhile yet not clearly attainable. The best teams in my experience aren't positive they'll succeed, but they're all-in to get it done. And, it's worth noting, that's not the same as a "we'll do our best team", which usually indicates a team that won't actually try that hard. After all, it's not better vs best, but getting it good enough for the situation at hand.