How to Conduct the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Exercise

With the annual planning season fully upon us, I feel compelled to write about something my colleagues and I deeply believe in, and that is:

 Never, ever stop working on team health. 

While there are lots of ways to work on team health — and no, I’m not a fan of trust fall exercises — there’s a host of great team health exercises that elevate the effectiveness of team communication, increase interpersonal trust, and enhance performance, collaboration, and morale. One of our favorite team health exercises at Ninety is based on Patrick Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The purpose of this article is to share with you the five core concepts behind the framework and how we run this exercise, in case you want to use it to work on your team’s health. 

The Origin of the Five Dysfunctions Exercise

I’ve been teaching my coaching clients Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for over 12 years. My colleagues and I not only think the book is a must-read for every Senior Leadership Team but that the associated exercise often exposes things that should be talked about if you and your colleagues genuinely want a big step up in how well you work together.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team presents the five most important factors associated with people working well (or not so well) together. Lencioni‘s model then stacks these factors inside a pyramid based upon his belief (which I share here) that the stronger you are at one level, the more likely it is you can be strong at the next level up. As an example, trust is at the bottom of the pyramid because it's hard to have healthy conflict if you fundamentally don’t trust someone. If your team fundamentally has trust issues, it’s much harder then it needs to be to generate great results (the top level, see diagram).

The goal of the exercise is to discover if your team has some level of dysfunction at each level and, if it does, (every team does to some extent) to talk openly and honestly about what the likely root causes are. As a team, you can collectively face reality and deal with them in a way that improves teamwork, efficiency, and trust not just at your level but throughout the company. Because as they say: 

As goes the Senior Leadership Team, 
so goes the entire organization. 

Sounds easy right? It's not. But it is powerful, especially if everyone on your team genuinely cares about the company and wants it to succeed (you want that to be a thing, right?).

While I’d love to just dive into describing the five dysfunctions and walk you through the exercise, I feel compelled to dedicate a little proverbial ink to the word trust because I’ve found it's super helpful to align on what we’re talking about when we talk about trust.

Why Talking About Trust Is at the Beginning of the Exercise

As I’ve hopefully already made a fairly compelling case for by now, I deeply believe that running the Five Dysfunctions of a Team exercise opens communication among your team members in a transparent, healthy, and honest way.

High-trust teams are composed of members who are very comfortable being open with one another. That said, high-trust teams aren’t born that way. It takes time to develop that trust. It takes working together, and proverbially falling together, to form the bonds that create not just high-trust teams but high-performing teams.

Once your team is filled with trust, it’s unafraid of exposing its weaknesses and mistakes, so it doesn't need to be overly cautious or develop unhealthy defense mechanisms. Since each team member feels safe, they can individually and collectively focus on not just their goals and tasks but becoming better and better versions of the best version of themselves. Once comfortably and confidently there, your colleagues will have zero problems asking for help and are more likely to take the types of risks that will propel your organization forward. Imagine that.

The Three Dimensions of Trust

As some of you may know, I’m a huge believer that trust is almost everything when it comes to humans working well together. I’m also a deep believer that not everyone thinks about what trust is as deeply as they probably should. I’ve written about it extensively for years. Why? Because I deeply believe that building high-trust relationships is not only an essential component of building a great team but of building a great company. And a great company, in my opinion, is one that has high-trust relationships with all its Ideal Stakeholders.

Trust, especially within the workplace, exists across three dimensions: character, competency, and connection.     

• Character-based trust is about intent — whether an individual consistently does the right thing, aligning their actions with ethical standards and integrity. 
• Competency-based trust is about an individual's ability to perform tasks effectively based on their skills and knowledge.
• Connection-based trust is all about the personal bond between individuals, fostering open communication and vulnerability.

It’s essential to understand the dimensions of trust as you undertake the Five Dysfunctions of a Team exercise so you can talk openly, specifically, and confidently about not just where trust issues might exist but which of the dimensions are at the core of any associated challenge. And, yes, I’ve sat through numerous conversations over the years where someone is deemed lacking across all three dimensions.

What Are the Five Dysfunctions of a Team?

What follows is a summary of what Lencioni believes are the five factors at the core of whether you have a highly functional or dysfunctional team. Lencioni believes these factors will either negatively impact your team’s performance (when there’s an absence of the factor) or enhance performance (when you and your team excel at the factor). Let’s dig in.

Absence of Trust

The absence of trust occurs when team members hesitate to be vulnerable with one another. They may avoid admitting mistakes, asking for help, or sharing concerns due to fears of judgment, rejection, or unreliability from others. This lack of vulnerability often stems from deeper issues related to character, competency, and/or connection. When trust is absent, team members are more focused on self-preservation — making a good impression or avoiding conflict — than on collaborating effectively toward shared goals.

Without trust, communication breaks down, collaboration becomes strained, and the team’s overall effectiveness deteriorates. Teams lacking trust often struggle to engage in honest dialogue, make unified decisions, or hold one another accountable.

Signs of a lack of trust:

• Reluctance to admit weaknesses or mistakes
• Hesitation to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
• Avoidance of difficult conversations or personal connections
• Fear of relying on others to fulfill their commitments

Building trust requires consistent effort and a culture where vulnerability is not seen as a weakness but as a strength. By creating an environment where people care enough to be honest and show mutual respect, team members are better able to unlock their full potential and lay the groundwork for the other pillars of team health.

Strong Trust

When trust is strong within a team, members feel safe being vulnerable with one another. They openly admit mistakes, ask for help, and acknowledge areas where they need support or improvement without fear of judgment or repercussions. This vulnerability fosters deep connections, enabling honest communication and mutual respect. Team members are comfortable relying on each other, and they’re confident in their shared commitment to the team’s and company’s success as well as each other’s character, competence, and dependability.

In a high-trust culture, team members focus on achieving collective goals rather than protecting individual interests. This creates a foundation for productive conflict, better decision-making, and stronger accountability. Trust is the bedrock of a highly functional team — without it, the other four factors cannot flourish.

When trust thrives:

• Team members freely share ideas and concerns.
• Constructive feedback is welcomed and embraced.
• Individuals feel secure in taking risks and innovating.
• Missteps are seen as opportunities to learn, not as failures to hide.

Trust makes it possible to build a resilient and cohesive team capable of navigating challenges and achieving high performance together.

Fear of Conflict

A fear of conflict manifests as a false harmony within the team. While outwardly it may seem that everyone is working well together, this avoidance of confrontation, which is often trust-based, can lead to lots of unresolved tensions simmering beneath the surface. When left unchecked, these tensions can eventually boil over into more aggressive and emotionally charged conflicts. In such instances, things said in the heat of the moment can severely erode trust, damaging relationships and requiring significant time and effort to repair.

Over the years, I’ve observed that fear of conflict arises from a variety of factors, including personality differences, cultural norms, and past experiences with poorly handled disagreements. This is why self-awareness (and other awareness) tools like Kolbe, TypeCoach, and the Enneagram are invaluable for fostering self-awareness and understanding others’ unique approaches to problem-solving. These tools help people better appreciate how we psychologically approach work, enabling greater empathy and reducing friction stemming from miscommunication or misunderstandings.

I’ve also seen fear of conflict emerge in teams where fundamental ideological misalignments exist. For example, disagreements about Core Principles can create significant barriers to alignment. One of my favorites is whether investors are prioritized above all other stakeholders or, as I deeply believe, whether to focus on building high-trust relationships with all Ideal Stakeholders equally. Ideological issues are why I believe it’s so important for founders to get as clear about their Forever Agreements and other core Guiding Principles as soon as possible so they don’t hire people who are fundamentally against what they believe is important for the company.

Healthy Conflict

In a highly functional team, conflict is not feared but rather embraced as a constructive force. Healthy conflict stems from a foundation of trust, where team members feel safe expressing their thoughts, challenging ideas, and engaging in robust debates without fear of retribution or damaging relationships. Instead of avoiding disagreements, teams lean into them with the shared goal of finding the best solutions.

Characteristics of healthy conflict include:    

• Open dialogue: Team members feel comfortable speaking up, knowing their perspectives will be valued and considered.
• Focus on ideas, not individuals: The team debates ideas and issues rather than making disagreements personal.
• Respectful communication: Disagreements are handled professionally, with active listening and mutual respect.
• Clarity and resolution: Healthy conflict results in clear decisions and commitments, leaving no lingering ambiguity or resentment.
  

To cultivate healthy conflict:

1. Define what matters: As soon as possible, create explicit, coherent, and resonant definitions that define who you are as a company. These should include the definitions of your Core Values, Compelling Why, Ideal Customer, and Compelling Value Proposition.
2. Foster psychological safety: Ensure team members feel secure in expressing dissenting views.
3. Encourage diverse perspectives: Actively seek input from all voices to avoid groupthink and enrich decision-making.
4. Establish norms for disagreement: Create guidelines for constructive debates, emphasizing respect and focusing on shared goals.
5. Use tools to enhance understanding: Tools like Kolbe, TypeCoach, and the Enneagram help individuals understand one another’s styles, reducing unnecessary friction and fostering empathy.

When conflict is embraced as a natural, necessary, and healthy part of teamwork, it strengthens trust, clarifies direction, and drives superior results. Teams that master healthy conflict are better equipped to navigate challenges, adapt to change, and achieve their goals with cohesion and confidence.

Lack of Commitment

As you may know, I’m a huge believer in the power of an agreements-based culture and agreements-based leadership. Agreements mean two or more humans have agreed to do something, and if someone doesn’t live up to their agreements, there’s a pretty straight-forward, nonemotional discussion that can ensue. Lencioni touches on the same big idea when he includes this basic concept as one of the five most important factors associated with whether or not a team functions well.

More specifically, Lencioni identifies lack of commitment as a dysfunction that arises when team members are unclear about decisions or feel disengaged from them (for example, they haven’t taken the time to enter into a genuine agreement). This dysfunction often results in hesitancy, second-guessing, or outright resistance to following through with plans. Without commitment (in the form of a genuine agreement), the team lacks the unity and determination needed to execute effectively, leading to confusion, wasted effort, and diminished results.

Commitment is undermined when:

• Decisions are ambiguous or poorly communicated, leaving team members unsure of their roles or priorities.
• There is insufficient debate or discussion during the decision-making process, preventing genuine buy-in.
• Team members perceive that their concerns or viewpoints are ignored or undervalued (because we haven’t done the hard but essential work associated with entering into an agreement).

When commitment falters, individuals may hedge their efforts, passively resist agreed-upon plans, or pursue personal agendas instead of focusing on collective objectives. This misalignment can create friction within the team and erode trust over time.

To overcome this dysfunction, leaders must prioritize clarity and enter into an explicit agreement. Clarity ensures everyone understands their roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities as well as the rationale behind decisions. Buy-in is achieved when team members feel heard and respected during discussions, even if their preferred approach isn’t ultimately chosen. By addressing these factors, teams can align around shared goals and maintain momentum.

Strong Commitment

When a team achieves strong commitment, every member feels aligned with and invested in the decisions made, even if there wasn’t unanimous agreement (in this case, it's essential that we agree to disagree). This alignment stems from two critical factors: clarity and buy-in.

• Clarity ensures all team members understand (and agree with) their roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities, and the goals they're working toward. This reduces ambiguity and fosters confidence in the team’s direction. When objectives are clearly communicated and everyone knows what’s expected of them, it becomes easier to stay focused and accountable.

• Buy-in comes from providing space for all voices to be heard during decision-making processes. While consensus may not always be possible, giving team members the opportunity to express their perspectives builds trust and respect. Even if their preferred solution isn’t chosen, team members are more likely to support the decision because they feel their input was valued.

In a high-commitment team:

• Team members actively support collective decisions, even when they personally disagreed during the deliberation phase.
• There’s no second-guessing or revisiting decisions unless new information demands it.
• Individuals align their efforts with the team’s goals, avoiding distractions or competing agendas.
• Confidence in the plan energizes the team to execute effectively.

Strong commitment (genuine agreements) enables teams to move forward decisively and maintain momentum. When everyone is fully invested, execution becomes more cohesive, and the likelihood of achieving shared objectives increases dramatically. Commitment transforms plans into action and ensures the team remains unified, even in the face of challenges.

Avoidance of Accountability

Avoidance of accountability arises when team members hesitate to call out underperformance, missed deadlines, or behavior that undermines the team. This fear is often rooted in a desire to avoid conflict, discomfort, or potential harm to relationships. However, avoiding accountability only exacerbates dissatisfaction, fosters resentment, and erodes trust within the team.

When accountability is lacking:

• Team members are reluctant to provide feedback or hold one another to agreed-upon standards.
• Poor performance or toxic behavior goes unaddressed, creating a dysfunctional culture rampant with mediocrity (ugh!).
• High-performing team members may feel frustrated and disengaged when they see others not pulling their weight.

Lencioni emphasizes that addressing issues directly demonstrates that we genuinely care about what’s best for the company and that we respect and have confidence in the team’s ability to meet shared expectations (because we turned them into agreements!). Avoidance of accountability signals a lack of trust in others’ capabilities and a missed opportunity to strengthen the team’s culture of excellence.

Great Accountability

Great accountability occurs when team members feel empowered to hold each other to high standards while fostering mutual respect. In teams with strong agreements-based accountability, feedback is seen not as criticism but as a vital tool for growth and alignment. Team members willingly address performance gaps, support one another in overcoming challenges, and stay committed to shared goals.

Cultures with agreements-based accountability have:

• Clear standards: Expectations are turned into explicit, measurable agreements that are aligned with the team’s and the company’s goals.
• Mutual responsibility: Every team member takes ownership of their role and helps others stay on track.
• Timely feedback: Issues are addressed promptly, preventing small problems from becoming larger conflicts.
• Celebration of success: Team members recognize and celebrate accountability, reinforcing positive behaviors.

1. Turn expectations into agreements: Define roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities as well as measurable outcomes so everyone agrees on what success looks like.
2. Model accountability: Leaders should model the behavior they want to see, addressing their own shortcomings transparently.
3. Normalize feedback: Create a culture where constructive feedback is a regular part of team interactions.
4. Foster peer-to-peer accountability: Encourage team members to hold one another accountable rather than relying solely on leadership.

Strong agreements-based accountability ensures the team remains focused and aligned, fostering trust, improving performance, and creating a culture of excellence. When everyone commits to high standards and is willing to address gaps constructively, the team thrives together.

Inattention to Results

Inattention to results occurs when team members lose sight of the team’s collective goals and instead focus on personal achievements, departmental priorities, or individual recognition. This dysfunction undermines the team’s ability to deliver on its broader objectives because members prioritize their own needs over the success of the group.

Key drivers of inattention to results include:

• Ego and status: Individuals may prioritize their personal success or position over team outcomes.
• Lack of accountability: Without clear metrics or regular check-ins, progress toward shared goals can falter.    
• Misaligned priorities: When teams lack clarity on overarching goals, members may default to pursuing what seems most immediately beneficial for themselves or their department.

The consequences of this dysfunction can be severe, leading to missed deadlines, subpar performance, and weakened trust in the team’s ability to deliver. When team members fail to focus on results, the organization as a whole suffers.

Results Orientation

An agreements-based, results-oriented team places collective success above individual concerns, recognizing that the team’s achievements are the foundation for all other successes. In such teams, members consistently align their efforts with shared objectives and measure progress against clearly defined goals.

When teams focus on results, they have:

• Shared accountability: Everyone takes responsibility for the team’s outcomes, reinforcing commitment and alignment.
• Clarity of purpose: Goals are explicit, measurable, and understood by all members.
• Reduced ego: Team members recognize that their individual success depends on the group’s success, fostering collaboration over competition.
• Celebration of wins: Achievements are celebrated collectively, reinforcing the value of teamwork and shared goals.

1. Define clear metrics and goals: Establish key performance indicators that clearly define when things are working well and when there’s an issue. Set clear, compelling, and achievable goals that align with the organization’s long-term vision, and then explain why these are important to ensure everyone understands and agrees with them.
2. Track progress consistently: Use tools like Scorecards, dashboards, and Weekly Team Meetings to maintain visibility into team performance.
3. Reinforce collective success: Celebrate team accomplishments to reinforce the importance of working together.
4. Address misaligned priorities: Ensure that individual or departmental goals do not conflict with the team’s shared objectives.

A strong focus on results prevents ego and personal agendas from derailing the team’s efforts. By keeping the collective goal at the forefront, teams can achieve their full potential and deliver meaningful outcomes for the organization.

Getting Started

As team health is an ongoing challenge for businesses, we always recommend you read Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It can help you predict and counteract the typical challenges that arise as teams grow, all while building trust every step of the way. We also recommend you explore our Trust Brief for more tips on how to create collaboration between the seven primary stakeholders that make up a business.  

How to Conduct the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Exercise

Now that we’ve hopefully laid out a compelling case for why you want to slay the dysfunctional, let’s dig into how to run this exercise. Here’s the good, bad, and more good news. 

Good news #1: Running the exercise is extremely simple.

Bad news: If there’s lots of room for improvement, the conversations will be hard. 

Good news #2: Once you're done, you’ll have a far better understanding of what you collectively need to work on to take your team, and your entire organization, to the next level. That’s an awesome thing, especially if your team cares. If it’s clear that not everyone cares, then you’re now aware of something else you need to know if you want to build a great company.

How to Run the Session

Make sure everyone in the room has read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team beforehand. Next, remind everyone why we’re here:

It’s time to work on taking our team health to the next level.

Next, go factor by factor and rate how strong each of you feel you collectively are as a team on a scale of 1–10, with 10 being damn near perfect. Talk about why each of you chose your rating, then your team should agree on an average rating. If you really care about getting better, you’ll do this during every Annual Planning Meeting from now on. 

If I were coaching you, I’d really focus on talking about any scores below 8, I’d spend no time on scores above 9, and I’d dig into any place where there’s a wide range of scores.  

Once you’ve completed the entire exercise, take a moment and discuss the big-picture takeaways. Are there any potential Rocks coming out of this? Any possible To-Dos? Any issues we should add to our long or short-term issues list? Are any of these issues we want to label as a work in progress, meaning we think we should occasionally talk about how we’re doing in terms of this area in need of improvement?

Final note: To help you run this exercise, feel free to cut and paste what good and bad looks like from this article into a presentation deck, or check out our Conducting the Five Dysfunctions Exercise Deck. In my experience, reminding people what good and bad looks like as we make our way through the exercise is super helpful and often creates interesting conversations around how we’re doing more generally speaking in terms of the development of our entire organization’s business operating system. 

When to Run the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Exercise

Your Annual Planning Meeting is the ideal time to discuss team health and engage in the Five Dysfunctions of a Team exercise. By bringing your Senior Leadership Team together to explore weaknesses in your communication and collaboration, you can begin to create a high-trust company. Having this annual check-in also allows you to compare your ratings year-over-year and ensure your efforts are working.