Patrick Lencioni
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Management author whose 2002 model traces team trouble to its foundation.
Communication & Teams cluster · 7 entries in the library
One entry in the expert directory — an editorial profile. Last updated: September 27, 2026.
In short
Patrick Lencioni is an American management consultant and author. His 2002 book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" framed team health as a pyramid: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results — each level weakening the ones above it.
1. The framework
The model's value is diagnostic order. Most team complaints live at the top — missed deadlines, unclear ownership — but the cause usually sits lower: people who do not trust each other do not argue honestly, and without honest argument there is no real commitment to hold anyone accountable to.
The library's team-health entries walk this pyramid bottom-up, pairing each dysfunction with reflection questions a team can ask itself.
2. Where critics push back
Lencioni's model comes from consulting practice and storytelling rather than controlled research, and the layers overlap in real teams. It is a shared vocabulary for diagnosis, not a measurement instrument.
3. Explore in the library
Entries in this library built on Five Dysfunctions of a Team — each with its honest limits.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The guide behind the team-health entries.
Team Health Check
Where is your team strong — and where breaking down?
Team Health (Leader)
The same pyramid from the leader's seat.
More frameworks and tools in the Communication & Teams cluster.
← Back to the expert directory
This is an editorial profile of a published framework — referenced, not affiliated. Scene photos are illustrative, not portraits.