The Five X's of Y

Some books are just easier to read than others. Stories are nice. They move quickly, keep the reader's attention, and when well done, communicate something of value. Such is the case with two of Patrick Lencioni's books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Five Temptations of a CEO. Both are written as "leadership fables" where a typical Bay Area team (CEO) is shown the error of its (his) ways through a simple story with short chapters and lots of white space.

There are thousands of books out there with a few easy steps to better whatever. Most make sense, usually because they are common sense. Business books don't sell because they have new ideas, they sell because they have good packaging. Much like businesses themselves sometimes. Now I'm not saying this is bad, just that there's not much new to be learned, but much to be implemented (see You are Being Lied To at ChangeThis).

Lencioni's books are the same. In fact, he even gets away with selling two books with the exact same material. The five dysfunctions of a team are simply the result of the team leader giving into the five temptations of a CEO. But the team book sells more because corporate leaders can give it (the book, seminars, classes, whatever) to their teams rather than work on their own stuff. But I digress. Here are the 5 temptations with their corresponding dysfunction.

1. Choosing status over results leads to Inattention to results
2. Choosing popularity over accountability leads to Avoidance of accountability
3. Choosing certainty over clarity leads to Lack of commitment
4. Choosing harmony over productive conflict leads to Fear of conflict
5. Choosing invulnerability over trust leads to Absence of trust

Written out together like that makes the parallels obvious. In fact, it doesn't even look like the "leads to" conjunction really applies, but rather the dysfunction is equal to the temptation. Which I guess is the point. Lencioni's ideas are not revolutionary. He's not even the first to put them in a list. But they are simple, they are effective, and they are hard to do. And his books take about 2 hours to read, packaged in a very nice little tale.

So the moral of the story is simple. Be honest, take responsibility, focus on results. And if you want me to read a lot of your books...write short ones.