🫥 The Nouns of October 11, 2024

1. NEW IDEA: The 5 Dysfunctions of Me

2. NEW QUOTE: Simon Sinek needs a friend

3. NEW BOOK: The Revenge of Malcolm Gladwell

The 5 Dysfunctions of Me

In case you’ve been under a rock, a guy named Patrick Lencioni wrote a book like 20 years ago that is pretty good. A lot of people read it. Even more people have it on their bookshelf because someone gave it to them but they didn’t read it because it felt like their boss was telling them they’re the dysfunction on the team. And maybe they are.

If you’re one of those, you should read it. It’s honestly a fantastic book (and short!).

Side note. I think we should start calling good short books Short Kings. I’m reclaiming that term for the literary community. (I’m 5’12” so someone tell me if this is cultural appropriation🤷‍♂️) Either way they are short and powerful. #shortking

I have a problem with The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and I’d like to talk about it in this email, but if you’ve let it accumulate dust on your shelf next to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and that Steve Jobs biography everyone was reading, this won’t make sense.

Here’s a quick primer.

In T5DOAT, Lencioni proposes that team health is the ultimate measure of an organization’s ability to achieve results. He explains that:

1. All team health starts from a function of vulnerability-based trust

2. Which allows us to have healthy conflict

3. Which allows us to feel heard and come to agreement

4. Which allows us to hold each other accountable

5. Which creates results

If you uno-reverse-card it:

1. A lack of vulnerability-based trust

2. Creates a lack of conflict

3. And when a team can’t go to bat for what they believe it, they cannot come to meaningful, unified, agreement

4. And when they don’t agree on what they are doing, they can’t hold each other accountable to those agreements.

5. Which creates an inattention to results

The problem is how we get to vulnerability-based trust in the first place.

It seems in 2024, we’re trusting everyone and everything less.

30% of consumers trust companies. (PWC)

For the first time in history, “none at all” ranks in the top slot of American’s trust of the media (Gallup)

Insert Trump fake news gif here….

Pew Research shows a steady decline in public trust in the government to a pathetic 22%.

In fact, Pew Research seems to be worried about public trust for Pew Research.

You get it.

So, how do we get to a place where we can trust others enough to be vulnerable and ultimately get the team results we are looking for?

We take the T5DOAT model and turn it inward.

It sounds a bit woo woo, but to trust our team, we first must trust ourselves.

We must be willing to be open, honest and vulnerable with ourselves and get clear about who we are and what our values are. Because:

1. When you are willing to trust yourself to be honest about what you value

2. You can have healthy internal conflict that challenges those values

3. Which allows you to come to personal agreement about what your true values are

4. Which allows you to hold yourself accountable to living by those values

5. Which results in knowing who you are.

And when you honestly know who you are.

And you live by values that are true and honest and authentic.

You can trust others easily.

Because there is no real risk.

Because nothing they do or say can change you.

The Revenge of Malcolm Gladwell

Almost 25 years since Gladwell wrote The Tipping Point, October 1 marked the publishing of his new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point.

In the original book, Gladwell explored how ideas reached a critical mass to spread. Now, he’s exploring the dark side of ‘virality’. If you’re thinking Covid, think again. Wait that’s Adam Grant. Shit.

If you’re more of a pictures over words person, check out his interview this week on Armchair Expert.