Framework
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The foundation of Discipline 1 — a pyramid model showing how absence of trust leads to artificial harmony, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.
Use this to diagnose a leadership team that avoids hard conversations, revisits decisions, tolerates missed commitments, or optimises for individual status over collective outcomes.
The pyramid
Credit: Patrick Lencioni · The Five Dysfunctions of a Team · Adapted for Outstride OS
How to use it
- Start at the bottom: without vulnerability-based trust, the rest of the pyramid cannot hold.
- Work up in order — you cannot demand accountability before the team commits, or commit without productive conflict.
- Name where the team is weakest and pick one behaviour to practise this quarter.
- Run Personal Histories + Trust as the entry exercise when trust is the gap.
Source / credit
Patrick Lencioni · The Five Dysfunctions of a Team · Adapted for Outstride OS
Related capabilities
Related tools
Work with Ben
Want help installing this?
Outstride OS is the system behind Ben's founder coaching — pre-seed to Series C. If this page names something you are living right now, start a conversation.