This informative book focuses on the problems and conflicts that often prevent teams from working together to achieve their stated goals. As he has done in works such as The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Lencioni couches his insights in narrative form: This time, he focuses on a fictional high-tech Silicon Valley start-up that has much potential but is burden by executives whose egos seem to be constantly clashing. The board brings in a talented CEO, Kathryn Peterson, whose experience lies mainly in manufacturing. How she wins over her executive team, who are wary of her nontechnological background, is the crux of the book -- and we become flies on the wall in three very dramatic but realistic off-site meetings that Peterson conducts with her direct reports in order to deal with the company's chronic problems. (barnesandnoble.com)