Be Challenged: The five behaviours that could transform every school leadership team in Australia

For more than two decades, Patrick Lencioni’s model, known as The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team, has been widely adopted by corporate organisations seeking to lift collaboration, performance and culture.

Yet despite its proven impact, many schools across Australia remain largely unaware of its potential to elevate both staff wellbeing and student outcomes. The model is not corporate by nature. It is human by nature. It describes the way people work together when they feel safe, supported and inspired to bring their best to a shared mission. For this reason, it is highly suited to education, where collaboration is central to success.

The model offers a practical structure for building teams that work with deeper purpose and greater care. For schools, this structure can be applied to leadership teams, departmental teams and teaching stages. Each of these groups stands to benefit from understanding the behaviours that sit underneath genuine cohesion.

Trust as the foundation
The model begins with trust. Not surface-level trust, but the type of trust that allows people to admit errors, ask for help and share concerns without fear of judgment. In school contexts, this creates a culture in which teachers and leaders feel safe to explore new ideas, test new approaches and own mistakes as part of growth. It is an approach that lends itself to genuine psychological safety in the workplace.

When trust is present, staff morale rises and the load of the work feels shared. When trust is missing, collaboration becomes transactional and innovation fades.

Schools that invest in trust-building see the difference almost immediately in the tone of staff rooms, the quality of conversations and the willingness of teachers to lean on one another.

Healthy conflict that sparks better thinking
Once trust is in place, teams can step into healthy conflict. This is not conflict in the negative sense, but spirited discussion in which people debate ideas openly and respectfully. Schools that model this behaviour show their staff that disagreement is not dangerous. It is productive.

Healthy conflict leads to sharper curriculum design, more thoughtful pastoral strategies and richer planning conversations. It prevents groupthink and encourages diversity of perspective.

The more comfortable a team becomes in this behaviour the more resilient and adaptive it becomes.

Commitment that everyone can see and feel
Healthy conflict makes room for a stronger sense of commitment. When people feel heard, they are far more willing to support a final decision, even if it is not the one for which they personally argued.

In schools this creates alignment. Departments move in the same direction. Year level teams become consistent in their practice. Whole school strategies gain momentum. A committed team acts decisively and confidently which has a direct influence on the learning environment students experience every day.

Accountability that strengthens relationships rather than strains them
Commitment clears space for real peer-to-peer accountability. This is often the most challenging behaviour for school teams because accountability is usually associated with pressure rather than support. Lencioni’s model reframes it entirely.

When accountability is present, colleagues hold one another to agreed standards because they care about the shared goal. It builds mutual respect. It prevents silos. It reinforces professionalism through honesty and encouragement. In a school setting it also models the behaviours educators want their students to develop.

A focus on collective results
The final behaviour is a team-wide focus on collective results. For schools this means elevating outcomes that serve the whole community over individual preferences or habits. A team that reaches this stage is driven by shared purpose. It celebrates progress. It adapts quickly. It maintains clarity on what matters most for student learning and wellbeing.

This is the behaviour where the work of the model translates directly into improved student outcomes. Teachers and leaders who operate with united purpose are more consistent, more motivated and more capable of delivering meaningful change.

Why schools cannot afford to overlook this model any longer
While the corporate sector has embraced The Five Behaviours model for years, its relevance to schools is profound. Education is a deeply social profession. Success depends on the quality of the relationships within and across teams. The pressures facing educators today demand a framework that strengthens trust, deepens collaboration and creates conditions in which staff can thrive.

This model offers that framework. It is practical. It is accessible. It fits seamlessly into the daily rhythms of school life.

A call to action for education leaders
Be Challenged has spent many years helping organisations understand and apply Lencioni’s work, not just through theory but through experiential learning that brings these behaviours to life. We see every day how trust can be built through shared experience, how vulnerability becomes easier when people feel genuinely supported and how renewed cohesion leads to higher energy, improved morale and greater productivity.

School leadership teams and teaching teams deserve these benefits just as much as any corporate team. Most importantly, students benefit profoundly from adults who collaborate with purpose and who model healthy team behaviours.

If your school is ready to explore how The Five Behaviours can strengthen your leadership culture and the everyday experience of your staff and students, Be Challenged would be delighted to guide you. This is not a corporate model. This is a human model. And it is time for schools to claim it.

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