Greenfield City Council holds consultant‑led team workshop; pilots pre‑meeting dinners and commits to clearer staff updates

At a consultant-led workshop in Greenfield, city council members spent the evening working through Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” framework and agreed informally to pilot pre‑meeting dinners and clearer internal communications to improve trust and coordination.

The session, run by facilitator Fred Van Bleck, focused on the council’s ability to trust one another, engage in productive conflict, commit to decisions, hold peers accountable and focus on shared results. Van Bleck repeatedly warned that legal limits on how council members can meet—“the Brown Act really prevents you from being able to come together like any other . . . 'normal' team,” he said—make it harder for elected officials to build the kind of informal relationships that can support teamwork.

Why it matters: Council cohesion affects how clearly elected officials direct staff and how effectively the city delivers services. Participants said better interpersonal…