Patrick M. Lencioni

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, Lencioni brings together his vast experience and many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books and delivers a first: a cohesive and comprehensive exploration of the unique advantage organizational health provides. Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified. Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave. Lencioni’s first non-fiction book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health—complete with stories, tips and anecdotes from his experiences consulting to some of the nation’s leading organizations. In this age of informational ubiquity and nano-second change, it is no longer enough to build a competitive advantage based on intelligence alone. The Advantage provides a foundational construct for conducting business in a new way—one that maximizes human potential and aligns the organization around a common set of principles.

Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

The Advantage

A decent reminder to lead with clarity but nothing ground-breaking. Geared more towards executives.

Chad McElligott

matej yangwao

** spoiler alert **
           Found calm place and avenues to exchange ideas, even leadership thinks meetings is useless one need find way to infuse clarity into own herd of trusted and vulnerable subordinates.

Seems clarity of goal is everything

>Organizational health is important because it relieves the firm from any in-house competition and gears all members of staff toward a common goal that favors the company at large.

≥These methods will, in turn, form the framework for the day-to-day running of the firm without any glitch or difficulty.

≥A successful leadership team shouldn’t contain more than ten and not less than three people. This way, the strength of the group directly affects the quality of the decisions made by it.

≥A good leadership team must create a system of vulnerability and trust within themselves to have full transparency amongst them.

≥Without trust and vulnerability, no team is expected to succeed; trust is the glue that holds any group together.

≥There will be no room for misunderstanding. Each person leaves the meeting with a good grip on what was agreed upon, and the objective is shared by all that were present.

≥If people don’t weigh in, they can’t buy in.

≥A group that actively adheres to its goals and commitments and holds each member accountable for a derailment will function smoothly—there isn’t just one person in charge of keeping check; everyone is keeping everyone on their toes.

≥A good team knows to place their individual goals aside and pool together resources first to achieve the collective goal of the team.

≥The leadership team will succeed if it regards its separate goals and objectives as secondary to those of the group. This way, they can dedicate their full-time effort to the task required to complete the general objective.

≥As leadership teams strengthen their bond, they are afforded the sixth sense of clarity due to the new ability to be fully open to all.

≥Once there is a lucid idea of what the organization stands for and what makes it different from the rest, it will stand out from its competition.

≥Clarity in the direction the team wants to take the company is vital because it gives a plain path to avoid copying the competition’s tactics or goals. The trick is to be better than the norm, not to conform to it. When there is an understandable mission or target, there is a margin for success or failure for the team.

≥You can’t beat having team members who are pleasant and friendly to each other and are both good at and love what they are doing. No program, activity, or set of rules tops having happy and fulfilled employees who feel that what they are doing matters.

≥There should be a weekly or monthly briefing where updated memos are read aloud, and the team members are made fully aware of whatever new expectations they are to meet.

≥It is the responsibility of each member to instill the goals and values of the organization into their respective departments and units.

≥It will cost less for a company to hire people who fit the firm’s criteria instead of hiring anyone and training them to fit in with the firm’s objectives.

≥The meeting location should be somewhere calm enough to discuss the important strategies without the pressure of the actual workplace.

≥When a firm has a healthy structure, it has minimal in-house politics, minimal confusion, high morals, high productivity, and lower turnover.

≥This decision starts with setting up a team of leaders and not depending solely on the opinions and decisions of one person.

≥The most well-intentioned, well-designed departmental communication program will not tear down silos unless the people who created those silos want them torn down.

Dweedle 

Lots of practical, how to advice on organizational health.

Omar Fernandez

This book contains a lot of practical wisdom. The maladies that plague most teams are common, trust issues, lack of commitment to shared goals, difficulty challenging each other. It's no wonder that most of us dread meetings, who wants to waste their time in inconsequential meetings where you don't learn or challenge each other to improve?

This book offers simple, yet powerful, solutions and cites examples from companies the author has worked with.

Adam

At my work (Pluralsight / Code School), I noticed this book was on the list of recommended reading for leadership. After reading it, I realized just how many of the core concepts of this book have found their way into our culture and behavior here. Some of the top takeaways to me that this one recommends include: know why your organization exists, have monthly 1-on-1's with everyone on your team or your top people will leave, have a solid leadership team, inspire vulnerability based trust, understand core values, have productive and targeted meetings.

The Advantage Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

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