# The Advantage:Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business *Patrick Lencioni* I have read *5 Dysfunctions of a Team*, *Silos, Turf Wars and Politics*, *Death by Meeting*, as part of my MBA and had to read this because my manager at work kept referencing it. As a book, it is organized methodically and summarized well so an attention deficit executive can get the key points from the book without having to plow through it. The book pulls together material from his previous books mentioned above and some new ideas. Lencioni believes that "organizational health" is the differentiating factor to success in most companies. He believes "health" and "smartness" are the keys to success and health leads to smartness, while smartness without health can lead to failure. Organization health is built in four steps ## 1. Build a cohesive Team Lencioni's team building is a repeat of his 5 dysfunctions of a team. He suggests keeping the leadership team small and not use it as a tool for promoting people. They share common objectives and are collectively responsible for achieving them. His 5 steps for building a (leadership) team are ### 1.1. Build Trust: Members of the team should be willing to let their guard down and be vulnerable to others in the team. It should start with the leader. You are supposed to share a lot of touchy feel stuff about how you suffered in you childhood etc. to win trust and gain sympathy of teammates (/sarc). Basic idea is that the environment is comfortable for people to share ideas. ### 1.2. Encourage Conflict *if you don't weigh in, you don't buy in*. People should challenge each other in meaningful ways. If there is any disagreement it should be aired out and get debated. Leader should be *mining for conflict* - detect an unearthed disagreement and bring it to open. ### 1.3. Commitment Commitment is achieved by active participation. One example given was when leaders accepted passively a CEO's ban on business class travel but some chose not to implement it. The teams which diligently implemented felt cheated leading to a lot of bad feelings. ### 1.4. Accountability Peer accountability is best in the leadership team. They should feel free to hold each other accountable. But leader should hold subordinates accountable. Teams struggle with accountability more than other areas. Leaders find it easier to hold people accountable on metrics than behavioral issues. Behavioral problems precede performance problems. ### 1.5. Results Results metric should be common for all managers. They should achieve it together. (One Team one score). The leadership team should prioritize the team they are part of instead of the team they lead (Team number one) ## 2. Create Clarity There should be no day-light between the leaders. Only then the teams they lead can confidently execute what needs to be done. Mission statements are useless. Leaders should create a *playbook* containing answers to six questions. ### 2.1. Why do we exist? Successful organizations know why they were founded, why they exist and stay true to that reason. Reasons for existing could be serving a customer, community, a greater cause etc. The reason for existence is not a marketing tool. It is not to make money alone. It is heart felt. ### 2.2. How do we behave? He describes four types of values (3 intentional and 1 unintentional). Permission to play values are basic things like integrity. Core values are important things that organization believes and does not violate. Aspirational values are things organization wishes it had. Accidental values are unintentional values the organization comes to believe in that can be dangerous if not recognized. ### 2.3. What do we do? Detailed descriptions of what the organization does. ### 2.4. How will we succeed? This is the team's strategy. Look at all aspects of your business and make strategic choices. Strategy can and should change according to environment ### 2.5. What is most important, right now? Teams work well when there is a single area of focus like in a hospital emergency room or a fire fighter. Hence the leader should create a rallying cry that is singular, qualitative, temporary and shared across the team. *If we were to accomplish only one thing in x month what will it be?* ### 2.6. Who must do what? Clear roles and responsibilities ## 3. Over-communicate Clarity Employees won't believe what the leaders are communicating to them until they've heard it seven times. If a leader repeats it it must be important. ## 4. Reinforce clarity Clarity is reinforced in various HR activities such as *recruitment & hiring, orientation, performance management, compensation, rewards and recognition and firing*. ## 5. Importance of good meetings Four meetings are needed 1. Daily Check-in 5-10 mins 2. Weekly staff meeting 3. Ad-hoc Topical meeting 4. Quarterly off-site meeting End each meeting (other than daily stand-up) with clarity on what has been agreed to and what was accomplished. # Quotes > Being smart -as critical as it is- has become something of a commodity. It is simply permission to play, a minimum standard for having even a possibility of success. > Teamwork is not a virtue. It is a choice - and a strategic one. > It is only when colleagues speak up and put their opinions on the table, without holding back, that the leader can confidently fulfill one of the most important responsibilities: breaking ties. > The more comfortable a leader is holding people on a team accountable, the less likely she is to be asked to do so. The less likely she is to confront people, the more she'll be called on to do it by the subordinates who aren't willing to do her dirty work for her. > Every company must have some sort of value proposition - a compelling reason that customers or constituents want to interact with it. And at the heart o that interaction is is the exploration of a better life. > An organization's strategy is simply its plan for success. It's nothing more than the collection of intentional decisions a company makes to give itself the best chance to thrive and differentiate from competitors