The Advantage, Enhanced Edition: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

by Patrick Lencioni

The enhanced edition includes over 30 minutes of video featuring author Patrick Lencioni exploring the book's concepts more in-depth and providing new illustrative stories.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Professional Development, Buisness, Audiobook

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 13, 2012

About the author

Patrick Lencioni is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, consultant and founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping organizations become healthy. Lencioni’s ideas around leadership, teamwork and employee engagement have impacted organizations around the globe. His books have sold nearly three million copies worldwide.

When Lencioni is not writing, he consults to CEOs and their executive teams, helping them to become more cohesive within the context of their business strategy. The widespread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, universities and churches. In addition, Lencioni speaks to thousands of leaders each year at world class organizations and national conferences. He was recently cited in the Wall Street Journal as one of the most sought-after business speakers in the nation.

Prior to founding his firm, he worked as a corporate executive for Sybase, Oracle and Bain & Company. He also served on the National Board of Directors for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.

Reviews

[Gabriela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars because I'm rating it as it is: a detailed checklist on how to build a cohesive team, set goals, communicate within the organization, have effective meetings, and so on (otherwise, I'd give it a 2 for an awful writing style, rushed last part and general consultant patronizing feel). It is like listening to a person you don't like at all, and yet knowing that there's some sense and truth in what he says. I'm focusing on the latter.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Some takeaways:

"The seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre or unsuccessful ones has little, if anything, to do with what they know or how smart they are; it has everything to do with how healthy they are. An organization that is healthy will inevitably get smarter over time. That's because people in a healthy organization, beginning with the leaders, learn from one another, identify critical issues, and recover quickly from mistakes."

There are six critical questions leaders must giver their employees:
1. Why do we exist?
2. How do we behave?
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
5. What is most important, now?
6. Who must do what?

[Pavel Annenkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Патрик Ленсиони один из немногих авторов, у которого надо прочитать все книги. Тема этой книги - культура и ценности компании. Об этом много говорят, но, к сожалению, мало делают. Особенно в российских компаниях. Уверен, что книга убедит всех скептически настроенных руководителей, что культура и ценности - это не пустой звук, а отличный инструмент для управления бизнесом и повышения прибыли.

Эту книгу мы обсуждали на июньской встрече моего Книжного бизнес-клуба «12». Странно, конечно, перевели название книги на русский)

О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Ленсиони показывает важность культуры компании и её влияние на результаты деятельности бизнеса. Он разбивает процесс внедрения культуры(еще он называет это «здоровьем организации») на 4 этапа и подробно описывает работу над каждым из них. В заключительной части книги Ленсиони дает нам систему поддержки и развития культуры компании.

ГЛАВНАЯ МЫСЛЬ КНИГИ:
У большинства руководителей не доходят руки до разработки ценностей и построения культуры в своей компании. И очень зря. Примеры успешных компаний показывают, что это несложный в реализации, понятный и системный процесс.

КАКАЯ БЫЛА ЦЕЛЬ ЧТЕНИЯ:
Получить еще один взгляд на то, что такое культура в бизнесе и новые инструменты её внедрения и поддержки.

ГЛАВНЫЕ ВЫВОДЫ:
- В каждой организации есть два больших блока. Умение и Здоровье. Под умением мы понимаем основные управленческие составляющие бизнеса:
1. Менеджмент
2. Маркетинг
3. Стратегия
4. Финансы
5. IT
6. Производство

Говоря про Здоровье, мы подразумеваем культуру и ценности компании. Здоровье - это фундамент. В долгосрочной перспективе оно важнее умения.

- Обладание умением управлять - это сейчас входной билет на любой рынок. А вот наличие отличной культуры в компании позволит не просто работать и зарабатывать, а получать сверхприбыли и быть устойчивым на долгие годы.

- Уровень культуры в организации, в отличии от размеров её оборотов и прибыли, нельзя измерить. Поэтому про неё так мало пишут.

- Внедрение культуры и ценностей состоит из 4 этапов:
1. Создание атмосферы ясности в компании.
2. Построение слаженной команды.
3. Донесение ясности для всех.
4. Усиление ясности.

- Ясность в компании - это когда все сотрудники работают согласованно надо одними и те же целями и четко их знают и разделяют.

- Чтобы в компании была полная ясность надо ответить на 6 вопросов:
1. Why do we exist? Зачем мы существуем?
2. How do we behave? Как мы себя ведем?
3. What do we do? Что мы делаем?
4. How will we succeed? Как мы будем достигать успеха?
5. What is most important, right now? Что самое важное сейчас?
6. Who must do what? Кто и что должен делать?

- Нельзя избегать и уходить от конфликтов в команде. Конфликт - это знак, что надо решать проблемы. Но при этом надо помнить, что у каждого человека, в силу его психотипа и воспитания, разное отношение к конфликтам.

- Нам проще высказывать подчиненным претензии по цифрам, чем указывать на их недостатки в поведении. А ведь, как правило, не достижение результатов по цифрам - это результат неправильного поведения.

- Руководители отделов должны ставить интересы и цели команды управленцев, в которую они входят, выше интересов своего отдела!

- Каждая компания существует чтобы сделать жизнь других людей лучше. Всё очень просто. За это компаниям и платят. Теперь надо это сформулировать простыми словами. Так рождаются ценности компании.

- Разработка ценностей требует времени. Времени, которого у большинства нет. Для этого нужны непрерывные отрезки в несколько дней с последующим обсуждением и выработкой четких и ясных формулировок.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Буду четко разделять три типа ценностей в компании. Ключевые, которые вообще не обсуждаются, те, к которым компания стремится и случайные ценности.
- Попробую подход, когда повестка еженедельной встречи команды создаётся не заранее, а в первые 5 минут совещания.

ЕЩЁ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
📗Дэниел Койл «Культурный код»
📗Дэйв Логан «Лидер и племя»

[Mindaugas Mozūras · Rating 5 out of 5]

No magazine or newspaper wants to run a story about a humble leader who continues to run her medium-sized company with discipline, common sense, and consistency.

I found “The Advantage” to be a great practical overview of how to create organizational health. Meant for senior leaders, but it might be interesting for any leader. Many of the concepts can be further explored in other books by the author.

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отличная книга по оргкультуре. В рекомендуемые для менеджеров

[Nathan Swedberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the core value of one company being that everyone = floor sweepers...
I see that at Milestone - everyone is willing to pick up something off the floor, no matter their station.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful overview of management and principles for running a business (of any form). Advocates for strategic values, agreement on messaging by upper management, and clear, transparent communication.

[Федор Кривов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Создать сплоченную команду руководителей - обрести ясность - распространить ясность - усилить ясность.
Команда руководителей – это малая группа людей, которые несут коллективную ответственность за достижение общих целей организации.
1. Установить доверие. Доверие, основанное на уязвимости. Когда каждый знает, что в команде все откровенны и никто не прячет свои слабости или ошибки, то возникает глубокое, необыкновенное доверие. Упражнение «рассказ о моей жизни». CEO показывает пример. Профилирование - MBTI, Афанасьев, ProcessCom
2. Управление конфликтом
3. Достижение ответственности
4. Взаимная подотчетность
5. Концентрация на результатах

Обрести ясность:
1. Почему мы существуем? (миссия)
2. Как мы себя ведем? (ценности)
3. Что мы будем делать? (видение)
4. Как мы добьемся успеха? (стратегия)
5. Что важнее всего прямо сейчас? (ключевой приоритет в данный момент)
6. Кто за что отвечает? (зоны ответственности)
Важны не правильные ответы, а ответы, которые разделяет команда руководителей. Избегайте парализующего совершенства.

После совещания. Распространить в тот же день. Письмо гораздо хуже, чем собрание.

Усилить ясность

Члены команды руководителей могут быть уверены, что выполнили этот обязательный шаг, если дают положительный ответ на следующие утверждения.
– Организация использует простые методы, позволяющие гарантировать, что новые сотрудники проходят тщательный отбор на основе ценностей компании.
– Сотрудники, поступающие на работу в организацию, тщательно изучают шесть элементов организационной ясности.
– Все менеджеры организации пользуются простой, последовательной и небюрократической системой постановки целей и оценки достижений подчиненных. Данная система выстроена на основе элементов ясности.
– Сотрудники, не разделяющие ценностей компании, покидают коллектив. Сотрудники, показывающие неудовлетворительные результаты работы, но соответствующие ценностям организации, проходят профессиональное обучение и получают необходимую помощь.
– Система компенсаций и вознаграждений строится на основе ценностей и целей организации.

[Tung · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I absolutely detest business books. For me, they are self-help books (which I also detest) for monolithic organizations. I don’t care about the habits of leaders; I don’t care about the dysfunctions of teams; I don’t care about strategy or process improvements. I read for good prose (which all business books lack), and I read for good stories (also, which business books lack). Every business book I’ve ever read I read because I was forced to read them; reading this book was for the same reason. Lencioni is a well-known business consultant who has worked with many successful and unsuccessful organizations, and who has written several popular business book. In this book, he reveals what he considers the secret of what separates great organizations from terrible ones. Ready for the secret? The best companies: build good teams, have a clear vision/mission, and communicate that well. Lencioni provides details about why each component matters, and how to discern whether or not your organization implements that component well. Throughout, he also provides personal anecdotes about organizations that succeeded and or failed in each area. My problems remain that I have no investment in businesses, so I don't care about the subject matter. I also wish he didn’t provide each anecdote anonymously – I would have found it eminently better if he had included the real names of the anecdotes he used; for all I know he made them all up. The book is a quick read, so I’m sure the audience for which this book was intended will enjoy it.

[Ray Bliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

The Advantage is about organizational health improvement. The four disciplines are building a cohesive leadership team, create clarity, over communicate clarity and reinforce clarity. That might not sound like much to you, but it’s everything. Having read almost all of Patrick Lencioni’s books, this is the first one I read that was not a parable. That made it a little difficult to start really getting into but once I reached page 20 I was hooked. What he presents is so uncomplicated and easy to follow, that you would assume (there I go using that word) that everyone would already be doing this. Sadly many businesses do not follow these simple principles, despite them not wanting to see their company fail. I feel Mr. Lencioni’s books should be required reading for anyone in management and above or anyone looking to be in a leadership position. All of his books have a comprehensive cohesion that fit together nicely with all his other books.

If you have never read any of Patrick’s books, start with “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.” To pass up his works I feel your doing a great disservice to your business, team and employees.

As a final note, please grab your highlighter, as every book has great things you will want to remember.

[Egia Chaparyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Настольная книга для любого руководителя, да и каждого человека, работающего в команде. Читать и применять. Почему-то зачастую команды рассматриваются, как набор людей с определенными навыками, хотя это та же семья, основой которой является доверие. Мы проводим на работе больше времени, чем где-либо еще, наши коллеги - это больше, чем люди, выполняющие свои рабочие задачи. Здоровая команда - основа не только процветания бизнеса, но и личного комфорта и счастья.

Рекомендую к прочтению: становитесь лучше сами, и вы захотите сделать лучше мир вокруг себя!

[Kendra · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a former high school English teacher, I would have FAILED Lencioni. Never have I seen arguments so sloppily built and glaringly lacking specificity. I got an hour into the audiobook and had no evidence that Lencioni had ever actually met another person, let alone that he had any expertise in business worth listening to.

Coming on the heels of Kim Scott's magnificent RADICAL CANDOR, this was a non-starter for me.

[Samuel Kassing · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) Create a unified leadership team.
2) get clear on your number one value and priority.
3) Communicate this clearly.
4) Reinforce this over and over again.

When it comes to systems Lencioni is helpful. It’s common sense organizational sociology. Sadly it’s far easier said than done.

[Robert Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somewhat ashamedly, I loved this book. These concepts make sense- and should at least be thought about by every organization.

[Brett Monge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve read by Lencioni and I really enjoyed it. The premise is simple: the single greatest “x factor” that gives an organization, company, church, or team an advantage is their internal health as a unit. This comes when leaders in an organization stave off confusion by fighting to pursue lock-step unity with one another around their ideals, values, and purpose for existing. Once this happens, leaders must clearly articulate and actively communicate their values and their plan to carry out those values repeatedly and effectively to the rest of their team.

There were a lot of little nuggets that I took away from this book, and it inspired me to rethink the way that I lead my teams. I plan to read more by Lencioni in the future.

[Bailey L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a must read for anyone who wants to run a healthy organization. He provides the six questions every leader must ask and answer with their team in order to be effective when it comes to vision, mission, goals, strategy, and objectives. It includes how to develop trust on a team, how to think about performance evaluations, how to run effective meetings, and what kind of meetings to have in the first place. Highly recommend.

[Morgan Ratcliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very pragmatic approach to leadership 101. Reads much like a checklist, as another reviewer mentioned, and is a bit redundant if you regularly read or engage with other leadership content. I did make some highlights I’d go back to - especially tips and tricks for coaching my team on being new people leaders.

[Lainie Holland Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and easy leadership read. This has been on my list for a while and was recommended by my dad who really likes this author. It’s a good overview of concept he dives deeper into in other books so I’d be curious to read more from him.

[Beth Melillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to like this, because it's positive and simple but I also hate it, because it's generic pablum.

[Yaniv Preiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very actionable.
Especially loved the part about company values.
Not sure how it plays together with other methodologies such as OKRs.

[Lia D'Amico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos melhores e mais importantes livros para quem lidera organizações. Muito didático e simples, com dicas e ferramentas práticas.

[Lindsay Tresansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lencioni is one of my favorite business leaders to learn from. "The Advantage" might pack the most punch in terms of the advice Lencioni offers, but being a personal fan of his fable style, it was my least favorite book of his to read. That isn't because it is poorly written, it is just written in a typical business style.

In "The Advantage," Lencioni asks the question: what is the most important thing a business can do? The answer to that isn't found in an organization's strategy, intelligence, or hiring practices. The answer is creating a healthy culture. Lencioni says, “The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health.”

He considers, "The seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre or unsuccessful ones has little, if anything, to do with what they know or how smart they are; it has everything to do with how healthy they are. An organization that is healthy will inevitably get smarter over time. That's because people in a healthy organization, beginning with the leaders, learn from one another, identify critical issues, and recover quickly from mistakes."

I couldn't agree more. How does one achieve organizational health? The best companies build good teams, have a clear mission, and communicate that well. “There is no such thing as too much communication," Lencioni says. Clarity, Lencioni argues, is obtained by establishing and reinforcing behaviors, and answering six important questions.

Those six critical questions leaders must giver their employees are:
1. Why do we exist?
2. How do we behave?
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
5. What is most important, now?
6. Who must do what?

Creating a healthy organization is a magnet for attracting not just high level performers, but high level performers who are a good fit with the organization. Healthy organizations get the best out of every employee, and align employees in a unified goal.

The responsibility of creating healthy organizations, of course, lies on the leader. Lencioni says, “The only way for the leader of a team to create a safe environment for his team members to be vulnerable is by stepping up and doing something that feels unsafe and uncomfortable first. By getting naked before anyone else, by taking the risk of making himself vulnerable with no guarantee that other members of the team will respond in kind, a leader demonstrates an extraordinary level of selflessness and dedication to the team. And that gives him the right, and the confidence, to ask others to do the same.”

"The Advantage" is a helpful book. For those who prepare a cut-to-the-chase style, it might even be your favorite Lencioni book. While it isn't my favorite, I certainly recommend. it.

[Jeff Burket · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had not read any Lencioni before this; that might have to change. From what I understand, several of his other books use narrative stories to convey leadership points; this book sought to bring together many of those lessons together with the key focus: that organizational health is the most important thing for a leader to focus on and for an organization to succeed. On why he wrote the book on organizational health: "it has never been presented as a simple, integrated, and practical discipline."

Highly recommend this book to anyone who is in a leadership role within an organization (large or small). Going forward, I think it important to ensure an intentional approach to "organizational health" first and foremost. I know I've got a lot to learn and grow and this books is helping me think and better go about that developmental process.

"An organization has integrity - is healthy - when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense....A good way to recognize health is to look for signs that indicate an organization has it. These include minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of morale and productivity, and very low turnover among good employees."

"The vast majority of organizations today have more than enough intelligence, expertise, and knowledge to be successful. What they lack is organizational health."

He organizes the book around 4 disciplines:
1) Build a cohesive leadership team
2) Create clarity (answering and committing to answers on 6 questions)
3) Overcommunicate clarity
4) Reinforce clarity
"...When organization's leaders are cohesive, when they are unambiguously aligned around a common set of answers to a few critical questions, when they communicate those answers again and again, and when they put effective processes in place to reinforce those answers, they create an environment in which success is almost impossible to prevent. Really."

Building a Cohesive Leadership Team, 5 behavioral principles to embrace:
1) Building trust: vulnerability-based trust; a willingness of people to abandon pride and fear, to sacrifice ego for the collective good of the team; avoid fundamental attribution errors; seek to understand more than be understood; leaders go first - if a team leader is reluctant to acknowledge his or her mistake or fails to admit a weakness that is evident to everyone else, there is littlehope that other members of the team are going to do so.
2) Mastering Conflict: when there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer; one of best ways for leader to raise the level of health conflict is to go mining for confuct during meanings, giving positive feedback in real-time for pushing into uncomfortable areas,
3) Achieving Commitment: give everyone a chance to provide input, ask questions and understand rationale but don't misinterpret this as a need for complete consensus. Most people are reasonable and can rally behind an idea that wasn't their own as long as they know they've had a chance to weigh in. Leave meetings with clear-cut, active, and specific agreements around decisions.
4) Embracing Accountability: Peer to peer accountability is the primary and most effective source of accountability on leadership teams (i.e. accountability does not come just from the leader). To hold someone accountable is to care about them enough to risk having them blame you for pointing out their deficiencies. Dont justify not giving hard feedback to your employee, an honest assessment shows its a selfish act so you dont feel bad, not so they dont feel bad. There is nothing noble about withholding information that can help an employee improve.
5) Focusing on Results: No matter how good a leadership team feels about itself or noble its mission, if the organization does not achieve its goals then its not a good team. Everyone has to row in the same direction, one team. There is no "your side of the boat is sinking." Teams that lead healthy organizations come to terms with the difficult but critical requirement that its members must put the needs of the higher team ahead of the needs of their department.

To Create Clarity as a team, focus on having honest answers about 6 questions. Even subtle misalignment/confusion at the top and gaps between executives causes significant damage. ALignment and clarity are not achieved instantly with a series of buzzwords: "it requires a much more rigorous and unpretentious approach."
1) Why do we exist? (has to be real, has to be important/inspirational)
2) How do we behave? (if you tolerate everything, you stand for nothing; what are core vs. aspirational values)
3) What do we do? (one sentence practical description)
4) How will we succeed (intentional decisions made to bring about success, walk away from some opportunities that arent strategically aligned with you)
5) What is most important, right now? (have one top priority for a given period of time; this avoids being pulled in different directions or being in silos; start with thematic goal - the one thing you really want to have accomplished int he next 6 months. Then create defining objectives that are necessary to bring about that end state.
6) Who must do what? (be clear about roles and lines of responsibility

Overcommunicate Clarity:
"Great leaders seem themselves as Chief Reminding Officers as much as anything else." Its more than repetition; the message/communication has to come through multiple sources and channels; most important is still word of mouth throughout the organization. Messaging must be consistent and timely. Team leads shold leave meetings with clear/specific agreements on what to communicate to employees; and employees should be able to articulate he organization's reason for existence, values, strategic anchors, and goals.

Reinforce Clarity:
Structures and procedures must reinforce answers to the 6 questions. Does not require complicated systems; "an organization has to institutionalize its culture without bureaucratizing it." Have just enough structure in place with hiring/interviewing to ensure a measure of consistency with and adherence to core values.
"Many leaders convince themselves that employees are motivated primarily by money. As a result, they discount the impact of authentic and specific expressions of appreciation."
"Keeping a relatively strong performer who is not a cultural fit sends a loud and clear message to employees that the organization isnt all that serious about what it says it believes."

"Leaders have to ensure they are having the right kinds of meetings, and they must make those meetings effective...[then] they can look forward to their meetings....they get real work done in those meetings which makes their lies, and the lives of their employees, better as a result."

[Joya Cousin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This easy-to-read leadership handbook is Patrick Lencioni's follow up effort to his earlier and very effectively presented business fables. The subtitle - why organizational health trumps everything else in business - is a theme that resonates with me, and would with any manager who knows what attempting to lead in a dysfunctional organizational feels like. Nothing gets done until you fix the core issues.

Lencioni presents the deceptively simple 4 disciplines model, which is centered on building cohesiveness throughout an organization through clarity. Clarity is obtained by establishing and reinforcing 5 behaviors, and continually answering 6 important questions.

To some, this approach may seem too touchy-feely, but in my experience, this is where the real hard work lies. Investing the intensive effort and high levels of discipline required to tackle destructive problems such as lack of trust will put dedicated leaders on the right track toward transforming even very troubled organizations.

I recommend this book, and Patrick Lencioni's work in general, to any General Manager or CEO seeking to achieve lasting results by build a humane, effective and resilient organization.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author calls it "organizational health." I prefer to think of it as an authentic organization. Health gives the impression that it's a matter of following a regiment of good habits. Whereas authentic implies that it has to come from within the individuals. The book applies to leaders of an organization, not so much to workers. If you're not a manager, you will probably not get to practice the first discipline of building a cohesive team (build trust, work through conflicts, commit to decisions, be accountable, and focus on results). The other three disciplines really need to come from the top leadership of the organization - create clarity in purpose and direction of the organization, over communicate that message, and reinforce that message.

[Barnabas Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone in a position of influence or hoping to be in a position of influence should read this book. Whether you are in a non-profit context, a church, a start-up or in big business this is magnificently useful and practical. Lencioni manages to boil down hard concepts into simple and concrete filter questions that will guide you to better organizational health. He does a brilliant job of exemplifying why this health, more than anything else, will determine the success of your organization. I highly recommend this book.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

My pastor had all the team leaders at our church read this book. Leadership organization and business books are not usually my cup of tea, though they can be quite helpful. This one was great! I see lots of lessons and principles in here to use in my full-time ministry as well as my volunteer work at my church. It is great for ministry leaders, but is not faith based. Actually, it barely mentions churches at all. So if you're a business leader, this book would be great for you too. Basically, anyone who leads people and works with teams could benefit from this.

[Peter Krol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I've been looking for. I'm a fan of all Lencioni's business works, and I've been wishing that he had a single place where he would synthesize all his ideas. This is it.

Unless you prefer the fable approach to illustrate every point, this is the book for you. Now, to go about developing better organizational health.

[Ashik Uzzaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today I finished the first book of 2021, "The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business" by Patrick Lencioni. In this book, the author introduces a model for achieving success for companies through organizational health. The following four disciplines are necessary for a healthy organization.

DISCIPLINE 1: BUILD A COHESIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

The first and most critical step in a healthy organization is creating a cohesive leadership team that is committed to do the ongoing work of developing and maintaining a high-performing team and mastering the five behaviors outlined in the book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team".

(1) Being open and building trust
(2) Engaging in constructive ideological conflict
(3) Committing to clear decisions
(4) Holding one another accountable for behaviors and performance
(5) Focusing on collective results

DISCIPLINE 2: CREATE CLARITY

Creating clarity at the executive level is essential to building and maintaining a healthy organization. There are six simple but critical questions that need to be answered, eliminating all discrepancies among team members.

(1) Why do we exist?
(2) How do we behave?
(3) What do we do?
(4) How will we succeed?
(5) What is most important, right now?
(6) Who must do what?

The author detailed on the idea of a thematic goal or a rallying cry to answer the fifth question above in his book "Silos, Politics and Turf Wars".

DISCIPLINE 3: OVERCOMMUNICATE CLARITY

Once a leadership team has become cohesive and established clarity around the six critical questions, they need to communicate the answers to employees over and over again. There are specific communication strategies the leadership team can employ to ensure that messaging is consistent and absorbed by employees.

DISCIPLINE 4: REINFORCE CLARITY

For an organization to be healthy, organizational clarity (the six critical questions) must become embedded into the fabric of the organization. Systems in the following areas need to tie to the six questions: Recruiting and hiring The Ideal Team Player, managing performance, compensation and rewards, and real-time recognition.

In addition to these four steps, it is essential that a healthy organization get better at the one activity that underpins everything it does: meetings. Without making a few simple but fundamental changes to the way meetings happen, a healthy organization will struggle to maintain what it has worked hard to build. The author talks more about the four types of meetings in his book "Death by Meetings".

Source: http://www.dragon-bishop.com/2021/01/...