The Advantage (eBook)

Patrick M. Lencioni is founder and president of The TableGroup, a management consulting firm specializing in organizationalhealth and executive team development. As a consultant and keynotespeaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives inorganizations ranging from Fortune 500 and mid-size companies tostart-ups and nonprofits. Lencioni is the author of nine businessbooks with over three million copies sold worldwide. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and four boys.

Introduction xv

The case for organizational health 1

The four Disciplines model 15

Discipline 1: Build a Cohesive Leadership Team 19

Discipline 2: Create Clarity 73

Discipline 3: Overcommunicate Clarity 141

Discipline 4: Reinforce Clarity 153

The Centrality of Great Meetings 173

Seizing the Advantage 189

Checklist for Organizational Health 195

More Resources 199

Notes 201

Acknowledgments 203

About the Author 205

Index 207

Consulting executive Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) has an answer for floundering businesses--aim for organizational health. In other words, businesses that are whole, consistent, and complete, with complementary management, operations, strategy, and culture. Today, the vast majority of organizations have more than enough intelligence, experience, and knowledge to be successful. Organizational health is neither sexy nor quantifiable, which is why more people don't take advantage. However, improved health will not only create a competitive advantage and better bottom line, it will boost morale. Lencioni covers four steps to health: build a cohesive leadership team, create clarity, overcommunicate clarity, and reinforce clarity. Through examples of his own experiences and others', he addresses the behaviors of a cohesive team, peer-to-peer accountability, office politics and bureaucracy and strategy, and how all organizations should strive to make people's lives better. This smart, pithy, and practical guide is a must-read for executives and other businesspeople who need to get their proverbial ducks back in a row. (Apr.) (Publishers Weekly, 1/16/12)