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The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business Author: Patrick Lencioni Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2010
In the fog of war that is contemporary corporate life, soldiers move silently through shadows, glimpsed as fleeting silhouettes while reenacting scripts they inherited from corporate predecessors. They may or may not know the terrain, nor how close they are to the last frontier of competitive advantage: organizational health.
A senior leader enjoys a close relationship with Fred, a member of his team, and creates tension in the group by giving Fred a free pass for "destructive behavior." The leader confesses to a consultant that he is afraid Fred will quit if he holds him accountable, and lose that technical expertise. It is possible that he was re-enacting the "results trump all" script passed down through the ages.
The leader is subsequently confronted by his team in a meeting facilitated by the same consultant. After the team discussion, the leader and his team begin to hold Fred (and one another) accountable for their mutual commitments. But a short time later, the leader's worst fears come true when Fred leaves.
But something curious follows, perhaps unexpected by our leader. Fred's leaving invigorates the team, and their performance improves- a result the leader attributes to the new culture of real, not espoused, accountability the team embraced. The vignette ends here, but we can reasonably assume that more junior managers, perceiving alignment between their senior leaders, embrace the same norm, improving execution and results.
Moral: By holding even favored colleagues to their agreed responsibilities, the leader gained credibility, which fostered alignment around a cultural norm of peer accountability. The ensuing clarity became contagious, prompting healthier interactions and better performance.
In his tour de force, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, Patrick Lencioni makes the case for effective organizational functioning in compelling style. Drawing...