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The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business Hardcover – March 13, 2012
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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.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJossey-Bass
- Publication dateMarch 13, 2012
- Dimensions9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
- ISBN-100470941529
- ISBN-13978-0470941522
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From the brand
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Patrick Lencioni is the pioneer of the organizational health movement and the author of 13 bestselling books, including, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage, and The Ideal Team Player. For the past 25 years, Pat and his firm, The Table Group, have provided leaders with products and services to make their organizations more effective, their teams more cohesive, and their employees more fulfilled.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Inside Flap
“Organizational health will
one day surpass all other
disciplines in business as
the greatest opportunity
for improvement and
competitive advantage.”
This is the promise of The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni’s bold manifesto about the most unexploited opportunity in modern business. In his immensely readable and accessible style, Lencioni makes the case that there is no better way to achieve profound improvement in an organization than by attacking the root causes of dysfunction, politics, and confusion.
While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy, and technology, Lencioni demonstrates that there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath them. Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have.
The author of numerous best-selling business fables including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting, Lencioni here draws upon his twenty years of writing, field research, and executive consulting to some of the world’s leading organizations. He combines real-world stories and anecdotes with practical, actionable advice to create a work that is at once a great read and an invaluable, hands-on tool. The result is, without a doubt, Lencioni’s most comprehensive, significant, and essential work to date.
From the Back Cover
Praise for The Advantage
“The Advantage has more common sense in its 200 pages than I have ever found in a business book. A must-read.”
―Colleen Barrett, president emeritus, Southwest Airlines Co.; coauthor, Lead with LUV
“Here is the next business classic. Even the best leaders will read this and wonder, ‘Why aren’t we already doing this?’”
―Enrique Salem, president and CEO, Symantec
“For more than a decade I’ve been using Lencioni’s approach to run the departments I lead, and it has never failed me.”
―Rick Friedel, vice president, AT&T Service Management
“Our teams and leaders have really embraced Lencioni’s methodology. We’ve put these ideas into practice and we’re experiencing the results that prove it works.”
―David Gordon, COO, The Cheesecake Factory
“In The Advantage, Lencioni cuts through the corporate ‘bull’ that creates a culture of stonewalling and feet-dragging, and shows leaders at every level how to build up a culture of productivity and communication.”
―Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host
About the Author
Patrick M. Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational health and executive team development. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 and mid-size companies to start-ups and nonprofits. Lencioni is the author of 11 best-selling books including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Ideal Team Player.
To learn more about Patrick, and the products and services offered by his firm, The Table Group, please visit www.tablegroup.com.
Product details
- Publisher : Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (March 13, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0470941529
- ISBN-13 : 978-0470941522
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #7,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Business & Organizational Learning
- #106 in Business Management (Books)
- #154 in Leadership & Motivation
- Customer Reviews:
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Mid-life Finds
About the author
Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders improve their organizations’ health since 1997. His principles have been embraced by leaders around the world and adopted by organizations of virtually every kind including multinational corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, professional sports teams, the military, nonprofits, schools, and churches.
Lencioni is the author of ten business books with over three million copies sold worldwide. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, and USA Today.
Prior to founding The Table Group, Lencioni served on the executive team at Sybase, Inc. He started his career at Bain & Company and later worked at Oracle Corporation.
Lencioni lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their four sons.
To learn more about Patrick and The Table Group, please visit www.tablegroup.com.
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Customers find the book helpful in laying out the context for vision and values work. They describe it as useful, high-quality content with a simple yet effective approach. The book provides actionable strategies for improving team dynamics, communication, and clarity. Readers consider it worthwhile and a great seller. The author summarizes his other books and emphasizes the important parts via short videos embedded in the book.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book helpful in laying out the context for vision and values work. They appreciate the effective ideas and framework to benchmark organizations and improve leadership. The book builds upon concepts and principles from the author's other books, providing a straightforward and practical approach to effectively managing an organization and personnel. Readers also mention it delivers a simple yet powerful leadership formula that is counterintuitive.
"...Nope. It is so simple and practical, I think Lencioni was a bit embarrassed to put so many cookies on the bottom shelf...." Read more
"...Just one thing with The Advantage, no parable, just an incredible combination of teaching in all his books to lay not only why organizational health..." Read more
"...for those looking to hit the basic marks for competently managing your organization and personnel!" Read more
"...In his latest book, "The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business," Lencioni pulls together the many separate themes..." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They recommend it as valuable reading for those looking for basic concepts. The high-quality content is simple yet effective. Readers find the book engaging and thought-provoking, with 50 pages that can be transformational if applied.
"...I thought to myself, "These 50 pages are so transformational--if teams apply the wisdom with discipline and desire--it doesn't matter if the other..." Read more
"...Moving building from theory to practice builds on 5 behaviors: Trust, Mastering Conflict, Achieving Commitment, Embracing Accountability, and..." Read more
"...I recommend it as valuable reading for those looking to hit the basic marks for competently managing your organization and personnel!" Read more
"..."It's a choice." * Discipline 2: Create Clarity. Six questions help to clarify, including, "why do we exist? What do we do? Who does what?..." Read more
Customers find the book easy to understand and a practical guide for transforming any organization. They appreciate the straightforward approach to planning and the clear strategy presented eloquently. The book provides a checklist of things to do to build a healthy organization.
"...And it's so simple--it may well be the death knell for us consultant types. (Buy the book and you won't need us anymore!)..." Read more
"...What do we do?This should be the easiest to answer, and should be clear and straight forward. 4) How will we succeed?..." Read more
"...the signs within an organization that include, minimal politics, low confusion, strong morale, high productivity and very low turnover...." Read more
"...Packed with real-world examples, it’s a practical guide for transforming any workplace into a thriving, healthy environment...." Read more
Customers find the book provides actionable strategies for improving team dynamics, communication, and clarity. They appreciate the clear, engaging writing style and real-life examples. The book outlines clear strategies for improving team dynamics and communication.
"...all of this on page 173, in his next to last chapter, "The Centrality of Great Meetings." I couldn't agree more...." Read more
"...building from theory to practice builds on 5 behaviors: Trust, Mastering Conflict, Achieving Commitment, Embracing Accountability, and Focusing on..." Read more
"...a church, school, or international corporation must build trust, master conflict, achieve commitment, embrace accountability and focus on results. "..." Read more
"...Lencioni outlines clear, actionable strategies for improving team dynamics, communication, and clarity within an organization...." Read more
Customers find the book a good value. They say it's worth every penny, good for both profit-based and non-profits, with a clear outline of purpose, values, and alignment. The book is simple, free, and available to anyone.
"...Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free and available to anyone who wants it."..." Read more
"...Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to everyone who wants it."..." Read more
"...Definitely one worth picking up if you are a leader." Read more
"...health, and yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it, according to Patrick Lencioni in..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's summary of the author's other books. They find it a useful reference that brings together the key ideas and concepts from those books. The book also addresses the Who and how aspects of leadership.
"...greatest advantage any company can achieve," says this plain-speaking author/consultant (blessed with wit and wisdom) "is organizational health...." Read more
"...I enjoy the details in his other books that are brought to life with his business fables...." Read more
"The author was authentic by delivering a lot of empirical data. I appreciate the many illustrative examples of real life companies...." Read more
"...It also addresses the Who (the leader) and the How with regard to getting it done...." Read more
Customers appreciate the clear communication. They say the author lays out a clear plan and presents ideas that are easy to understand.
"...The Playbook (a few pages, on the desk and in every meeting), Cascading Communication, Performance Management..." Read more
"...For effective communications, for example, a healthy organization deals in daily check-ins, weekly tactical staff meetings, monthly strategic..." Read more
"...outlines clear, actionable strategies for improving team dynamics, communication, and clarity within an organization...." Read more
"...build a cohesive leadership team, (2) create clarity, (3) overcommunicate clarity, and (4) reinforce clarity...." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's content. Some appreciate its straightforward approach and humanistic approach, focusing on attitudes and candid relationships. However, others feel it lacks relatable stories and theory-based discussion, lacking depth and substance.
"...by reading the signs within an organization that include, minimal politics, low confusion, strong morale, high productivity and very low..." Read more
"...For those of you who love the parable style, be warned this book is not a parable...." Read more
"...Healthy organizations are ones in which there are minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, high productivity, and low turnover...." Read more
"...outline of purpose, values, and alignment, and the no-nonsense discussion of the humanity thereof. Spot on...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2012Leaders who read my book reviews know I'm on a perpetual trek (or is it a treadmill?) to find gold in them thar hills--culminating in my Top-10 books of the year list. I just found one--and it will take a rare gem to knock this one off its current perch as my Number One pick of 2012.
Any new book by Patrick Lencioni is worth the read, but this treasure--published just this month and already on the Wall Street Journal's Top-10 business books list--is in a class by itself.
Lencioni says that "bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication." He adds, "If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting."
And he says all of this on page 173, in his next to last chapter, "The Centrality of Great Meetings." I couldn't agree more. As Lencioni points out--your meetings are a barometer of everything else.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Why is this such a spectacular book? What moves it from fad-of-the-quarter, ho-hum pablum, to YOU MUST BUY THIS TODAY for every person on your senior team?
I ordered 24 copies for a CEO Dialogues roundtable last week--after reading just the first 50 pages. I thought to myself, "These 50 pages are so transformational--if teams apply the wisdom with discipline and desire--it doesn't matter if the other 150 pages are even readable."
Lencioni, who has sold more than three million business "fables," calls this book a "comprehensive, practical guide"--and it is. His goal was to bring all of the ideas from his eight books and consulting practice under the roof of one book--and he did. This one, especially, is brilliant.
"The single greatest advantage any company can achieve," says this plain-speaking author/consultant (blessed with wit and wisdom) "is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free and available to anyone who wants it." He builds his case quickly--not with fables this time but with real life peeks behind unnamed company closed doors. (Not all business or nonprofit/church leaders have it together, we soon learn.)
His model for organizational health is centered on four disciplines:
1) Build a Cohesive Leadership Team
2) Create Clarity
3) Overcommunicate Clarity
4) Reinforce Clarity
Is this just another yada, yada, yada or a big pile of nada, nada, nada? Nope. It is so simple and practical, I think Lencioni was a bit embarrassed to put so many cookies on the bottom shelf. But that's what sets this apart from all the other books in recent years--it's a comprehensive approach that any team can implement. And it's so simple--it may well be the death knell for us consultant types. (Buy the book and you won't need us anymore!)
In what I term the "Superman Syndrome," Peter Drucker said "No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings." Thus Lencioni skillfully delivers exceptional goods--for all of us average players.
Organizational health is like a family, comments Lencioni. "If the parents' relationship is dysfunctional, the family will be too." He adds, "Teamwork is not a virtue. It is a choice--and a strategic one." He paints the picture of what healthy teams look like, starting with the basics: size of teams, specific agendas when the team meets, and frequency and types of team meetings and staff meetings.
His five team behaviors (think of a pyramid from the ground up) of Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability and Results--are defined and explained in practical, practical ways in the first 70 pages. He writes, "The ultimate point of building greater trust, conflict, commitment and accountability is one thing: the achievement of results. That seems obvious, but as it turns out, one of the greatest challenges to team success is the inattention to results." (Three cheers for the Results Bucket!)
"Discipline 2: Create Clarity" is really a short-course in strategic planning without all the buzz words. His page on "BLATHER" is hilarious. "Though I can't be sure, I suspect that at some point about thirty years ago a cleverly sadistic and antibusiness consultant decided that the best way to screw up companies was to convince them that what they needed was a convoluted, jargon, and all-encompassing declaration of intent." (Think: vision and mission statements!)
I gotta end this review--but, really, I haven't even enticed you to the deep end of the pool yet. You MUST buy this book and read about: The Two-Headed CEO, the six key questions to create clarity, The Playbook (a few pages, on the desk and in every meeting), Cascading Communication, Performance Management ("Healthy organizations believe that performance management is almost exclusively about eliminating confusion."), The Price of Passivity, Behaviors Versus Measurables, The Universal Challenge of Peer Accountability, and Chief Reminder Officer.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2012The realization of the importance of organizational health is coming, and Patrick Lencioni's new book, The Advantage is leading the way. Lencioni is one of my favorite writers, his ability to weave together a story/parable that connects and then lay out principles that transform is always a winning recipe.
Just one thing with The Advantage, no parable, just an incredible combination of teaching in all his books to lay not only why organizational health trumps everything else in business (and other organizations too), but even more how to build such organizational health in your organization. Yes, there are incredible stories of how these principles have worked in his organizational life as well as those he has consulted (with names changed of course to protect both the guilty and the innocent). It's a great advantage of the book -- not just a great story in theory, but great stories gathered together from actual life experiences.
The opening line of chapter 1 captures the premise of the book, "The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to everyone who wants it."
In pursuing such organizational health, Lencioni works through a 4 disciplines model:
DISCIPLINE 1. Build a cohesive leadership team.
As Patrick says, "Teamwork is not a virtue, it's a choice." He defines a leadership team as "a small group of people who are collectively responsible for achieving a common objective for their organization."
Moving building from theory to practice builds on 5 behaviors: Trust, Mastering Conflict, Achieving Commitment, Embracing Accountability, and Focusing on Results.
I remember these from The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, especially his charge to "step into the conflict" and how much better organizational health became as I learned to step into the conflict and leverage it towards resolution.
DISCIPLINE 2. Create clarity.
This is my favorite chapter of the book as the not only asks but fleshes out 6 critical questions. Why are they critical? As Patrick writes, "What is new is the realization that none of them can be addressed in isolation; they must be answered together. Failing to achieve alignment around any one of them can prevent an organization from attaining the level of clarity necessary to become healthy."
What are the 6 critical questions? So glad you asked ...
1) Why do we exist? Think core purpose as in Jim Collins, Built to Last
2) How do we behave? Core values that are not the generic one size fits all, but the one size that fits us as in the start up company that identified "willing to sweep floors" as one of its core values. Answers to this question also addressed aspirational, accidental and permission-to-play values.
3) What do we do?This should be the easiest to answer, and should be clear and straight forward.
4) How will we succeed? Strategy is involved here, but Lencioni goes deeper speaking of "Strategic Anchors" (3 strategies that provide the context for all decision making).
5) What is most important right now? Answering this one has the most immediate impact. What is the thematic goal? What is the rallying cry that defines the next 3-6 months of focus?
6) Who must do what?Clarity for division of labor and the advantage of teams that bring multiple perspectives to accomplish the thematic goal.
The challenge I have learned in leadership is to get everyone on the same page. A cohesive team that hammers out their answers to these 6 questions is on the same page, working out of the same playbook.
DISCIPLINE 3. Overcommunicate clarity.
When I first saw this, I thought that's a bit repetitive. Exactly. 7 times to be exact. Patrick emphasizes that this is necessary to pass on the clarity, the answers to the 6 questions, the playbook to the organization.
The value I discovered in this chapter is a commitment for "the team to leave meetings with clear and specific agreements about what to communicate to their employees."
DISCIPLINE 4. Reinforce clarity.
Same as discipline 3, I thought this seems repetitive. Reading the chapter I realized this needs to be repeated from new hires to those who needed to be fired, from recognition, compensation and reward. Clarity, the playbook, the 6 questions, the cohesive commitment builds organizational health.
After laying out the case for the 4 disciplines, Patrick moves on to the advantage of great meetings. Having applied the truths of Death by Meeting to my own leadership team meetings, they do produce greater organizational health and engagement. It's my next step with this book to hammer out our answers to the 6 questions, to build our own playbook.
We have learned to focus our meetings and have found them to provide greater productivity.
The greatest challenge that I picked up from the book is when Patrick writes, "the single biggest factor determining whether an organization is going to get healthier -- or not -- is the genuine commitment and active involvement of the person in charge."
That's why I give The Advantage 5 out of 5 stars. It left me not only wanting to be a better leader of a great organization, but laid out practical principles for making that happen.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024Culture and the health of an organization are too often undervalued. I've seen where bad culture has ruined an otherwise excellent business plan and commercial value proposition. I could take exception to a couple of Lencioni's basic premises but that's not to take away from the importance of his overall body of work and his thesis. I recommend it as valuable reading for those looking to hit the basic marks for competently managing your organization and personnel!
Top reviews from other countries
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Nubia Pilar Martínez HernándezReviewed in Mexico on June 2, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Muy buen libro para entender las bases de la salud organizacional, con ejemplos, guía del paso a paso que debe seguirse.
- Annick CorriveauReviewed in Canada on January 20, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Everything in that book is so practical and useful! I love it and I feel I will return to it often!
- HBReviewed in India on September 5, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED
Very helpful to figure out why organisations fail and how to rebuild.
Must read
Simple, basic and very impactful .
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Mateo EguigurenReviewed in Spain on April 26, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Una joya en cuanto a liderazgo
El libro cubre cómo crear un ambiente de confianza para después crear una organización saludable en todos los aspectos cubriendo la cantidad de reuniones, Cómo dar retroalimentación correctamente Y cómo mantener al equipo enfocado en los resultados basado en una cultura de alto rendimiento
Mateo Eguiguren
Reviewed in Spain on April 26, 2024
Images in this review -
Caroline DuvanderReviewed in Sweden on December 19, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars The Advantage beställning
Toppen betyg, lätt att beställa, bra support, snabb leverans och Leverans på plats. Kan det bli bättre ;o)