On a recent trip to Belize with the PathLight board, one of the board members suggested I read The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. Most of Lencioni’s books are in my library but for whatever reason this one got past me.
My mistake. This might be his best ever.
The subtitle of the book sums it up nicely, “Why organizational health trumps everything else in business.” Think about that for a moment — Lencioni is saying organizational health trumps strategy, product, marketing, service, hard work and talent.
Anyone who has run any kind of organization will intuitively sense the truth in this statement. If your organization isn’t healthy, it won’t matter if you have the best product and people around you. Dysfunction will seep into the crevices of daily operations and disrupt all the good things about your work.
I’ve seen this happen in both nonprofit and for-profit work. Actually, I’ve been the cause of it more times than I’m willing to admit. Or at least been party to the dysfunction. Lencioni offers really practical advice — down to the way meetings should happen — to steer the reader toward creating a healthy environment.
A great book. Even if you don’t work in an unhealthy organization, it’s worth reading so you can put the pieces together to keep it from ever becoming one.