“The health of an organization”, writes Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012), “provides the context for strategy, finance, marketing, technology, and everything else that happens within it, which is why it is the single greatest factor determining an organization’s success.” As Lencioni explains, there are two fundamental strategic choices, being smart or being healthy. Being smart is about strategy, marketing, finances, and technology, and, to a degree, it is something of a commodity. Many other organizations can have what your company has.
However, Lencioni points out that being healthy, i.e. having “minimal politics and confusion, high degree of morale and productivity, and very low turnover among good employees”, is not something every other organization can have. “An organization that is healthy,” writes Lencioni, “will inevitably get smarter over time…. In contrast, smart organizations don’t seem to have any greater chance of getting healthier by virtue of their intelligence. In fact, the reverse may actually be true because leaders who pride themselves on expertise and intelligence often struggle to acknowledge their flaws and learn from peers.”
One important strategic choice we need to make as we head into fall is to make sure our teams are getting healthier. As Lencioni notes, “If an organization is led by a team that is not behaviorally unified, there is no chance that it will become healthy…. Becoming a real team requires an intentional decision on the part of its members…. teamwork is not a virtue. It is a choice - and a strategic one.”
When we look at the important strategic choices we need to make this late summer into fall so we can survive the rest of 2020 and be well positioned to thrive in 2021 and 2022, we all need teams that have a solid foundation of trust, the capacity to engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas, and the ability to commit to decisions and plans of action.
With the ongoing complex and complicated problems that we need to solve during the next six to eight weeks, we also must have members on our team who can advocate well for their ideas and ask respectful questions to seek clarity about another person’s statement of advocacy. It is the combination of advocacy and inquiry that will generate effective and resilient solutions.
If you have the time and energy, I encourage you to read or re-read the aforementioned book. It will help you to build a healthy and ultimately a smart organization.
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