The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business

"The Advantage" shows readers how to give their organizations a health check, and offers some simple steps they can take to turn an ailing organization into one that’s fighting fit, with higher morale, greater productivity, and improved performance.

So who’s this book for? We think it’s most suited to leaders of organizations, no matter their size or industry. Whether you’re in charge of a global corporation, a medium-sized company, or a small, local business, this book is a must read – especially if the description of an unhealthy organization rings alarm bells. And "The Advantage" is equally applicable to leaders of non-profits, schools, churches, and community groups, as well as people in charge of smaller teams.

Any organization that relies on a number of people coming together to ensure its smooth running and has room for improvement would benefit from the author’s tips. Plus, the author draws analogies with healthy marriages and families, so his suggestions could be useful at home too.

Organizational health is about going back to basics. It’s about putting solid foundations in place before building the rest of the organization on top. This might suggest that "The Advantage" is for start-ups only, but as you’ve heard, that isn’t the case. New companies are in a great position to get things right from the outset, but it’s vital for established organizations to take a health check too. Bad habits can become ingrained over the years and can take some rooting out.

The author’s tips for organizational health are based on two decades of experience in management consulting. He’s the founder and president of The Table Group, a management consulting company that specializes in organizational health and executive team development. He’s worked with thousands of senior executives in companies and non-profits of all sizes, observing their organizations and helping them improve performance.

He’s also a prolific writer. This is his 10th business book and his first attempt at non-fiction. He’s written nine business fables that have sold more than three million copies worldwide. You’ll find a Book Insight on one of these – "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" – on the Mind Tools site.

"The Advantage" pulls together the author’s previous ideas and his consulting experience into one practical guide that’s written in an engaging, informal tone.

So keep listening to learn how to build trust based on vulnerability, how to identify your organization’s core purpose and values, and how to communicate with clarity.

Before making the case for organizational health, the author sends a message to any skeptics who might think the concept sounds too wooly or touchy-feely. Those who reject the idea at the outset may have fallen into a number of traps, he says. Perhaps they think their organization is too sophisticated to adopt such a simple concept. Maybe they’re addicted to adrenaline and are scared to take the time to get the basics right. Or perhaps they’re hung up on quantifiable results. The benefits of organizational health, while real and tangible, are difficult to quantify in the short-term.

It’s likely there are going to be some skeptics out there, particularly because the book lacks empirical evidence. The author is up front about this: he’s not a quantitative researcher and his conclusions are based on his observations as a consultant, rather than statistics or data. Fair enough. But we think the author could have provided more concrete details of the benefits reaped by some of his clients. The examples he gives are anecdotal and suggest only short-term benefits.

The author describes the path to becoming healthier as a messy, non-linear process but he breaks it down into four disciplines: build a cohesive leadership team, create clarity, over-communicate clarity, and reinforce clarity.

You may be wondering whether there’s much to this book at all if three of the four concepts revolve around clarity. We had our misgivings too. But the author differentiates well between his four points, with each idea standing firmly on top of the previous one, like building blocks. There’s actually very little repetition and there’s plenty of material to get your teeth into.

So let’s have a look at the author’s tips on building a leadership team – and particularly on how to establish trust between team members.

The kind of trust that’s required to build a cohesive team is what the author calls vulnerability-based trust. This is where team members feel completely comfortable saying things like, "I messed up," "I need help," "I’m sorry," "I disagree," or "I like your idea better than mine." We’re talking about honest, transparent, and genuine communication.

If you take a moment to think how often you hear statements like these in your workplace, that’ll give you an idea of how healthy your organization is. Perhaps you’re more familiar with phrases like, "It’s not my fault," or "It’s fine, I can manage," or "Whatever you say."

When people in a team know that other team members will expose their vulnerability in order to move things forward, it gives them the courage to do the same. But in order to establish this level of trust, you have to put in some groundwork first.

The author suggests starting out with an off-site session and an exercise that allows everyone to learn more about each other in a non-threatening way. We’re talking about the leadership team only here, which the author suggests should be no bigger than nine people.

Ask each person to say a little bit about their lives: to talk about where they were born, the number of siblings they have, and the most interesting or difficult challenge they faced as a child.

If the author’s experience is anything to go by, a new sense of respect will develop between team members when they’re given a snapshot of each other’s early lives. This is the first step toward building vulnerability-based trust.

The next step is called "profiling." Again, it’s designed to help team members learn a little more about what makes each other tick, without being too probing.

Ask people to fill out a behavioral profiling questionnaire. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is probably the best known, but there are other tools out there. The good thing about this kind of tool is it doesn’t qualify personality types as good or bad. Everything is valid. But it does help to identify strengths and weaknesses. And when people can own up to their weaknesses, it gives their colleagues permission to discuss their weaknesses too.

The author uses real-life examples from his consulting work to show the kind of breakthroughs that are possible once team members show some vulnerability. For example, identifying yourself as a perfectionist may help your colleagues understand why you take a long time over projects, then finish in a rush. Once they understand you better, they can try to help you out.

You might be thinking these exercises do indeed sound touchy-feely. And you may find it hard to imagine conversations like these taking place in your workplace. Perhaps you’re cringing at the prospect of group hugs or teary-eyed breakthrough moments.

But the author argues that the benefits of being vulnerable with colleagues are tangible and will reverberate throughout the organization. You can see how this could work: improving communication, relationships, and ultimately performance.

Let’s now look at the author’s second discipline: creating clarity. It’s a serious problem when an organization is confused about its direction or is unable to articulate its strategy in a way everyone can understand. How many times have you read an organization’s mission statement and been left wondering what it means? Some are bland and generic. Others are confusing, loaded with jargon and buzzwords that mean very little to the average employee or customer.

To get clarity around your purpose and direction as an organization, the author suggests you ask six questions: Why do we exist? How do we behave? What do we do? How will we succeed? What is most important right now? And who must do what?

We really like the simplicity of this approach – any business or organization could put it into practice right away. It’s straightforward but has a broad reach, encompassing an organization’s aspirations and values, as well as practical aspects such as strategy, actions to take, and the bottom line.

The author shows readers how to apply each of these questions to their organization. This process is like a big fact-finding mission. It involves asking questions, making lists, editing statements, and defining responsibilities.

If your organization has been in business for a long time, you might feel a little foolish asking why you exist at this stage in the game. But a simple survey of employees might reveal vagueness about your core purpose and values.

The author has a particular dislike for vagueness and takes a no-nonsense approach to language. He dislikes the verb "empower" and has an aversion to the word "strategy." He prefers terms like "strategic anchors" or "thematic goals." While we agree many organizations are littered with meaningless buzzwords, we do wonder whether he’s not simply replacing one set of jargon with another.

The author’s last two disciplines build on the previous two: they’re about over-communicating and reinforcing the clarity that the cohesive leadership team has managed to create. There are a lot of great suggestions in these two chapters but let’s focus on his tips for consistent messaging, which is something many organizations struggle with.

We live in a digital age. We’re bombarded with electronic communication and our email inboxes are overflowing. But when it comes to getting your message across, nothing beats word of mouth.

The most effective way to spread a message in a large organization is through what the author calls cascading communication. This involves team leaders leaving a meeting and promptly telling their direct reports what went on. Those people then do the same for their direct reports and the messages filter down until everyone’s informed.

The author says this sounds ridiculously simple but argues it’s much more effective than email messages which many employees simply ignore.

There are three key elements to cascading communication: ensuring messages are consistent across the board, delivering them in a timely fashion, and communicating in person wherever possible.

This means leaders need to take a few moments at the end of a meeting to firm up what’s been agreed and what they want to communicate to those outside. They need to be on the same page before they get out the door.

As soon as possible after the meeting’s over, leaders should then take the agreed messages back to their direct reports. Aim to do this within 24 hours.

Of course, face-to-face communication isn’t always possible, particularly in this global age. As a substitute, you could make a phone call or set up a videoconference. The important thing is that the discussion is live and interactive – that people have the chance to ask questions and clear up anything they’re unsure about.

The author says delivering messages by email sends the opposite signal. Employees get the impression there’s no space for feedback or clarification. In the end, they stop reading. This might not sound that serious but think about the long-term effects of a disengaged team of employees who are unclear about the organization’s direction.

The author makes a good point here, but we think it’s not so black and white. Direct verbal communication is best in some situations, and at other times, the written word is more appropriate. After all, it’s hard to prevent an element of ‘Chinese whispers’ warping the message during the cascade, whereas your message is guaranteed to be consistent if everyone receives the same email – just as long as they read it.

Finally, let’s look at what the author has to say about meetings. Too many organizations serve up what he calls ‘meeting stew’. Imagine a disorganized chef who throws a mish-mash of ingredients into a pot and then wonders why his food tastes bad. Cramming lots of disparate issues onto one meeting agenda won’t get you very far. The author’s answer to meeting stew is to hold more meetings, not fewer, but to make sure each meeting has a definite focus and good boundaries are in place.

The author acknowledges throughout this book that his suggestions aren’t rocket science. We agree. But we also agree it’s the failure to do the basic things that produces so many ailing organizations.

So what’s our last word on "The Advantage"? We like the author’s step-by-step approach to improving organizational health, starting at the very beginning with fundamentals like leadership and core values and moving on to topics like communication, recruiting and hiring, orientation, and compensation.

The author doesn’t cover some key areas, like finance, marketing or technology. He agrees these are important ingredients for success, but they’re not part of an organization’s foundations. They can be added on top, once you’ve followed his general prescription for good health and have a solid structure in place.

"The Advantage" by Patrick Lencioni is published by Jossey-Bass.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.