Patrick Lencioni is as good as it gets on leadership and organizational effectiveness. My notes reflect his typically incomplete speaking style and the fact his slides were not always on screen long enough to copy the information.
“People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.” Samuel Johnson
Lencioni is an ENFP on the Myer’s Briggs scale.
The things that Southwest Airlines does to make it successful are things other organizations seem to think are beneath them.
Organizational Health is the most important competitive advantage a company can have.
No matter whether talking about a giant organization, a department within it, a church, or a small business, these things are important.
Two requirements for success
Smart (strategy, marketing, finance, technology)
Healthy (Minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, high productivity, low turnover)
Most executives do not want to deal with the “healthy” side of things, so they return to tweak the dials on the “smart” side of things.
The “smart” stuff was largely the most important thing 30 years ago. Today it is almost impossible to distinguish your company be emphasizing the the smart stuff. Almost every company has enough smarts to be successful. The “health” side is the multiplier of the smart stuff.
Southwest’s competitors have more smarts, more PhDs, etc, but less organizational health.
Four Disciplines
1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team.
Mastering the five behaviors (from the 5 dysfunctions)
2. Create clarity
Six Critical Questions
1. Why do we exist?
What is at the core? This is pretty easy for churches, but very difficult for some businesses.
2. How do we behave?
We have to get this down to the one, two or three truly endemic behaviors. Aspirational values are the values we wish we had we don’t.
A core value is something you are willing to get punished for. You will not change it no matter how the market treats you. To violate this is to ask you to sell your soul.
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
What is your strategy? It should be accessible to everyone. Every decision you make is part of your strategy.
5. What is most important, right now?
6. Who must do what?
3. Over-communicate clarity
4. Reinforce clarity through human systems
If humor is a core value, humor must be demonstrated. The “on boarding” process must reflect the priority of the core values of the organization.
