The Advantage Book Cover

Lencioni, Patrick. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. Jossey-Bass, 2012.

My Review 4/5

This book doesn’t follow the “fable” model of Lencioni’s other works;1 instead, it presents a six-question framework to evaluate organizational health, also known as “company culture.” The book is based on firsthand anecdotes from decades in consulting, and makes the case for how company culture truly does eat strategy for breakfast.

The Six Questions

  1. Why do we exist?
  2. How do we behave?
  3. What do we do?
  4. How will we succeed?
  5. What is most important, right now?
  6. Who must do what?

Each of the six questions builds on the last. Lencioni clearly answers each question in turn and defines what success looks like. Effective communication is a major theme of this book, including building trust in your team, identifying working styles (Myers-Briggs), and most importantly, achieving clarity during crucial conversations.

The Advantage is the application of company behaviors to the necessary actions in pursuit of the purpose of the organization. Even for my own endeavors, answering these questions helps achieve a better outcome.2

Great read; would recommend especially for leaders who work across departments.

Significant Revisions

Footnotes

  1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Five Temptations of a CEO jump to mind. ↩

  2. For example, in creating https://noted.jsrowe.com, I’ve found a home for some of my quick thoughts without diluting my purpose of this site. ↩