I keep several copies of Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business in my library. That way I always have one to give away when his perspective comes up in conversation. And it comes up often, because it’s powerful. He reframes how leaders should think about organizational success in a way that feels, at least to me, obvious. Instead of focusing only on strategy, marketing, or innovation, Lencioni argues that the real differentiator between great and mediocre companies is organizational health.

His definition of a healthy organization is simple. It’s a place where management, operations, and culture are unified and free from politics and confusion.

And his recipe for creating that kind of organization is even simpler. He outlines four essential disciplines: build a cohesive leadership team, create clarity, over-communicate clarity, and reinforce clarity throughout the organization.

Clients know I call my own process Clarity Brand Design, so his focus on creating, communicating, and reinforcing clarity feels like comfort food to me. But what makes his advice truly useful—not just reassuring—is his emphasis on vulnerability-based trust, productive conflict, commitment, accountability, and collective results.

“Organizational health is so simple and accessible that many leaders have a hard time seeing it as a real opportunity for meaningful advantage. After all, it doesn’t require great intelligence or sophistication, just uncommon levels of discipline, courage, persistence, and common sense.”

“An organization has integrity— is healthy—when it is whole, consistent, and complete, that is, when its management, operations, strategy, and culture fit together and make sense.”

BOOK: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business