books.
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. By Patrick Lencioni
•Without clear ownership, accountability becomes difficult, even within the best teams.
•Discipline #3: Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity
•Healthy organizations align their employees around organizational clarity by communicating key messages through:
1.Repetition: Dont be afraid to repeat the same message, again and again.
2.Simplicity: The more complicated the message, the more potential for confusion and inconsistency.
3.Multiple Mediums: People react to information in many ways; use a variety of mediums.
4.Cascading Messages: Leaders communicate key messages to direct reports; the cycle repeats itself until the message is heard by all.
•Discipline #4: Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems
•Organizations sustain their health by ensuring consistency in:
1.Hiring
2.Managing performance
3.Rewards and recognition
4.Employee dismissal
•There is no substitute for discipline. No amount of intellectual prowess or personal charisma can make up for an inability to identify a few simple things and stick to them over time.
•One of the best ways to recognize a cohesive team is the nature of its meetings. Passionate. Intense. Exhausting. Never boring.
•How do you assess your team for cohesiveness:
1.Are meetings compelling? Are the important issues being discussed during meetings?
2.Do team members engage in unguarded debate? Do they honestly confront one another?
3.Do team members apologize if they get out of line? Do they ever get out of line?
•Discipline #2: Create Organizational Clarity:
•A healthy organization minimizes the potential for confusion by clarifying:
1.Why the organization exists
2.Which behavioral values are fundamental
3.What specific business it is in
4.Who its competitors are
5.How it is unique
6.What it plans to achieve
7.Who is responsible for what
•Organizational clarity is not merely about choosing the right words to describe a companys mission, strategy, or values; it is about agreeing on the fundamental concepts that drive it. (Corporate Prioritization)
•Clarity provides power like nothing else can. It establishes a foundation for communication, hiring, training, promotion, and decision making, and serves as the basis for accountability in an organization, which is a requirement for long-term success.
•Thematic goals: What is this periods focus?
•Major strategic goals: What are the key areas which relate to that focus, and exactly what needs to be achieved?
•Metrics: What are the ongoing measures that allow the organization to keep score?
•One of the greatest problems that organizations encounter when it comes to achieving clarity is the inability to translate company goals into concrete responsibilities for members of an executive team-- who is truly responsible for what.
•If everything is important, then nothing is.
•Identify a reasonable number of issues that will have the greatest possible impact on the success of your organization, and then spend most of your time thinking about, talking about, and working on those issues.
•Ask yourself often: What is the one thing I do that really matters to this organization?
•Conduct quarterly performance reviews with each employee and ask 3 key questions:
1.What did you accomplish?
2.What will you accomplish next?
3.How can you improve?
•The 4 disciplines of a healthy organization:
1.Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
2.Create organizational clarity
3.Over-communicate organizational clarity
4.Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems
•Discipline #1: Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
•Cohesive teams build trust, eliminate politics, and increase efficiency by:
1.Knowing one anothers unique strengths and weaknesses
2.Openly engaging in constructive ideological conflict
3.Holding one another accountable for behaviors and actions
4.Committing to group decisions
Disciplines & Barriers:
One of the greatest problems that organizations encounter when it comes to achieving clarity is the inability to translate company goals into concrete responsibilities
