The Hindu Business Line : Be smart, but be healthy too

Successful organisations have two essential qualities, says Patrick Lencioni. "They are smart, and they are healthy." Smartness manifests as "intelligent strategies, marketing plans, product features, and financial models that lead to competitive advantage." And, health shows as "higher morale, lower turnover, and higher productivity," achieved by "eliminating politics and confusion".

Thus writes Lencioni in The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, from Wiley India (www.wileyindia.com) . Since most leaders focus only on the first, the book narrates a business fable to highlight the second, that is, the health goal.

But why focus on health? Because healthy organisations can make themselves smarter, reasons Lencioni. "Plenty of anonymous and forgotten companies have squandered intellectual advantages because of infighting, lack of clarity, and other problems that plague unhealthy organisations," he cautions. If health is so important, why isn't it getting attention? One, "organisational health is relatively hard to measure, and even harder to achieve." Two, lead-time is longer. And three, "it involves facing realities of human behaviour that even the most committed executive is tempted to avoid." To help become healthy, Lencioni offers `four disciplines.' First, `Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team.' In a cohesive team, each one knows the others' strengths and weaknesses. And everyone engages openly in "constructive ideological conflict."

What about politics? That results from `unresolved issues' explains Lencioni. "Attempting to curb politics without addressing issues at the executive level is pointless." But why do issues remain unresolved? Because executives underestimate the magnitude of problems.

They don't realise that what they consider as `small disconnects' among peers can look like "major rifts to people deeper in the organisation." Moral, therefore, is to confront the peer about any potential disagreement to save `time, money and emotional energy' of other people in the company. Discipline two is to create organisational clarity. This can empower employees with "amazing levels of autonomy"; for, they'd then know "what their boundaries are and when they need guidance from management." The third discipline is to over-communicate organisational clarity through "repetition, simplicity, multiple mediums and cascading messages." When this is achieved, your people "don't look for hidden messages among the information they receive." The final discipline is about the right human systems to ensure consistency in hiring, managing performance, rewards and recognition, and dismissal.

Lessons worth paying heed to, for health's sake.

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali