The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business - Hardcover

by Patrick M. Lencioni (Author)

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, Lencioni brings together his vast experience and many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books and delivers a first: a cohesive and comprehensive exploration of the unique advantage organizational health provides.

Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified. Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave. Lencioni's first non-fiction book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health--complete with stories, tips and anecdotes from his experiences consulting to some of the nation's leading organizations. In this age of informational ubiquity and nano-second change, it is no longer enough to build a competitive advantage based on intelligence alone. The Advantage provides a foundational construct for conducting business in a new way--one that maximizes human potential and aligns the organization around a common set of principles.

Front Jacket

"Organizational health will one day surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage."

This is the promise of The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni's bold manifesto about the most unexploited opportunity in modern business. In his immensely readable and accessible style, Lencioni makes the case that there is no better way to achieve profound improvement in an organization than by attacking the root causes of dysfunction, politics, and confusion.

While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy, and technology, Lencioni demonstrates that there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath them. Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have.

The author of numerous best-selling business fables including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting, Lencioni here draws upon his twenty years of writing, field research, and executive consulting to some of the world's leading organizations. He combines real-world stories and anecdotes with practical, actionable advice to create a work that is at once a great read and an invaluable, hands-on tool. The result is, without a doubt, Lencioni's most comprehensive, significant, and essential work to date.

Back Jacket

Praise for The Advantage

"The Advantage has more common sense in its 200 pages than I have ever found in a business book. A must-read."
--Colleen Barrett, president emeritus, Southwest Airlines Co.; coauthor, Lead with LUV

"Here is the next business classic. Even the best leaders will read this and wonder, 'Why aren't we already doing this?'"
--Enrique Salem, president and CEO, Symantec

"For more than a decade I've been using Lencioni's approach to run the departments I lead, and it has never failed me."
--Rick Friedel, vice president, AT&T Service Management

"Our teams and leaders have really embraced Lencioni's methodology. We've put these ideas into practice and we're experiencing the results that prove it works."
--David Gordon, COO, The Cheesecake Factory

"In The Advantage, Lencioni cuts through the corporate 'bull' that creates a culture of stonewalling and feet-dragging, and shows leaders at every level how to build up a culture of productivity and communication."
--Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host

Author Biography

Patrick M. Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational health and executive team development. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 and mid-size companies to start-ups and nonprofits. Lencioni is the author of 11 best-selling books including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Ideal Team Player.

To learn more about Patrick, and the products and services offered by his firm, The Table Group, please visit www.tablegroup.com.