The Advantage

The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni, is a very intelligent business book, and if you have read some of the author’s books before, you will find this one is in a very different format from his others as it does not follow a fictional story to illustrate points.  Instead, this book summarizes all of the author’s prior business books in to one, utilizing examples and quotes from his previous works.  In the end, the author’s message is very clear, and that is organizational health trumps all. 

By self-admittance, organizational health is a little bit difficult to define and is even more difficult to measure.  The author states that “organizational health is about integrity, but not in the ethical or moral way,” and that some characteristics of a healthy organization include “minimal politics, minimal confusion, high morale, and low employee turnover.”   The author explains that having organizational health does not require “intelligence or sophistication” but rather “uncommon levels of discipline, courage, persistence, and common sense.”  Thus all companies, if they want it, can be a healthy organization and benefit from what the author terms the advantage.

This book gives multiple points, strategies, or areas of emphasis in order to make an organization healthy and I want to list a few below that I believe to be some of the most critical.

#1  Communication

Communication is so important because how we communicate, when we communicate, and what we communicate forms the opinions of others about our organization.  Because it is so important, every time a leader communicates it should align with the organization’s goals, values, and purpose for existing so that communication is always consistent and constructive.  Communication must bring clarity and must be frequent.  The author suggests employees won’t believe their leaders really mean something until they have said it 7 times.  And communication cannot be delegated to others from the top leaders.  The author believes that communication in most instances is the reason for most organizational problems.  Many companies and many people in life fail to value words and whether we like it or not, our communication tells stories and becomes reality to others.  Thus healthy organizations are great at communicating. 

#2 Values

Every healthy organization has to have a set of values that are so important to them, they drive all decisions.  Everything an organization does must reflect them.  These values guide employee behavior and provide clarity to all in the organization.  And the best organizations are completely intolerant of violations of them.  Even hiring, and termination decisions should be based around these values.  The author states that keeping a strong performer that does not live the values sends a message to everyone else that the organization really isn’t that serious about them.  Truly living up to values makes an organization healthy. 

#3 Top Priority

Too often to many organizations get weighed down with too many objectives or goals or “top priorities” that they do not obtain the “level of focus they need to succeed” and they end up doing a bunch of things in a mediocre way.  Healthy organizations learn to focus on what is most important NOW.  Having a very clear top priority that everyone across the organization is focused on will help the company have superior success.  Companies must frequently ask themselves “if we accomplish only one thing during the next month, or 6 months (etc.), what would it be,” and then they must ensure all are made aware of the most important priority for the timeframe selected.  This top priority should become a “rallying cry”, leaving no room for confusion or disagreement.  Having one top priority improves organizational health.    

These are three of the many important things “healthy organizations” are good at and thus what makes them healthy.  At the conclusion of the book, the author emphasis how organizational health blesses the lives of so many people.  Not only are workers happier but also their families, the customers, and everyone who has any interaction with the company.  I really enjoyed this book as I believe it provides a lot of great insight in to how to run a successful organization.

To see how I rated this book, click here.    

Defeat and Eliminate Negativity from Your Life!

“If you have a worthwhile objective, find the one reason why you can achieve it rather than hundreds of reasons why you can’t.”  Napoleon Hill

I enjoy this quote a lot.  Too much of this world is filled with negativity and why “we can’t” do things rather than why we can.  This negativity crushes confidence, lowers faith, diminishes desire, hopes and dreams, and leads to fear, discouragement, and unhappiness when the truth is, all worthwhile objectives are possible!   

So why are we so negative?  Perhaps it is our nature, or perhaps we’ve lost hope because of prior setbacks and failures in life.  Perhaps it is because everyone else around is so negative, including the media and our society in general so we don’t know how else to act!  Whatever our reason may be, we need to find a way to break the cycle, to be different.  We can’t accept negativity.    

To help us get started, every time we hear our self or others say “can’t”, we need to stop and think about how we could change that thought to “can”.  This simple exercise alone can expand our visions, boost our confidence, and improve our satisfaction in life.  Next, we need to condition ourselves to thinking of “can’t” as the most vile and fowl word in the English language and each time it is said we need to feel like we do when someone around us is using very vulgar or offensive language.  If we can have these feelings every time we or someone else says the word “can’t” we will be on a pathway to success.

Many times the roadblocks we face in life are self-imposed or imaginary and are a result of our negativity.  Many times these walls don’t exist at all except in our minds and because of them, we don’t do what we ought to do or what we can do.  We allow these made up obstacles to derail us off a worthy path.  We need to be careful that we are not essentially “lying” to ourselves with our negative attitudes and that we see reality for what it is.  “Can’t” in most circumstances is simply not truth. 

I wish there was a good way to measure the tremendous negative impact negativity has in our lives.  I’m sure we would be shocked by how much it really brings us down.  Instead of having a negative attitude, let’s have a positive one and believe all things are possible.  Whether people think we are foolish, naïve, gullible or not, it doesn’t matter because when we do, when we can always have a positive outlook, life almost instantly becomes so much sweeter and our chances for success greatly increases.  We can do this!

BurntHam Rewind: The 3 "Fs" to Riches

Post originally posted 9/30/09

Recently I read an article called “The 3 Fs to Life’s Greatest Riches” by Darcy Keith. In this article, the author discusses 3 Fs that surround us daily, that have the ability to make us rich! These three Fs have the potential to fill our lives with the greatest satisfaction and happiness that life has to offer if we pay attention to and cultivate them. The trouble is that many of us neglect them and fail to realize the riches that come from them. I’d like to share these three Fs with you and let you know why I agree with the author that these three Fs are the most important ingredients to a rich and satisfying life.

The first F is faith. Faith is belief; belief in oneself, belief that good will eventually prevail, and belief in something greater than ourselves. People with faith hope for things which are not seen yet are true. Faith brings hope, peace and comfort. Faith gives us strength and purpose even during our darkest hours. True faith will help us overcome any challenge or obstacle that may come our way. And our faith is something that can never be taken from us. Thus, our faith is a powerful tool that will richly bless our life when we pay attention to and develop it.

The second F is Family. Our family is unique and special. Like faith, families can support and help us through the good and the bad. Our families provide us with some of the most wonderful relationships we can experience in life and provide the greatest levels of satisfaction and joy. Without family, life is empty, lonely, and difficult. With family, life is full and rich.

The third F is Friends. Friends are like an extended family who can give us love and support when we need it most. Friends provide companionship, and camaraderie. When life is hard, or when life is good, a good friend is priceless.

Now, do we take full advantage of and pay enough attention to these three Fs in our lives, or do we take them for granted? Do we take time to nourish and cherish these three important Fs? Do these three Fs play an important part in our lives? The author of the article I read challenged readers to reflect on these similar questions. If we are not doing well, what is stopping us from making these three Fs a priority? For these three Fs have the capacity to make us truly rich! And they don’t cost money, all they require is time!

With faith, family, and friends, our lives are richly blessed. Like the author I encourage all of us to “invest in our faith, spend time with our family, and get together with our friends.” Doing so will be “time well invested and riches well received.”

Endure

One of life’s most difficult challenges is simply enduring.  Trying to do what is right, to be our best selves, to overcome life’s obstacles while maintaining a positive attitude, can be difficult.  There are so many enticing “exits” in life that encourage us to get off of our path of success and instead wallow in misery and failure.  I think probably each of us at some time in our lives does take an exit here or there that we regret but the great thing is we can always get back on the road if and when we choose to. 

One of my favorite thoughts has always been that you cannot defeat the person who never gives up.  Life often times requires this of us—to not give up.  And try what it may, if we never give up, we will never lose.  Keeping faith, hope, and understanding that life will always have its ups and downs is important.  Life is hard, difficult, cruel, and unfair but despite these truths, we still can choose our own success and happiness in it. 

A similar thought that I enjoy is luck favors the persistent.  If we continue on our path despite its difficulties, we will come out on top.  I believe too many of us give in too easily.  When life doesn’t go our way, according to our plan, we give up, complain, pout, criticize, and dwell on the inequalities life brings.  We wonder what we did wrong, who is against us, and if we will ever be able to survive.  In these moments it is often a good idea to think instead of “why me”, “why not me?”  All of us will deal with some challenges, that is a guarantee in life, but we should be grateful for them because things could always be worse.  There is only one person who has had the most difficulties and the biggest challenges in life and the rest of us should feel lucky.  I know it is hard but notwithstanding our many challenges, we can overcome, we can continue, we can persist.  We can grin and bare life’s challenges and allow them to help reach even greater success.   Again, it is not easy, or at times even seems possible, but when we take the difficult times one day at a time, and simply try our best each day, we will succeed. 

When life gets you down, know that you cannot be defeated, know that you can be triumphant!  Life has its moments we want to forget, but also those we hope and pray to always remember.  Remember those best moments as you push through your trials with faith that the good times will soon come again. Enduring seems like such an unlikely prospect when life is most difficult but we can do it.  Those who learn to endure well in life will find great joy, satisfaction, and success despite its hardships.