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Teams that commit to decisions and standards do so because they know how to embrace two separate but related concepts: buy-in and clarity. Buy-in is the achievement of honest emotional support. Clarity is the removal of assumptions and ambiguity from a situation. Commitment is about a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying in to a decision precisely when they don't naturally agree. In other words, it's the ability to defy a lack of..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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All of this highlights one of the most challenging obstacles that prevents teams from taking the time to work on how they work together: adrenaline addiction. Many if not most of the executives and managers I know have become so hooked on the rush of urgent demands and out-of-control schedules that the prospect of slowing down to review, think, talk, and develop themselves is too anxiety-inducing to consider. Of course, this is exactly what..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Humble Only: The Pawn
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Patrick Lencioni |
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trust is not the same as assuming everyone is on the same page as you, and that they don't need to be pushed.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Hungry Only: The Bulldozer
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Results-oriented teams establish their own measurements for success. They don't allow themselves the wiggle room of subjectivity. But this is not easy, because subjectivity is attractive.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Celebrate your mistakes.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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You admit it was a bad idea as soon as you realize it. You laugh at yourself. You take their ribbing. And most important, you don't stop making suggestions. Most of your ideas won't be horrible. Even
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Patrick Lencioni |
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The idea is that your clients are looking for good suggestions, and they don't mind sifting through some not-so-good ones as long as they're offered with good intentions and with no ego attached.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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There is something so powerful about a person who in one moment can be confident enough to confront a client about a sensitive personal issue, and then in the next moment humble themselves and take a position of servitude. It's the paradoxical nature of it all that makes it work.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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It's about knowing that in certain moments you have to offer yourself up as a minor sacrifice to help them accomplish what they need to accomplish. Letting them abuse you, on the other hand, would be a terrible disservice. I know it seems like a fine line, but it's a real one, and it can be done.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Every great movie has conflict.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Let me assure you that from now on, every staff meeting we have will be loaded with conflict. And they won't be boring. And if there is nothing worth debating, then we won't have a meeting." The"
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Patrick Lencioni |
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But perhaps most important of all, having too many people on a team makes team dynamics during meetings and other decision-making events almost impossible. That's because a good team has to engage in two types of communication in order to optimize decision making, but only one of these is practical in a large group. According to Harvard's Chris Argyris, those two types of communication are advocacy and inquiry. Basically, advocacy is the st..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Sounds crazy and counterintuitive, I know, but it is true.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Naked service providers are so concerned about helping a client that they are willing to ask questions and make suggestions even if those questions and suggestions could turn out to be laughably wrong. They
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Well," he was clearly thinking out loud, "probably someone who wants to be at practice. I love gym rats, but not just the kind who want to play one-on-one all day. I like the kids who come early and do extra drills. And watch film even when they don't have to." He paused before adding, "And who kind of hate to lose." "Sore losers?" Ben shook his head. "No, not at all. I mean, the kind who come to practice wanting to work as hard as they can..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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we like to believe that we do bad things because of the situations we are in, but somehow we easily come to the conclusion that others do bad things because they are predisposed to being bad. (Similarly,
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Great team players lack excessive ego or concerns about status. They are quick to point out the contributions of others and slow to seek attention for their own. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. It is no great surprise, then, that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player. Humility is the single greatest and most indispensable..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Trust is just one of five behaviors that cohesive teams must establish to build a healthy organization.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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I believe in the old saying that if you can't measure something, you can't improve it.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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To make meetings less boring, leaders must look for legitimate reasons to provoke and uncover relevant, constructive ideological conflict. By doing so, they'll keep people engaged, which leads to more passionate discussions, and ultimately, to better decisions.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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To make our meetings more effective, we need to have multiple types of meetings, and clearly distinguish between the various purposes, formats, and timing of those meetings.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Ironically, most leaders of meetings go out of their way to eliminate or minimize drama and avoid the healthy conflict that results from it. Which only drains the interest of employees.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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And so a leader of a meeting must make it a priority to seek out and uncover any important issues about which team members do not agree. And when team members don't want to engage in those discussions, the leader must force them to do so. Even when it makes him or her temporarily unpopular.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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During the Weekly Tactical, there are two overriding goals: resolution of issues and reinforcement of clarity. Obstacles need to be identified and removed, and everyone needs to be on the same page.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Firing someone is not necessarily a sign of accountability, but is often the last act of cowardice
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Patrick Lencioni |
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it is far more natural, and common, for leaders to avoid holding people accountable.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Conflict is about issues and ideas, while accountability is about performance and behavior.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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high school kids at In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A are doing largely the same job that kids at any other fast-food restaurant are doing, and yet there are a lot fewer miserable jobs at In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A. The difference is not the job itself. It is the management. And one of the most important things that managers must do is help employees see why their work matters to someone. Even if this sounds touchy-feely to some, it is a fundam..
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Patrick Lencioni |
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consensus is usually not achievable. The likelihood of six intelligent people coming to a sincere and complete agreement on a complex and important topic is very low.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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You have a passionate, unfiltered, messy, provocative discussion that ends when the leader of the team decides all the information has been aired. At that point, if no one has made a compelling enough argument for making a decision, the leader breaks the tie.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Regardless of what position people originally took, once the decision is made, everyone supports it. That's why it is critical that no one hold anything back during the discussion.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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implementation science is more important than decision science.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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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.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Most organizations I've worked with have too many top priorities to achieve the level of focus they need to succeed.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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See, management is an everyday thing. Strategy and financial reporting and planning are not.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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few groups of leaders actually work like a team, at least not the kind that is required to lead a healthy organization.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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A leadership team is a small group of people who are collectively responsible for achieving a common objective for their organization.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Why matrix organizational structures became so popular I'm not really sure. There is certainly an element of flexibility and collaboration suggested by them, but in reality they are forums for confusion and conflict. They have certainly not contributed to the breakdown of silos; they've merely added an element of schizophrenia and cognitive dissonance for employees who are unlucky enough to report into two different silos.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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Many people will try to get a job even if they don't fit the company's stated values, but very few will do so if they know that they're going to be held accountable, day in and day out, for behavior that violates the values.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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The fact remains that teams, because they are made up of imperfect human beings, are inherently dysfunctional.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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During the next two weeks I am going to be pretty intolerant of behavior that demonstrates an absence of trust, or a focus on individual ego. I will be encouraging conflict, driving for clear commitments, and expecting all of you to hold each other accountable. I will be calling out bad behavior when I see it, and I'd like to see you doing the same. We don't have time to waste.
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Patrick Lencioni |
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It is at once shocking and understandable that intelligent people cannot see the correlation between failing to take the time to get clarity, closure, and buy-in during a meeting, and the time required to clean up after themselves as a result.
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Patrick Lencioni |