To maintain high levels of productivity and employee morale, companies need to also maintain their organizational health.
That is the advice of noted business analyst and author Patrick Lencioni.
But getting the organization to a healthy state is not a neat and tidy process, but rather one that involves ins and outs and ongoing maintenance. The first thing to do, according to Lencioni, is build a tight leadership team. No matter what kind of organization you have, from multinational conglomerate to church bingo committee, if the leadership is not working well, it will filter down through the rest of the organization and prevent the whole enterprise from working well.
The next step is focusing the leadership team on establishing clear, meaningful answers to several important questions. These questions involve such issues as why the organization exists to what the most important priority is for the next few months.
The leadership must be in complete agreement about the answers to these questions. There must be complete understanding among the executive team members so that they can communicate these company values and strategies with complete clarity to the entire organization.
The next step, Lencioni says, is to continually communicate this strategic vision that the leadership has developed. It must be communicated clearly and continually to reinforce its meaning and importance. There is no such thing as over-emphasizing the message – it is the only way to get everybody on the same page and to make the workforce understand the importance of the message. Lencioni says that relaying the message over and over is one of the core differences between a healthy and unhealthy organization.
Finally, all of the procedures in the company, from hiring and firing, to performance management and decision making, must all reinforce the message. They all must be aligned around the central message, to reinforce what is unique about the company.
The biggest factor in getting a healthy organization is the commitment and involvement of the CEO, Lencioni says.
But like many challenges, making the organization healthy is not easy or simple. It is a process, a process that must be constantly renewed. They key, according to Lencioni, is to stick with a few simple principles, learn from your mistakes and have the discipline to continue along the path you have charted.
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