I'm reading the book "The Advantage" by Patrick Lencioni and am so inspired by his clear way of describing the difference of "smart" versus "healthy" when it comes to understanding the situation of an organization. The smart aspect has to do with strategy, marketing, finance and technology. This is what we are trained to handle in our leadership programs and are expected to report back to the organization. The healthy aspect has to do with more “fuzzier” things like politics, clarity, morale, productivity and job satisfaction - those that really determine if your organization is successful or not.

However, with background to Lencioni’s long experience from working with CEOs and their senior executive teams (he has for example worked at Bain & Company and was named by Fortune magazine as "one of the new gurus you should know."​), he is convinced that “fuzzier” things like politics, clarity, morale, productivity and job satisfaction are those that really determine if your organization is successful or not. If we are to find truly healthy organizations, we should look for organizations with minimal politics (where people for example are not driven by their own agenda), minimal confusion, high morale (people are engaged and loyal), high productivity and low turnover.

Lencioni points out, when he lists the different categories and their impact for leaders, that leaders agree it’s true, but still go back to their spreadsheets to try to make the organization graspable. Why is this so? The answer is that we human beings prefer to look for answers in areas we believe are more understandable. Spreadsheets and Gantt charts are easier to control than relations, different opinions and subjective conversations.

Lencioni continues with saying that if he was forced to prioritize between a smart or a healthy approach, he would, without hesitation, choose health:

“An organization that is healthy will inevitably get smarter over time. That’s because people in a healthy organization, beginning with the leaders, learn from one another, identify critical issues, and recover quickly from mistakes. Without politics and confusion getting in their way, they cycle through problems and rally around solutions much faster than their dysfunctional and political rivals do. Moreover, they create environments in which employees do the same."

If you are interested in learning more about how to grasp, measure and visualize the healthy dimension in a clear and pedagogical way, please contact me or visit my webpage GreenGardens. It can be done!