The advantage : why organizational health trumps everything else in business

 by Patrick Lencioni. It is best not to dismiss Lencioni's latest book (previous books include The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002) as just another human-resources practicum. His focus is the CEO, in an honest and transparent manner, demonstrating how to rid a company of politics, confusion, low morale, and high turnover. In fact, before laying out the details of what he calls the four disciplines, Lencioni specifically addresses possible barriers to adoption of these disciplines, namely sophistication, adrenaline, and the need for quantification. The rest of the book zeroes in on the disciplines themselves: building a cohesive leadership team, creating clarity, overcommunicating clarity, and reinforcing clarity. Each section features disguised examples (good and bad) and recommended processes and systems. Summaries and extra proofs of concepts follow each discipline, a signal that he indeed practices his third discipline overcommunicating clarity. In a business world increasingly focused on numbers and metrics, this is one equation that resists calculation. But, says Lencioni, it's a nonformula that mirrors what the best of human institutions can offer their employees, customers, suppliers, investors, and other groups. --Booklist (Check Catalog)