Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit--Patrick Lencioni--The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else

Waiting here at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit to hear some leadership wisdom for my Operation Christmas Child journey from Patrick Lencioni--

"People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed." (didn't catch attribution)

The things that Southwest Airlines does that make them great--so many organizations think is beneath them.

"Organizational Health is the single greatest competitive advantage in business.  It is virtually free and accessible to any leader but remains virtually untapped in many organizations."

Two requirements for success--

Smart--strategy, marketing, finance, technology
Healthy--minimal politics; minimal confusion; high morale; high productivity; low turnover

As leaders we're more comfortable in the 'smart' area than in the 'healthy' area but if we really want to change our organizations we need to make them healthier.

Very few tap into all the 'smart' resources because they are not healthy.

Southwest Airlines is a fabulous organization, not because they're smarter but because they are so healthy and use every bit of knowledge they have.

How to become healthy--

1)  Build a cohesive leadership team --

2)  Create clarity (mission statements may be a joke)--we have to answer 6 critical questions--
--Why do we exist?
--How do we behave?
--What do we do?
--How will we succeed?
--What is most important, right now?
--Who must do what?

Why do we exist?--for churches this is usually easy, ex. Southwest Airlines is about democratizing travel in America;

How do we behave?--every company has value statements but most are pretty generic; get it down to 2 or 3 core values; these are not 'aspirational values' (values we wish we had but don't);  A core value is something you're willing to get punished for;  (example of Southwest Airlines getting a complaint from a customer who was offended by their humor and they sent a reply note that said 'we'll miss you'---reminds me of the importance of not trying to please everyone but sticking to the values of our Operation Christmas Child team);  shouldn't put minimum standards like integrity into your core values;

How will we succeed?--what is strategy?--the myriad of intentional decisions you make that will give you a chance to succeed and pass your competitors

3 strategic anchors--decision making becomes a science instead of a guess;  as long as you follow those anchors you're empowered to make decisions

3)  Over-Communicate Clarity

4)  Reinforce Clarity