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Hardcover
240 pages
ISBN 9780787960759 Published April 2002
Jossey-Bass
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Posted March 11, 2010 9:14 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
For over ten years, Pat Lencioni has helped define the genre of the business fable. He is most famous for The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which I thought so highly of that I included it in our collection of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. When Lencioni’s newest book came across my desk I was curious about the title, but also cautious: the title is eye-catching and memorable, but how was Lencioni going to pull this one off?
I needn’t have worried. What makes Lencioni’s fables so compelling is his skill at creating a real world populated by characters you believe in. Then into that world, Lencioni presents a common problem that you can relate to and a series of problem-solving decisions that you can then apply to your own experience. Time and again, Lencioni succeeds at teaching through storytelling and Getting Naked is no different.
Getting Naked is about vulnerability and transparency. Nakedness in this case is a counterintuitive approach to presenting yourself to a client or customer. Instead of going into a sales call loaded for bear with a PowerPoint presentation and all sorts of hype about who you are, you should go into the meeting naked, asking questions, being open, and nearly giving your expertise away. Every meeting should be about the client, not about you.
Lencioni’s story is about a big consulting firm that buys a little, but very successful, boutique consulting company. The executive responsible for the incorporation of the merger discovers that the small consulting firm has little or no sales costs, because most of the small firms clients are referrals from existing clients. The reason? Outstanding service derived from shedding the three big fears that drive customers away: fear of losing the client, fear of being embarrassed, and fear of being inferior. The executive then brings all he has learned back to the big consulting firm—and to you.
Besides being an outstanding storyteller, Pat Lencioni speaks a language that works perfectly for training. In fact, Getting Naked will be read by my staff and will be the basis of a new training program—that’s how valuable I think this book is.
Jack Covert Selects -- Silos, Politics and Turf Wars
Posted March 2006 9:15 a.m. by jack
by Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass, 224 pages, $22.95 Hardcover, March 2006, ISBN 0787976385
I think Patrick Lencioni has the record for the most Jack Covert Selects (including Death by Meeting, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive). Why? He writes books I enjoy reading. They are all novels/parables/fables. He takes challenging subjects from everyday business life puts them in story form; these page-turners feature believable characters in real-life situations. The subjects covered include meetings, teams and leadership. His latest book covers business turf wars, politics and silos.
It features the story of a consultant named Jude Cousins who is hired first by a hotel and later by a hospital; his objective is to get the staff to come together and work towards a common goal. At each location--the hotel and the hospital--Jude encounters various teams working in separate silos. In the world beyond parables, this problem occurs more often than not. It's easy to get caught into the pursuit of your own goals rather than the overall goal, hence Lencioni's book.
One of the best aspects of the book is the sense of discovery. It's as if you're traveling and consulting right along with Jude. Through Jude's story, Lencioni proves once again that fables can be both entertaining and informative. He even provides an end section on the theory of the book, giving theory-based readers access to his ideas in a more analytical manner. In this section you will find the applications of the fable, case studies and breakdowns of turf war problems. This is another Lencioni book that needs to be on all managers' shelves and will be on mine.
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Jack Covert Selects - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Posted March 22, 2002 8:55 a.m. by katie
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Pat Lencioni, Jossey Bass Publishers, 220 Pages, $22.00 Hardcover, March 2002, ISBN 0787960756
Pat Lencioni is the president of a management consulting company in San Francisco and has written two very successful books on leadership. Lencioni excels at using the business fable, a genre I expect can be traced back to Eli Goldratt and The Goal. I have read (or attempted to read) many business fables that have a composite CEO trying to turn around a metaphorical company. One of the biggest problems I sometimes have with this genre is that the author is too distracted by the moral of the story to concentrate on actually telling a good story and creating memorable characters. The characters in this book ring true, are completely recognizable, and fully-realized. The book itself is well-written, and, I believe,ranks with the best of the genre.
It is the story of a person hired by the board of directors to come in and fix a young company. The crux of the companys problem is well-articulated in this passage spoken by the new CEO:
We have a more experienced and talented executive team than any of our competitors. We have more cash than they do. We have better core technology. And we have a more powerful board of directors. Yet in spite of all that, we are behind two of our competitors in terms of revenue and customer growth. How can we fix that?
The answer? Teamwork. And the book uses a great tool, The Model, to show how this transformation is accomplished. To support the fables lessons, Lencioni uses a section for an overview of the model, another for a team assessment, and one that deals with understanding and overcoming five dysfunctions of a problem company. This book works for the CEO, the supervisor, or the small businessperson. We all need knowledge on building and using teams.
