Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Ideal Team Player, presented three biases that prevent understanding why organizational health is vital in his “At the Table with Patrick Lencioni” podcast episode, “42. Why Your CEO Doesn’t Get It.”

The “At the Table with Patrick Lencioni” podcast is all about “changing the world of work so that all organizations can be more effective and less dysfunctional and where employees can be more fulfilled and less miserable.” Lencioni goes on to say:

“Answers to the challenges in our organizations and our teams is not about what we know and it’s not about data or information or strategy or technology, but it’s really first and foremost about human behavior, which then allows strategy and technology and data to make sense.”

Patrick Lencioni, “42. Why Your CEO Doesn’t Get It”, At the Table with Patrick Lencioni podcast

What drew me into the episode was one of the co-hosts saying that when he talks to executives about organizational health, he often wonders, “Am I crazy?” If you put people first and know that by doing that the results will follow, you have probably asked yourself the same question based on the feedback you receive.

Lencioni and his co-hosts lay out three biases that prevent understanding why organizational health is so important to the bottom line.

Sophistication Bias

The bias is if it’s not complicated, not complex, not at the edge of understandable, then it’s not powerful. Organizational health is often simple. It may not be simple to make the paradigm shift to living the life of organizational health but behaving differently is simple to understand. And executives often wonder how it can be that simple and still effective. Their ego asks too.

Within the discussion on sophistication bias, the group also discussed how we value people who appear unsophisticated. One example given was given two choices, one person from a junior college who has the right behaviors (hungry, humble and smart) and will help you make the right decisions and a Stanford grad who has the technically expertise [without the same behaviors], which would you choose? They argue that until you know in your gut that the person who can help you make better decisions and get the results you want, over just the technical expertise and pedigree, you still have sophistication bias.

Adrenaline Bias

“CEOs … are so fast-paced… they think anything they need to implement should happen immediately.”

Cody Thompson, co-host “42. Why Your CEO Doesn’t Get It”

Organizational health, while not needing years to cultivate (think weeks and months), is not immediate. Therefore, there is a bias against it. There is a paradigm shift that needs to happen to increase the health of an organization, and it needs to be lived out every day. There is no quick fix – one offsite meeting will not result in a healthy organization.

The hosts of the podcast make a point about technology not being a quick fix either. A new ERP or CRM system will not boost organizational health on its own (and this “quick fix” might take longer to implement than a transformation to a healthy organization!).

If you are thinking that a workshop or new process will lead to organizational health without changing how leaders behave every day, then you probably suffer from adrenaline bias.

Quantification Bias

[Quantification Bias:] “If you can’t prove to me specifically exactly the benefits of something then I will not believe you.”

Patrick Lencioni, “42. Why Your CEO Doesn’t Get It”

This is the bias that when one of the co-hosts encounters it feeling like he might be a crazy person is amplified. When it comes to improving organizational health, the consultants at Table Group know how important it is to the bottom line, but you can’t put the process on a Gantt chart or create an ROI.

For example, how much return will your organization get if trust is higher in all the teams?

Patrick Lencioni draws an analogy to marriage counselling. Does anyone ask, “exactly how much happier will this make us?” No! Of course not. Not being able to quantify or measure the result exactly does not nullify the importance and impact.

To combat this, the group brings home the idea by telling the executives that “if you don’t focus on organizational health, your best people will leave first.” This, they say, is understandable and powerful. They make the argument that a healthy organization leads to more technical competence and that organizational health “translates to the bottom line.”

engineer your life

  • Listen to the podcast episode: “42. Why Your CEO Doesn’t Get It”, “At the Table with Patrick Lencioni” podcast.
  • Consider your situation. Whether you are an executive or not, do you find yourself suffering from sophistication bias, adrenaline bias or quantification bias? If yes, recognizing it as such will help you in overcoming that bias.