A perspective on building better inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage.
There’s no shortage of books on how to run a smarter business.
Sharper strategy. Better tech. More data.
We’ve read them.
We’ve used them.
We’ve even written parts of our playbook based on them.
But here’s a belief we’ve come to hold firmly from Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Advantage:
Being smart isn’t enough. You have to be healthy.
What Does That Even Mean?
Organizational health is a competitive advantage. It’s about building a company where there’s clarity instead of confusion, trust instead of politics, and alignment instead of chaos. Where people don’t just know what to do, they know why they’re doing it and how their role fits in.
“The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health.”
— Patrick Lencioni
Lencioni argues that a healthy company is one where:
- Leadership teams are cohesive and aligned.
- Everyone is clear on why the company exists and what matters most right now.
- Clarity is overcommunicated (yes, over-communicated).
- People systems (hiring, promotions, feedback) reinforce the values, not just the metrics.
This isn’t theory. It’s execution. And it’s hard.
But it’s worth it.
And like your personal health, business health isn’t a one-time achievement.
You don’t go for a run, drink a smoothie, and declare yourself “fit.”
You show up, consistently, with discipline and intent.
That’s how we’re building our organization at PJ Wallbank Springs.
4 Exercises To Build (And Maintain) Business Health
Building a healthy business is an ongoing effort. It’s not about perfection. It’s about showing up and doing the work with intention.
These four exercises drawn from Lencinoni reflect practices we’re building into our company.
Not because we have to, but because we believe they matter.
1. Align your leadership like your posture.
If the spine’s off, the whole body suffers. Same goes for your leadership team.
We’re on a journey to build better leadership alignment. We invest time in building trust, communication, and shared clarity among our leaders because if that group isn’t cohesive, the ripple effects show up fast across every team.
Healthy teams talk about hard things, trust each other’s intentions, and move together.
2. Ask these six questions…again and again.
Lencioni’s six critical questions are deceptively simple. But answering them clearly and repeatedly is how you keep your organization from drifting into confusion:
- Why do we exist?
- How do we behave?
- What do we do?
- How will we succeed?
- What’s most important right now?
- Who must do what?
We admit we don’t directly ask these six questions regularly. But they are built into our reoccurring planning process, performance system, and vision and values that we live and revisit consistently. These questions help us align priorities and stay grounded when things get complex, much like a check-up with our own values and habits.
3. Overcommunicate what matters.
Repetition can feel unnatural to leaders.
But communication isn’t just about what’s said in a moment. It’s about what’s heard, retained, and reinforced over time. This is especially true in manufacturing where shift changes, production challenges, and email overload create noise.
We’re working on repeating key messages more than feels natural: our vision and values, strategic priorities, and how each team contributes. But we realize communication is more than just an email. It’s necessary to build systems—learning sessions, quarterly planning, performance reviews, team meetings, interviews, onboarding, etc.—to help reinforce and communicate consistently.
Just like your personal habits, repetition is what creates results.
4. Use your values to guide who joins and who grows.
Hiring based only on technical skill is like eating for calories, not nutrition.
We are very intentional about building our hiring and promotion systems around behavior as much as output. We look for humility, ownership, and the ability to work through conflict with care. We highly value results, but if someone doesn’t live our values, they’re not a fit.
We don’t just reward what gets done, but how it gets done. That’s how culture stays strong.
Progress Over Perfection
We don’t claim to have it all figured out.
We’re not perfect. No business is.
But like your personal health, perfection isn’t the point. Progress is.
That’s why we’re committed to learning and building a company where people are moving in the same direction.
With intentional habits.
Regular temperature checks.
And course-correcting when things drift.
That’s what it takes to build a business that stays healthy—and gets better over time.
What About You?
Do you work in a company that feels healthy? What would it take to get there?
At PJWS, we believe learning doesn’t stop in the classroom or even on the job. Many of our leaders and team members grow through reading, and the ideas we’ve gathered from authors over the years have shaped how we think, lead, and build our business. That’s why we’re launching a new series: Books for Building Better
Each post will explore a book that’s helped us improve—from leadership and engineering to culture and strategy—and the ways we apply those lessons. Have a book that’s inspired you? Share it with us at: wallbank@pjws.com
Concepts and selected quotes adapted from The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni, are used under fair use for commentary and educational purposes.