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Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership FableThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second "fable" by Lencioni that I have read, and I find his books enjoyable and useful for several reasons.

1. The "fable" format works, and I feel a little better about adding them to the Fiction Room blog since they include actual fiction. They are highly consumable and fairly concise. That is what I want in a business book. It is still work, after all, and I would like to get the info I need, along with examples of how to try it out, and then get back to my own recreational reading...

2. The content of both 5 Dysfunctions and Death by Meeting are simple, yet profound concepts that speak to pain points in today's business environment. I don't need multiple studies to prove something that I already know (ie, that most meetings are broken and that most teams don't know how to get results.) I just need suggestions on how to address them that can be tested/implemented fairly quickly.

If I were to include a criticism of this book, it would be that while the story works, the drama/characterization is a little over the top sometimes. Maybe over the top is not what I mean, maybe it is just a weak point in Lencioni's style (we all have weak points.) His creative writing is not bad, but obviously not his first passion.

I recommend Lencioni (it is now required reading for my team) and look forward to products he has to offer.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Book Of Mormon

So in case you were not aware, The Book of Mormon is a religious book that lays the foundation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is often referred to as the Mormon church, a name derived from the title of this book.  While I am a member of that church, I have no official spokesperson status.  Just an opinion I will share freely.

The book is comprised of  records of an ancient civilization on the American continent, preserved through the ages by a series of prophets/authors and then consolidated into one volume by a guy named Mormon (thus the name).  Ultimately it was buried for safe keeping, and later discovered in the 1830s by a man by the name of Joseph Smith, per the instructions of an angel.  There are plenty of critics out there for this book, and for the story of its orgin that I just outlined. I can not help them, nor can I respond to them, really.  I can understand that some people may have trouble with the idea of an angel guiding someone to a book.  I have trouble with the idea that the book isn't genuine (I read it, after all.)  So if it is genuine, then it came by angelic instructions.  Im ok with that.

I believe that the Book of Mormon is a true record of a people that really existed.  I can hear the different voices of authorship throughout the book, and I see attitudes and civization changing over time in its pages.  The purpose of the book is to bring people to Jesus Christ, and complements the Bible in that objective.  For me, to attack this book is to attack Christianity as a whole.  Again, this is just my opinion, so I recommend, as I often do on this blog, to read this book for yourself though, and would suggest forming your opinion after that reading, not before.

5 Stars.