Review of
Instaread Summary of The Ideal Team Player How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three
Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni
Three out of
five stars
Given the
tremendous complexity of human behavior and interactions in professional
environments, any reduction to a small set of characteristics is a dubious
action. Lencioni reduces the number of key traits of an ideal (not merely good)
team player own to three and in a page out of his admitted religious faith,
calls them virtues. The three “essential” traits are being humble, smart and
hungry.
There is no
question that being able to work within groups is a key aspect of
organizational success. However, and this is mentioned in the summary, these
traits can also be detrimental if not possessed in the proper dosage. Key takeaway
three is, “Ideal team players have each of the three virtues in roughly equal
measure.” In other words, the ideal person not only has these three traits, but
all balanced in the proper way.
Yet, this is
somewhat contradicted by key takeaway four, “Of the three virtues, humility is
the most important.” It reminds me of the Orwellian statement, “Some are more
equal than others.” If all three should be in equal measure, then how is it
possible that one is more important than the other? The answer to this question
is found in the text of the takeaway, where there is a extended reference to
religion.
Key takeaway
six deals with misplaced hunger, “Hunger is detrimental to the team when it is
exclusively self-interested or when taken to an extreme.” Key take away seven
deals with misplaced intelligence, “Smart people don’t always use their social
intelligence for the benefit of the group.” Establishing the further
qualification that the three virtues also have to appear in the proper form.
People do not
fit into molds that we attempt to make for them, they are what they are.
Professional interactions are very complex and success is often achieved in
ways that were unexpected in the sense that a team that appears to be made from
disparate individuals gells and achieves great things. Lencioni tries to
simplify this down to a few key points and fails, creating a book that uses
religion to argue for ways people should be hired and developed.
The author of
the summary does little, if any, questioning of the thesis put forward by Lencioni,
despite there being a lot of room to do so.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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