Organizational leadership is well-studied because it has such a wide impact. Many professionals spend time perusing books and other materials to glean actionable insights. However, many of those same people don’t spend any time learning how their families work. To reply, leadership author Patrick Lencioni points out that families are just another sort of organization. Yes, family dynamics are different than those of businesses; they deserve a different approach. As with organizations, the skill of leading a family can be nonetheless learned, and he provides this short leadership story to ignite our imaginations.
In this narrative, a busy, suburban family consists of a couple with a cadre of young children. Their family is organized around being reactive to each new challenge – that is, they have no real strategy. They feel overwhelmed and exhausted after taking each new opportunity. Both adults and children are caught up in the loop of keeping up with everyone else, and it’s draining the life and love out of them both as individuals and as a unit.
As happens with many, they reach a breaking point, and the wife ends up learning to organize her family like a business. Then she realizes that won’t work either, but the failure teaches her and her husband to adapt those familiar leadership ideas to the nuances of family life. And it works. And she’s able to teach others. The book ends with a non-fiction explanation of the plan Lencioni proposes.
Lencioni is not a family dynamics expert and admits that he doesn’t have anything close to a perfect family life. He’s a popular leadership expert, but many listeners have told him that his teachings can work with families, too. Therefore, he tries to extrapolate those ideas in this book.
Organizing a family around this book’s principles isn’t for everyone. Still, this book’s most important principle, I believe, is for every family: Clear communication about meaningful things – whatever that means to its members – is key to a healthy family. This books spins that foundation for business folk, professionals, and other organizationally geared individuals. It specifically addresses the common situation when those people feel overwhelmed by the myriad of options and social pressures modern family life poses. If it makes you and the people around you approach life more thoughtfully and more intentionally, I think Lencioni would chalk that up as a win.
The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity to the Most Important Organization in Your Life
By Patrick Lecioni
Narrated by Dan Woren
Copyright (c) 2008
Random House Audio
ASIN B008VD5K9Y
Length: 4:05
Genre: Family, Leadership
www.amazon.com