48 pages • 1 hour read
Patrick M. LencioniThe Ideal Team Player
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“The Fable,” Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
“The Fable,” Part 5 Summary: “Indicators”
As part of a re-interviewing initiative, during which they meet with current employees to discuss the newly developed cultural focus in the company, Jeff meets with Nancy Morris. Jeff runs through the company’s new culture and the three traits that comprise it. Sensing that Nancy seems distant or guarded during their interaction, Jeff mentions that while targeting all three values is essential to the company, nobody is perfect: “[W]e all struggle in one or more of these areas from time to time” (139). Nancy explains, “Frankly, I just don’t spend a lot of energy on being nice all the time. I’d rather focus on getting things done. Some people don’t like that, I guess” (140). Jeff tells her that Craig once mentioned that he thought she was humble. This has the intended effect: Nancy’s posture changes, she becomes less guarded, and she warms up to the ideas that Jeff presents to her, agreeing to partake in professional development.
The company moves ahead with hiring Craig for the role they had interviewed Ted for. The employee response is positive. A few days later, the executives finally hear back from some of the people from whom they had sought information about Ted. They learn that Ted, while professional, is likely never going to be a good fit at Valley Builders. The insinuation from the sources is that Ted was arrogant at times.
After about a month of full implementation of the three cultural values, many of the employees who do not fit decide to leave on their own. Others who have some shortcomings in one of the three areas accept professional development opportunities. Clare is instrumental in streamlining the values. After about six months, as the company begins the hiring process, the general change in its culture evolves. New hires fit in well, and current employees either adapt or, on a few occasions, leave the company. After about a year, the company also realizes that Valley Builders has garnered a reputation as a good place to work. Rather than having to hire headhunters to find prospective employees, the company has prospective employees coming to them. The formerly high turnover rate changes dramatically, and morale at the company is high.
“The Fable,” Part 5 Analysis
The work of the previous parts of the fable have been codified, and the three values—hunger, humility, and people smarts—have been embedded into how the company operates. Part 5 follows the trajectory of the company’s new cultural direction, including the manner in which they hire new employees and explain the changes to existing ones. As Jeff interviews Nancy Morris to explain the new culture, he realizes that her most significant shortcoming as an employee is a general lack of interpersonal skills, or the trait the company has defined as “smart.” While Nancy’s comments initially confound Jeff, his recognition that no one is perfect and that people can improve their skills helps her drop her guard. She follows up by admitting that she can use some help making improvements with regard to interacting with others: “So, as much as I’d like to say that I’m willing to work on that […] I’m going to need help from someone to get better […] But I’ll try” (140-41). This interaction demonstrates that while Nancy may not yet possess the people skills the executives would like to see, her willingness to admit her own shortcomings is a sign of her humility, one of the other core values of the company.
The benefits of instituting the new workplace culture system are almost immediate. After just one month of embedding the core values into the workplace, the company sees a noticeable and dramatic impact: “[E]verything at VB had changed completely. All open positions had been hired with ideal team players, and the projects were both way ahead of schedule” (144). Here, the theme of The Impact of Teamwork on Overall Performance emerges. The decision to adopt and implement a new cultural system at Valley Builders, one that prioritizes teamwork and sacrifice over self-interest, leads to improvements in performance, here measured by the timeliness of project completion.
Additionally, as time progresses, the company develops a reputation as a good place to work, highlighting The Importance of Workplace Culture. This is another benefit to the implementation of the new cultural model. Prior to Jeff’s insistence on a new cultural prioritization, the company struggled to both find and retain employees, but now “recruiting ha[s] shifted largely away from headhunters and outside agencies as more and more employees, from contractors to foremen, [seek] out jobs at VB through friends and references” (150). This shift is also attributable to employee morale, which is now “undeniably higher” (15). The impact of a cohesive, positive workplace culture is clearly evident here and in the remainder of the chapter, as the narrative further explores the positive impacts the new cultural shift creates for the company.
