The Ideal Team Player

One of the purposes of the book is to help companies articulate and implement a culture that promotes teamwork, centered on Lencioni’s premise that the three traits of humility, hunger, and smarts are what comprise good team players. Lencioni’s fable about Valley Builders demonstrates the benefits of a cohesive workplace culture and supports his premise that teamwork lies at the heart of such a culture. A values-based culture, Lencioni argues, is critically important to a company’s long-term stability and success.

Developing an effective workplace culture means not only defining values but also embedding them into daily operations and workplace relationships. This starts with hiring people who reflect the company’s values, which necessitates making those values clear during the hiring process. Lencioni points out that “[m]any people will try to get a job even if they don’t fit the company’s stated values, but very few will do so if they know that they’re going to be held accountable […] for behavior that violates the values” (180). The book depicts this through the character of Ted Marchbanks, who represents Lencioni’s “skillful politician” archetype. Ted’s lack of humility makes him a poor cultural fit, which he realizes during the interview stage, prompting him to remove himself for consideration.