The Business Canon

Episode 70: The Foundation of a Team: Psychological Safety

What is the single most important ingredient of a great team? It's not talent or intelligence; it's psychological safety. In this essential Brief, we distill the core concept from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and the work of researchers like Amy Edmondson. Our hosts quickly explain what psychological safety is: a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. You will learn why this sense of safety is the foundation for everything else, from healthy conflict and commitment to accountability and results. In just a few minutes, you’ll understand the one condition you must create for your team to thrive.

Episode 71: The Fable as a Business Tool: A Critique of Lencioni's Style

Patrick Lencioni has built a massive following by teaching business principles through simple, accessible fables, but is this storytelling approach always the most effective way to learn? In this Critique episode, we analyze the signature style of books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Our hosts praise the fable for its ability to make complex ideas relatable and memorable. However, we also offer a critique. We question whether the neat, tidy resolutions of these fictional stories can create unrealistic expectations for leaders facing the much more complex and messy reality of organizational change, and whether the simplicity of the model can sometimes come at the expense of necessary nuance.

Episode 72: Accountability: "Extreme Ownership" vs. Lencioni's Model

What is the most effective way to create a culture of accountability? This episode stages a Debate between two powerful but different models. One host, drawing on the uncompromising philosophy of Jocko Willink and Leif Babin's Extreme Ownership, argues that true accountability is a top-down phenomenon, where the leader takes absolute ownership for everything that happens. The other host, channeling the ideas of Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions, argues that the most powerful form of accountability is peer-to-peer. They believe that a culture where team members hold each other accountable is far more effective and scalable than one that relies solely on the leader.

Episode 73: Built to Last (Part 1): The Myth of the Great Idea

We begin our multi-part series on the influential classic by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last. In this first episode, our hosts tackle one of the book's most famous and counter-intuitive findings: that visionary companies do not start with a great idea. The conversation explores the book's research showing that many of the most enduring companies started slowly and often without a clear plan. We analyze why the key to long-term success is not a brilliant founding concept, but the building of a brilliant and resilient organization—a company that is the ultimate creation. This is a powerful challenge to the "lightbulb moment" myth of entrepreneurship.

Episode 74: Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)

How do you create alignment and inspire progress in an organization over the long term? By setting a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. In this motivational Brief, we distill one of the most famous concepts from Jim Collins and Jerry Porras's Built to Last. Our hosts quickly explain what a BHAG is: a huge, daunting, and compelling long-term goal that acts as a unifying focal point of effort. You will learn the difference between a good BHAG and a bad one, and why this kind of ambitious, almost-unreachable goal is a powerful mechanism for stimulating progress in a visionary company.

Episode 75: The "Built to Last" Companies: A Legacy Critique

The companies profiled in Built to Last were hailed as "visionary" paragons of long-term success, but how has that vision held up in the decades since the book's publication? In this legacy Critique, we re-examine the book's famous case studies. Our hosts analyze the subsequent performance of companies like Motorola, Sony, and Disney. We offer a constructive critique of the book's methodology, questioning whether its "visionary" traits were truly the cause of success or simply a reflection of a specific historical period. The conversation explores the immense difficulty of identifying timeless business principles and the dangers of survivorship bias in business research.

Episode 76: Visionary Companies vs. Great Companies

What is the difference between a "visionary" company and a "great" one? This episode stages a Debate by comparing the findings of Jim Collins's two most famous books: Built to Last and Good to Great. One host explores the core concepts of Built to Last, which focuses on building an enduring organization that can survive multiple product cycles and leaders. The other host champions the ideas of Good to Great, which focuses on the specific, disciplined leap from being a good company to being a truly great one. The debate unpacks the subtle but important differences in their research, their findings, and their ultimate definitions of success.

Episode 77: Principles by Ray Dalio (Part 1): The Idea Meritocracy

We begin our multi-part series on Ray Dalio's unique and controversial bestseller, Principles. In this first episode, our hosts do a deep dive into the core engine of his company, Bridgewater Associates: the "Idea Meritocracy." The conversation explores Dalio's argument that the best way to make decisions is to create a system where the best ideas win out, regardless of the rank or title of the person who suggests them. We analyze the tools and cultural norms, like "Radical Transparency" and "Believability-Weighted Decision Making," that are required to make this system work. This is a look at a radical attempt to overcome the human biases that lead to bad decisions.

Episode 78: Radical Transparency: The Core Idea

What if everyone in your organization said exactly what they were thinking, all the time? In this provocative Brief, we distill the core concept of "Radical Transparency" from Ray Dalio's Principles. Our hosts quickly explain why Dalio believes that being completely transparent—even when it's difficult or uncomfortable—is the key to rapid learning and improvement. You will learn how this principle, when combined with a culture of open-mindedness, can help a team get to the truth faster. In just a few minutes, you’ll have a clear understanding of a powerful but challenging idea for building a high-performance culture.

Episode 79: The Bridgewater Culture: A Critique of Life by Algorithm

The culture at Ray Dalio's Bridgewater, as described in Principles, is one of the most unique and intensely managed in the world, but is it a desirable model for other businesses? In this Critique episode, we analyze the potential downsides of Dalio's system. Our hosts question whether a culture of constant criticism, videotaped meetings, and algorithmic "believability" scores can foster true creativity and psychological safety. We explore the argument that this system, while designed to be an "idea meritocracy," could in practice become a form of high-tech groupthink, ruled by the algorithms and biases of its founder.