Patrick Lencioni has a message: conflict is good. And his books show us that the way to deal with internal conflict is with better meetings and better teams. He conveys his ideas in story form and you can’t help but be drawn into his world.

In Death by Meeting, our hero is Casey McDaniel, the CEO of a software company who has disastrous meetings. McDaniel feels that meetings keep us from real work until his mentor shows him that meetings are work! The problem with meetings is not that we have too many; in fact, we have too few! The real problem with meetings is that we have the same one over and over again, yet we never resolve the issues that are driving the meetings.

If you’ve ever been in a never-ending meeting, you’ll appreciate the wisdom of Death by Meeting.

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, another CEO at another software company is wrestling with the lack of cohesion among her senior executives. All of the VPs are completely focused on their departments. Each thinks the company would be fine if the other departments could get their acts together. The real problem is that they have different, and conflicting, objectives. The CEO shows how they can align their objectives and resolve conflicts in the spirit of teamwork.

I admit I found this book troublingly familiar. How many staff meetings in my past worked just like this? And did I behave like this character? Ouch! I expect most executives will find a kindred spirit in this fable.

Meetings can be good. Conflicts can be good. The focus of the team should be on our overall corporate objective. Lencioni’s books show us the way.