As you have probably heard, the government is taking a census in 2010. No doubt you have heard the great commercials promoting the importance of making sure you fill yours out -- because we need to know how many people are living in the community so that we can know if we need larger hospitals, more buses, bigger schools, etc.
My wife Patty checked at the post office because we had not yet gotten our papers to fill out our censuses report. They told her it’s because we have a PO box, and the government addressed the census to our street address. And - the post office was given strict orders not to let them go through.
I thought to myself, both are government agencies but are not working together on something that they are saying is hugely important. Could this be a major reason why our government is not trustworthy of leading any organization? They don’t work together, but seemly work against one another.
Patrick Lencioni shared in his book Silos, Politics and Turf Wars about this problem, and that it is not only true of our government, but also of many companies and churches. Here are some notes I took from his book:
Silos are nothing more than the barriers that exist between departments within an organization, causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another. And whether we call this phenomenon departmental politics, divisional rivalry, or turf warfare, it is one of the most frustrating aspects of life in any sizable organization.
Now, sometimes silos do indeed come about because leaders at the top of an organization have interpersonal problems with one another. But my experience suggests that this is often not the case. In most situations, silos rise up not because of what executives are doing purposefully but rather because of what they are failing to do: provide themselves and their employees with a compelling context for working together.
Silo issues are probably more structural and organizational than interpersonal.
If there is a place where the blame for silos and politics belongs, it is at the top of an organization.
To tear down silos, leaders must go beyond behaviors and address the contextual issues at the heart of the departmental separation and politics. The good news is that this is all immensely avoidable. How do you then avoid it?
- Be Humble
- Be Cooperate
- Choose to Trust
- Be Trustworthy (when you know you haven’t fulfilled your reasonability, admit it on your own)
- Deal with Offensives quickly and thoroughly
