Silos, Politics and Turf Wars - By Patrick Lencioni

I remember getting passed over for the job promotion. My previous boss had told the hiring manager that despite receiving my degree in the field and completing my training within the company for that very position, that I wasn’t ready. Worse? Their successor shared with me that my previous boss had left notes of the position and one included not to invest in me. Fast forward and I not only was given the opportunity to be promoted into that position for a competitor, but I excelled in it - reaching and surpassing goals my first year in the position and going on to even receive recognitions and awards for my positive impact in such field.

So often we can view our colleagues as competition and build walls and barriers we aren’t even aware of constructing that prevent us from best working as a team, in collaboration with one another, building each other up - not tearing each other down.

In Silos, Politics and Turf Wars, the author proposes a theory for an alignment that can be applied to any organization - both large and small. He evaluates opportunities for teams to recognize the infighting within an organization and instead look at developing what he refers to as the rally cry. Once developing your organization’s rally cry in efforts to create company alignment, Lencioni directs you to establish the building blocks with include a thematic goal, defining objectives, developing the standard operating objectives, and conclude with implementing metrics. All of which is the author’s goal of “building a cohesive leadership team.”

After reading this book and then reflecting on my own experience of barriers that seemed to appear during that transition from one boss to another, it’s sad to reflect that such silos were created with the intent to “cause people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another.” The author warns us that such division can often cause confusion which turns to disappointment, which leads to resentment and often can cause colleges to work against each other. I chose a different route. Although I never called upon that leader for advice while serving in such position, I did choose to reflect positively on our time together and the things I did learn from them. I still smile when I think of them and I chose to see their error as just that - a one-time bad judgment, no matter the reason. We all have been there. We get jealous, envious, intimidated, or just insecure. It doesn’t have to define us, and we can learn from our mistakes. We can also learn from the mistakes of others. From that day on I vowed to always invest in others with a goal that if and when they excel me, to be the first in line to cheer them on. After all, I’d rather have relationships and my time with them not wasted, vs. the alternative of silos, politics and turf wars.

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