Transcripts

Patrick Lencioni:
And often times they actually feel a stronger sense of loyalty to their department than they do to the company as a whole.

Management Consultant, Patrick Lencioni, author of the book, Silos Politics & Turf Wars says good managers know how to align those departments by creating a clear urgent definable goal.

Think about it - the kinds of organizations that don't have politics are organizations like EMT's and Emergency rooms at hospitals and soldiers on a mission. All of them have something in common; they're in the face of a crisis. They have a very clear overriding objective. And so one of the things I came to realize is why don't companies create that same sense of urgency they would have during a crisis? Why wait for a crisis to occur?

So, what Patrick recommends is for the top people in every organization to state clearly one and only one goal. And make sure everyone in the organization knows what that goal is by asking the question…

If we accomplish anything in the next six months, for instance, what would it have to be to say that we were successful? And in some organizations it's going to be we have to cut our costs in the next six months or we have to reinvest in our infrastructure. If you get the leaders of an organization aligned around a common goal it usually flows downhill very well.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.