I just finished Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni. I have heard him speak a bit on the topic and have read some HBR articles in which he summarizes his theory, but never read the book.
This past year I’ve been thinking about some of the dynamics illustrated and covered in the book, but didn’t quite remember that this book got into those things. Finally, I made the connection and really enjoyed my reading of it. It’s short, mostly a narrative, and has a tangible theory (oxymoron?) that gives me some good categories to think about.
Lencioni discusses the phenomenon of when a leadership team runs into the ground because each person is primarily focused on their own piece of the pie and universe instead of what is most important to the overall success of the team.
The language I’ve been using in my own mind is “CYA” – “cover your bAckside” 🙂 Lencioni focuses on SILO language and focuses more on structure than motivation and psychology. Regardless of what language, these dynamics require leadership and clarity to help people lift their eyes from the tasks of their life and that which they can generate a sense of personal achievement in towards the higher realm of values, culture, focus, and the whole.
I’m not going to lay out the model, because you can follow the link below. The essence of what’s helpful is the practical and theoretical help to bring a short-term focus and clarity that transcends your own job description, but that lifts up the higher purpose and needs of the team and organization you’re a part of. Today there’s a lot of CYA and an over-dependence on job descriptions as the means of measuring success. This is a helpful resource for team leaders and wannabe team consultant types.
If leaders aren’t leading and leading well in these areas, silos and CYA attitudes are inevitable. If within a leadership context people start getting the sense that the whole is being neglected or that it’s a lost cause, what else is there to do but retreat into your own domain. You can still be a part of getting a lot of tasks done and see some results, but it will lack significant meaning and ultimately there will be significant conflict that will start tearing things down. This book provides some easy paths to think about rallying people to a unified voice and purpose for short-term seasons.
I was buzzing around these themes in a couple of recent posts though I wasn’t thinking in these categories at the time. Check out A Team’s Last Line of Defense Pt. 1 and A Team’s Last Line of Defense Pt. 2.You can check out some resources related to the book at Lencioni’s site here.
