Lencioni writes his books from what he learns from his clients as he takes different approaches to changing reoccurring issues with leaders. We see ourselves and our common management issues in his fables that demonstrate the issues and implement solutions that we can transfer to our businesses.

The story is about a consultant starting his new business by helping his clients overcome silo and political issues that are stagnating cooperation and inhibiting effective business operations and growth. I’m not going to cover the fable in this summary.

This is not a book review. I will only summarize the principles and show some models for you to contemplate and then integrate into your own business environment.

“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.” This is a very frustrating dilemma in most companies. This situation usually starts at the top of the organization. The leader just doesn’t know how to overcome the problem. Most leaders just learn to live with it or think there is nothing wrong going on. They fail to provide themselves with compelling reasons for people to work well together.

Everyone seems to be working on worthwhile objectives and agendas feeling that what they are doing is in the best interest of the organization. When people notice that others are moving in different directions, they become confused, disappointed, resentful and even hostile at times

to co-workers. They may find themselves in battles they can’t win. In these cases the top leader fails to make the interdependencies clear to the people deeper in their own organizations. Fortunately there is a way for the executive or any leader to establish clear understanding of the interdependencies, create a common sense of purpose and develop the context for all employees to rally around.

The Model

A Thematic Goal is a single, qualitative focus that is shared by the entire leadership team—and ultimately, by the entire organization—and that applies for only a specified time period.

In order to avoid politics and turf battles, executives must establish an unambiguously stated common goal, a single overriding theme that remains the top priority of the entire leadership team for a given period of time. This must be the rallying cry shared by all members of the leadership team. The theme must rally people to do something; improve, reduce, increase, grow, change, establish, eliminate, accelerate etc. by a certain time period; 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, but it doesn’t have to be a 12-month objective.

Defining Objectives
Once the thematic goal is set, a leadership team must then give it actionable context so that members of the team know what must be done to accomplish the goal. The defining objectives, like thematic goals, are qualitative components and shared by all members of the leadership team (usually 4-6 objectives). After defining objectives are qualified, quantification comes shortly after (amounts, timelines, assignments). Everyone on the team must play a critical role in accomplishing the objectives.

Standard Operating Objectives
In addition to the objectives it is critical to acknowledge that other important objectives exist that the leadership team must focus on. These are the ongoing priorities shared by all members of the leadership team or the priorities that are fundamental functions for running the business. They include revenue and expenses, customer satisfaction, productivity, market share, quality, safety and the like. The leadership team needs to describe the expected standards of performance that need to be achieved with these operating objectives. Leaders must resist saying that “revenue is all that matters” or “cost reduction is the only thing to focus on”. These cries are critical standard operating objectives. When leaders use these as a thematic goal, rallying cry, they create a “boy who cried wolf” syndrome.

Metrics
After the above is defined, the leadership team must describe the measurement. Metric have little meaning unless they fit into the context of the thematic goals, defining objectives and the standard operating objectives. Keep in mind that even metrics are not always quantifiable numbers. Often they are completion dates. Some activities are not measurable.

Most of us who have lived through turf wars and self-serving political agendas know that the impact is costly, kill’s productivity, pushes good people out the door and can jeopardize achieving corporate goals. It’s a waste, but Patrick Lencioni has identified steps that can help us all focus on the right things, the right way to lead a team and focusing on the right reasons to do it: WE ALL WIN!

Roth Consulting Group has a model for “silo busting”. Our methods develop individuals and the team as well as establishing cross functional cooperation and trust. A few of the other benefits of our work are:

 Accelerates culture change
 Increases productivity
 Improves resource sharing

 Leaders help each other
 Reduces costs and duplications
 Grows leaders to the next level

Call us if you have the same or similar opportunities to take your leadership team to a higher level of cooperation, trust and productivity.