I promise I read more books than just those by Patrick Lencioni. But I can’t ignore the fact that right now these books are really hitting a nerve with me – in a good way!
Silos, Politics and Turf Wars discusses a fictional character starting a new chapter in his career by creating his own consulting company. The character, Jude, struggles to find his way and achieve the greatest benefit for organizations as a new consultant. Fortunately, he built several successful relationships with executives in different industries that he could count on to get his foot in the door to a few immediate opportunities. However, one of the biggest challenges comes when Jude and his wife learn that she is pregnant with twins.
To attempt to explain the model would take away from the joy and benefit of learning through reading this book yourself, so I won’t rob you of that chance. However, the topic of creating a “rallying cry” in an organization to rally all employees around a thematic goal is genius.
As I read through this book, I could think back to times when I experienced silos and interdepartmental bickering that made doing simple tasks and jobs incredibly challenging. For example, in one of my early roles, I was tasked with creating a global headcount tracker so that we knew how many staff we had at various levels across all organizations in the company in every region. We had no global system and altogether had nearly 20+ different payroll systems, so even pulling a list from those would be a challenge. But one of the things I remember most vividly was that the question kept coming back “Isn’t this a finance responsibility”? They were in charge of our budget. Or maybe it was an IT function. They were responsible for all of our data and systems, right? Funny enough, it fell to a 20-something HR analyst to figure out a Fortune 500 company’s global headcount.
There are certainly more examples than this, but I love this one because not only did I learn the most with this project, but I feel it had a tremendous impact on the organization at all levels and gave visibility to data we didn’t think was possible.
Aside from the silos topic, I have to state the most important observation in this book that hit me the hardest, and it had nothing to do with the model or business. It was Jude’s wife.
Whenever Jude was down or feeling hopeless, his wife was always there to challenge him and support him. Jude is an intelligent man and has the aptitude to figure out how to start his business, how to be a new father, how to be a supportive husband for his pregnant wife, and how to solve big business problems. But he doubted himself multiple times. He questioned his ability to do everything that was needed, even questioning whether he should quit his consulting career (less than 90 days into it) and go back into the workforce.
His wife wouldn’t let him give up on his dream. She kept repeating to him “You said you feel you were meant to be a consultant.” While the pressure of supporting her and his new twin daughters wasn’t enough of a motivator, his wife’s love and support saw him through some of the most challenging times in the story.
The power of a supportive spouse cannot be understated. I fully understand that this was not the primary message in the book, but this topic landed with me the hardest. Not only did it have me pausing to examine how much my wife supports me at times, but more importantly how I support – or don’t support – her at times. Hell, there have been times when I’ve flat-out argued against a big goal or dream she has had rationalizing that it cost too much or wasn’t possible, or even doubting her own capabilities. I am grateful that this book allowed me to do some personal examination and consider how important the support of a loving spouse is in our day-to-day lives, and especially how it can impact our success and joy at work.
I wish I had some incredible final statement to wrap this up with a bow, but all I will say is take care of your people, take care of your family, and love one another.
