Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable about Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors

by Patrick Lencioni

Book Overview

Practical and hands-on strategies for breaking down silos and minimizing workplace politics

In yet another page-turner, New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed management expert Patrick Lencioni addresses the costly and maddening issue of silos: the barriers that create organizational politics. Silos devastate organizations, kill productivity, push good people out the door, and jeopardize the achievement of corporate goals.

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787976385
• ISBN13: 9780787976385
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Very simple, very accessible, very usable.

This book builds on the ideas discussed in the "Dysfunctions" book by Lencioni as well. Though this one particularly discusses unique facets of many company cultures. Again a sub-6h read depending upon your processing speed. Start with the Dysfunctions book and move into this material thereafter.

Easy To Read; Easy To Understand; Easy To Use

In many ways Silos, Politics and Turf Wars reminded me of books like "Gung Ho" and "Monday Morning Leadership" in that it is a story based management book. The reader follows the life and times of Jude Cousins, a once fast rising manager, now turned independent consultant, as he attempts to navigate his way through the gnarly infrastructures of silo-laden clients while earning a living and raising a family. By itself, the story is both entertaining and informative as Author Patrick Lencioni weaves personal and business challenges and complications in and out of the story. This exposes the reader to a series of events that build to a successful conclusion (of course). It is a formula that works well because it is easier, and more realitic, to remember the context of a story than to remember text without a story, because you are thinking along, and learning with, and even morphing into Jude with every turn of the page. This part of the well-written, easy-to-read book would have been worth the price to buy it and the time to read it. However, the best part of the book for me were the final twenty pages which provided the reader with the thought process and the tools to tear down the silos, and eliminate the politics and turf wars, by identifying and implementing overarching organizational thematic goals. This is the "how to do it" part of the book, complete with excellent case study models to help you make it work in your own business. When you can read a book that provides practical assistance that is immediately usuable, you have a winner, which "Silos, Politics and Turf Wars" surely is.

Practical and Powerful

I have been a fan of Lencioni's work for some time now. His newest offering just might be my favorite to date. I've encountered silos in organizations all my career and I have never seen an approach to the problem as clear, concise and powerful as the one I read about it "Silos". The thematic goal process that is illustrated and explained in the book is amazing. Using a thematic goal to "rally the troops" is an wonderful process. One of the beauties of the book is that the approach is so well explained that any thoughtful manager or leader can implement it with their own teams. I have done so and my teams are energized with the process and are able to speak the language quickly. It really creates a "context for collaboration" that I have never seen work so well. The fable-style that Lencioni uses is a fun page-turning experience that I hated to see end so quickly. That's really the beauty of it. Leaders willing to apply the disciplines discussed in the book will not be disappointed.

Picking up where The Five Dysfunctions of a Team left off

Patrick Lencioni has done an excellent job describing one of the most frustrating and mystifying problems of leadership; why even high performing teams can fall into the trap of allowing silos, politics and turf wars get in the way of their organization's success. Again using a light-hearted fable as a way to convey his message, Lencioni makes a convincing case as to the importance identifying a single `main thing' or in his words, a thematic goal, as the way to break down barriers and achieve true organization alignment. I found the book fun to read, thought provoking and immediately applicable to my work.

Pleeease write that book. The silos in this company are driving me crazy...

"Pleeease write that book. The silos in this company are driving me crazy...," so writes one of Pat Lencioni's readers after they meet. Pat Lencioni has spent his career focused on the "heart" of organizations and identifying behaviors blocking personal and organizational excellence. Lucky for us, he has found another niche, as a best selling author, sharing his observations and remedies in fable form. His first four books - "The Five Temptations of a CEO", "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive", "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team", and "Death by Meeting" have now sold over one million copies and are being translated into foreign languages. With "Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars," Lencioni has tackled a perplexing problem that has frustrated humanity since the beginning of recorded time. `Silos' is a metaphor drawn from the large grain silos that one sees throughout the US Midwest. It is a term of derision that suggests that each department on an organization chart is a silo and that its stands alone, not interacting with any of the other departmental silos. Lencioni addresses a serious problem facing most organizational leaders. A recent study by the American Management Association found 97% of executives believed `silos' have negative effects on organizations, 31% believed they have extensive destructive consequences, and 83% believed they existed in their companies. As with earlier books, "Silos" centers on a fictional story and ends with a separate insightful analysis providing tools to help readers minimize or possibly eliminate Silos, and the aftermath (politics and turf wars), in their organizations. This book will appeal to anyone who works for or leads any organization, as well as community and political leaders. Lencioni's "Silos" centers on Jude Cousins and what follows after his life at Hatch Technology. Cousins leaves Hatch after a merger which leaves Batch, the newco, with two heads of everything, no direction, and discontent. Soon after setting up his own shop, Cousin Consulting, Theresa, his wife, announces she is pregnant increasing the pressure for income and benefits. Faced with twins on the way and a tanking economy, Jude quickly learns he will be unable to provide for his family as a generalist and begins to rethink his future. With the help of existing customers -The Madison Hotel where he did market positioning, JMJ Fitness Machines where he advised on reducing costs, Children's Hospital where he helped a friend transition into the role of CEO, and Sacred Heart Church - Cousins finds his niche as he observes silos and its offspring, the resultant politics and turf wars. He becomes determined to find a solution for the problem and sets about to convince his customers, all of whom complained about `silos,' to give him a chance to implement a solution. He gets a green light from Madison Hotel first and fails in his attempt. While at John Muir Hospital for the delivery of the twins, Cousins observes how