How comes so may organizations face difficulties to make
people work together ? Not only within teams, but (perhaps even more) between
teams. Often there is a big gap between sales and operations, between blue-collar
workers and white collar workers, between supporting services and the rest of
the organization, …
These gaps leads to useless budget discussions : who pays
the bill / who gets the profit ? It also leads to not sharing information with
colleagues from another department. It leads to internal competition and a
culture where we don’t help eachother. It leads to lonely riders who stare 8 hours
in a row at their computer screen and don’t care about their colleagues next
door. It creates a culture of US and THEM. Where “US” is doing all the good
things and “THEM” are blamed for the things "US" actually screwed up. It is the end of any collaboration
and innovation.
These gaps can be dangerous and they definitely don’t
contribute to customer satisfaction. Non of your customers is interested in
these internal battles. It doesn’t improve the quality of your services or
innovation of your products.
The key to success is COLLABORATION. Together with
colleagues, with partners, with customers. Create win-win and synergy.
Departments are not meant to be an island in the middle of
an ocean. They should be part of archipel, a group of islands connected by
bridges, tunnels, ferries, … Where people from one island visit the
neighbouring island.
Create a culture of sharing, of people being interested in
the world outside their personal job.
Next time you walk to the coffee machine, and see a
colleagues of another department, ask him how he is doing, ask what he is
working on. Be interested and search for ways to collaborate.
Make time to do this, it will help you to grow faster and
deliver more quality.
It is the end of the lonely rider era. We live in a time
where sharing and working together is the only way forward.
To end this blog a really nice movie why you should work together :
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