Silos, Politics and Turf Wars

„Silos, Politics and Turf Wars‟ relates to one of the most frustrating problems facing management today. They refer to the infighting and divisional separation prevalent in most companies. In common business parlance, silos can suck the life, energy, enthusiasm, and effort right out of a company or non-profit. What exactly is a silo? In business terms, a silo is a barrier or divider that keeps people within an organization from working with one another. One key reason for this is departmental politics within a business that turns co-workers into competitors and not in a positive sense. In some companies these take such unhealthy proportions that competitors appear friendlier and closer than colleagues!

The book has an appealing tone. The first part of the book weaves a fable of Jude Cousins, a good-hearted, self-employed management consultant who wants to help companies function better and show their people how to get along, and eventually develops a practice that helps companies beat the silo problem.

The crux of the book lies in the assertion that building a cohesive leadership team is the first critical step that an organization must take in order to succeed. However, even while leadership teams become cohesive, there is another, more structural issue that often thwarts their efforts and creates unnecessary politics within an organization. That issue is that of the creation of silos. Silos are barriers that surface between departments within an organization, causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another. And whether this phenomenon is called departmental politics, divisional rivalry or turf warfare, it is one of the most frustrating aspects of life in any sizable organization. In most situations, silos rise up not because of what executives are doing purposefully, but rather because of what they are failing to do: provide themselves and their employees with a compelling context for working together.

Without the aforementioned context, employees at all levels, especially executives at the operational levels, easily lose their way. "Even the most well-meaning, intelligent people get distracted and confused amid the endless list of tactical and administrative details that come their way every day. Pulled in many directions without a compass, they pursue seemingly worthwhile agendas under the assumption that it will be in the best interest of the organization as a whole." But what normally happens is that after a while, employees in different divisions begin to see their colleagues moving in different directions, and they begin to wonder why they aren‟t on the same page.

Over time, their confusion turns into disappointment that eventually becomes resentment, at times, even hostility toward their teammates, with whom they were supposed to work toget