The practice session was going along predictably. We changed direction with this comment. “I feel like we have pretty good chemistry out on the concrete. It’s when we come into the carpet that it changes.” She was telling her fellow builders and me something we see all the time in corporate America.
You don’t need to drive out in the country to find them anymore. In fact, it’s much more difficult, today, to actually find them there. Funny, huh.
However,do not lose hope, just take a walk around your concrete and your carpet, your corporate and your field, your main campus and your satellites, your sales and your marketing, your accounting and your operations, your project management and your executives, and you’ll see them “plain as day.”
SILO’s.
Silo’s are teams. Oftentimes, these teams work well within. They experience great teamwork behind the silo walls. They just don’t play as well with the other silo’s that are also on the same TEAM. The real team.
Silo’s are interested in doing what’s right for their team above what’s right for the TEAM. This is NOT always a problem and will NEVER go completely away. Huh?Remember, high performance always starts with high performance individuals, then high performance teams, and finally with a collection of high performing teams that feels more like “A TEAM.” A TEAM that feels they are ONE. Very cool and very rare.
So, how do we get there is the obvious question. Sadly, there is no pill to take and no shortcuts either. The long way home is required. Are you still listening?
At BTL, we believe that this road is worth the journey. We believe, this road is the only way to sustained high performance. We start by working one on one with the leaders of the “silo nations” and once the leaders are well down the road we grab their teams and begin to take them together. We bring “carpet and concrete” together to build them. We pour ourselves into them. AND, we keep pouring. AND, we expose them to our framework, The Essentials of Excellence. The 12 8 4 powered by 2. AND, we get them tired together. AND, we wait. AND, we keep pouring.
AND, we keep our eyes on the Lennys, the Marks, the green jeans, the Shoshannahs, the Jerrys, the Dougs, and the Jennys that are always there, on every team. The ones that breakthrough first. The ones that catch FIRE. AND, we help these “souls on fire” keep burning and spreading. AND…
Eventually, we witness carpet and concrete coming together. In the case of this particular company, they already are. The silo walls have been coming down for months. They are beginning to tell each other the truth. They are beginning to feel like they are a part of something more than their team. They are “breaking” into A TEAM. Very cool.
These teams used to be Carpet VS. Concrete. Today they are Carpet and Concrete. Soon they’ll just be A TEAM. Soon they’ll just be “pure”…
Linoleum…
What are you doing to break down the walls between YOUR silo’s?
What are you doing to build your silo’s into “A TEAM?”
Why do certain high performance silo’s always “go around” one or two other silo’s on their way toward getting their job done?
Why don’t you do something about that?
Why are you thinking more about CUTS than you are about BUILDING your Carpet and Concrete into pure Linoleum?
Why? Why? Why?…
BUILT TO LEAD 