Collaborative Thinking; The Project Manager's Challenge

Years ago, I read a wonderful saying by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of The Little Prince. He said, "Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward in the same direction."

That saying stuck with me for some reason, and I was reminded of it again recently as I began to read an absolutely energizing book called Creating We, by Judith Glaser. The book carries the same basic intent as Saint-Exupery, except on an organizational level.

The basic premise is that in order to break through the typical silo thinking and toxic, fear-driven, autocratic environments that drive so many organizations today, one needs to get the players to focus externally on the customer, instead of internally at---or against---each other. Just take a look at this list from the book on why organizations fail:

• Lack of shared focus, shared purpose, and/or shared vision
• Lack of enterprise-wide communication
• Lack of organizational ambition and a strategic approach to getting there
• Lack of respect for others within the organization
• Failure to tap resources and inner talent, creativity, and responsibility
• Failure to break down the walls ("silos") between divisions
• Lack of team cohesion and failure to develop team agreements, rules of engagement, and decision-making processes.
• Failure to focus outside and see the customer
• Lack of hope and spirit; a punishing environment

Is this your organization?

Glaser, whose executive consulting company, Benchmark Communications Inc., has helped many of their A-list clients transform their culture from I-centric organizations to we-centric organizations, offers many compelling case studies and practical advice in the book. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to break down the silos in their organization.

For project managers, it's especially useful, as projects often require facilitating conflicting stakeholders and departments to some sort of agreement. Compounding the problem is that these people are often at higher levels in the organization. To address this, the book offers ways to facilitate we-thinking that are useful from any level in an organization, although ideally it should be driven from the top. For that matter, why not buy a copy for your senior executives (and no, I don't get commission).