Product Description

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.

As with his other books, Lencioni writes Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars as a fictional—but eerily realistic—story. The story is about Jude Cousins, an eager young management consultant struggling to launch his practice by solving one of the more universal and frustrating problems faced by his clients. Through trial and error, he develops a simple yet ground–breaking approach for helping them transform confusion and infighting into clarity and alignment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140453 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
Marketing won′t speak to engineering. Sales thinks production hogs the budget. Front desk believes back room′s lazy. These sorts of turf wars, which turn outwardly unified companies into groupings of uncommunicative "silos," are the stuff of management lore. According to bestselling author Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), "they waste resources, kill productivity and jeopardize the achievement of goals"—they also drive workers into tizzies of frustration. Like his previous books, Lencioni′s latest addresses the management problem through a fictional story; this one revolves around a self–employed consultant named Jude, who has to dismantle silos at an upscale hotel, a technology company and a hospital. Split into two sections, Lencioni′s book first shows Jude discovering a solution to silos, then summarizes Jude′s lessons into a strategy that readers can apply to any business. Lencioni′s proposal is so full of common sense—namely, end turf wars by getting departments to rally around a common goal—that managers will be eager to apply it themselves. Just as refreshing is Lencioni′s use of character and plot, which is far above average for the business genre. As sympathetic as Jude is, he makes Lencioni′s management lessons memorable. (Mar.) (Publishers Weekly, January 30, 2006)

"...an excellent book that nearly everyone will identify with and benefit from..." (Personnel Today, May 2006)

"... an engaging, simplistic read, and one that reinforced many impressions about the ‘problems within’ and strategies to solve them.” (The British Journal Of Administrative Management, February/March 07)

"...if your business experiences politics... this book may be for you."  (EN, the magazine for entrepreneurs, January 2008)

Review
"...full of common sense...memorable" (Publishers Weekly, January 30, 2006)

"...an excellent book that nearly everyone will identify with and benefit from..." (Personnel Today, May 2006)

 "... an engaging, simplistic read, and one that reinforced many impressions about the ‘problems within’ and strategies to solve them.” (The British Journal Of Administrative Management, February/March 07)

"...if your business experiences politics... this book may be for you."  (EN, the magazine for entrepreneurs, January 2008)

From the Inside Flap

But Jude would not find his answer in any book. It would find him, in a more surprising way than he could ever have imagined.

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. As with his other books, Lencioni writes Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars as a fictional—but eerily realistic—story. The story is about Jude Cousins, an eager young management consultant struggling to launch his practice by solving one of the more universal and frustrating problems faced by his clients. Through trial and error, he develops a simple yet ground–breaking approach for helping them transform confusion and infighting into clarity and alignment.

Lencioni′s latest fable is as practical as it is engrossing. Anyone who has lived through corporate turf wars or experienced the absurdity of departmental politics will find Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars an invaluable resource.

Customer Reviews

Ask Top Management Members if They Want to Wait for A Crisis
If you enjoy reading about the evils of organizations that focus on optimizing results for the different functions (silos) rather than the whole enterprise, you'll cheer your way through this book. The indictment part of Silos, Politics and Turf Wars is a clear five-star effort.

If you like fables, you'll find this one engaging. Frustrated by turf wars in his newly merged company, Jude Cousins quits to found his one-man consulting operation. He feels comfortable with the financial cushion that stock in his old company provides, as well as his initial assignments. Then the assignments begin to falter and the stock dives. Jude needs a new approach. Learning that every organization has problems with silos, Jude learns that people overcome silos when they face a real crisis that threatens the enterprise's existence. From that observation, he develops a consulting practice that helps top management teams realize that it's a mistake to wait for the crisis before acting.

If the book left it at that, Silos, Politics and Turf Wars would be a helpful book.

But Mr. Lencioni insists on repeating the same formula in his top management meetings led by Jude. Point out that they would cooperate and be more successful if there were a crisis and someone will say, "Why wait for a crisis?" Then, everyone pulls together.

Well, that's a nice day dream. But even people who want to work together as a top management team need a lot of help to get there. This book is very misleading about what the solution is based on my 30 plus years of working with companies on this very problem. I graded the book down accordingly.

If you don't mind that the book doesn't really have a prescription for solving the problem that Mr. Lencioni so well describes, then you'll feel like this is a five star book.

The writing is particularly smooth and the situations are very interesting to read about. If this were a novel, I wouldn't hesitate to give it five stars.