The Enemy is Out There

Think about all the energy and time spent battling internally with each other, pointing fingers and passing blame. And think of what we could do with those most precious resources if we only remembered one simple battle cry.

The enemy is out there folks!

Every second you spend pointing a finger at another group in your organization, trying to show how you can do their jobs better, you are wasting valuable time and resources. Not to mention the professional disrespect and contention that blooms. While you are infighting and pointing fingers, your competitors are laughing all the way to the bank.

The refrains at my client meeting last week were familiar: same story, different technology and faces.

Sales and Marketing Example

"Sales doesn't sell solutions, they just discount instead of selling value."

Countered by:

"Marketing didn't give us the tools and evidence we need to sell solutions. They don't understand our customers or selling."

Marketing and Engineering Example

"Engineering didn't deliver the features our customers needed."

Countered by:

"Sales & marketing don't appreciate the innovative technology behind our product."

Enough already. This is business, not kindergarten!

You'd be amazed how productive my strategy sessions become when we implement one new rule. I call it the ‘No Blame Game'. No one gets to badmouth anyone else in the company. Instead, we take all the time and energy wasted infighting and apply it to externally focused analysis and discussion.

Low and behold, perspectives began to change. Especially when everyone in the room is put on the spot to discuss solutions based on their own roles and responsibilities. No one is allowed to discuss others' jobs - no one. Not even the CEO!

Take a Zero Tolerance approach and Stop the Battles. Make a commitment from the CEO level down to stop the comments and discussions about others' roles and their performance - unless those discussions are positive and are part of a teaming approach.

Executives must take the lead. First they have to cease and desist with their own cross-talk about their peers - they must lead by example. Then they must take a firm and immovable stance - and NOT allow their people to battle across functions, or within their own function for that matter. Stop the snide comments, the blaming comments - the jabs disguised as humor, only with mal intent.

Don't sit there and think your company doesn't do this - you know exactly what I am talking about. It happens even in the best of companies and we all know it.

But are we willing to step up? Here are some ideas on how to do just that:

• Bring sales and marketing and engineering and finance together as teams at the ‘worker bee' level and show them how to respect each other. Be respectful and accept nothing less.

• Visibly and publicly reward cross-functional team work against a common goal. Rally the team to join together and focus on customer success, on being the best each and every one can be.

• Purposely create cross-functional teams and make them equally responsible for an outcome. Make their compensation dependent on the results of the team, not an individual organization.

• Nip any snide asides, disparaging comments about other organizations or outright attacks in the bud - visibly and forcefully.

• I suggest clients with this type of infighting post signs all around the company. 'The Enemy is Out There', or some similar phrase. Make the point at an all hands meeting to set the stage. Then enlist a group of 'monitors' within each organization to act as keepers of the corporate culture. Empower them to step up and stop the bashing among their peers. The majority of folks will get behind them.

No good employee is comfortable in an environment filled with finger-pointing and the blame game. Over time, people become tentative about doing the right thing for fear of the blame and consequences. Worse yet, energy is focused on internal quarrels, self protection and more.

Everyone loses in a blaming organization. The only ones who win are your competitors.

Who loses most of all? Your customers.

That's just plain wrong.