Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors

In many ways Silos, Politics and Turf Wars reminded me of books like "Gung Ho" and "Monday Morning Leadership" in that it is a story based management book. The reader follows the life and times of Jude Cousins, a once fast rising manager, now turned independent consultant, as he attempts to navigate his way through the gnarly infrastructures of silo-laden clients while earning a living and raising a family.By itself, the story is both entertaining and informative as Author Patrick Lencioni weaves personal and business challenges and complications in and out of the story. This exposes the reader to a series of events that build to a successful conclusion (of course). It is a formula that works well because it is easier, and more realitic, to remember the context of a story than to remember text without a story, because you are thinking along, and learning with, and even morphing into Jude with every turn of the page.This part of the well-written, easy-to-read book would have been worth the price to buy it and the time to read it.However, the best part of the book for me were the final twenty pages which provided the reader with the thought process and the tools to tear down the silos, and eliminate the politics and turf wars, by identifying and implementing overarching organizational thematic goals. This is the "how to do it" part of the book, complete with excellent case study models to help you make it work in your own business.When you can read a book that provides practical assistance that is immediately usuable, you have a winner, which "Silos, Politics and Turf Wars" surely is.

I appreciate the way Patrick Lencioni teaches business principles by way of an engaging fable. Vastly superior to the dry, text book approach. Easy read, yet very insightful. I look forward to reading his other books!

Silos, Politics and Turf Wars is one of the Patrick Lencioni fables made famous by his Five Dysfunctions of a Team. His fable format is just a business novel with the main character having a common business problem (e.g. bad team, bad job, or meetings) and sharing a story about how the main character solves the problems and the learning he has from it.The story in Silos is about Jude who worked in a company Batch and after the company is in a merger, he decides to leave and start his own consulting firm. He has several clients and does reasonably well, but then notices that all of his clients have basically the same problem, the problem with silos. He sets off to explore this problem and solve it for his clients (I won't give away how he does it, as it is a novel still and you don't want to know the end from an amazon review :P)As with all of the Lencioni books, it is well written and quite engaging. It is also short and you ought to be able to read it in a couple of days or so. He explains a couple of techniques for getting more management alignment and they are useful techniques. Though, due to the format, he doesn't dive very detailed in the techniques, but they are reasonably simple and he gives enough information for you to try it out.I think Silos was ok. I didn't like it as much as e.g. Getting Naked, which was pretty good. However, it was an easy and enjoyable read and the techniques could be useful. I decided to do between 3 and 4 stars and ended up with 4 as, well, it was a nice read. If you read Lencioni books before and liked them, then you'll probably like this one too. If you haven't read a Lencioni book before, this one is not as good as Five Dysfunctions of a Team or Getting Naked, so I'd recommend those over this one.

Has he points out in this book Patrick acknowledges that all organizations have some kind of a silo or political battle in front of them. Wow this is to varying degrees I find it very helpful to refocus an organization's mindset and strategic directions. I work in a church and know these unfortunate circumstances all too well I can't wait to implement some of the ideas he puts forth in this book.

Lencioni’s use of the fable to explain the Silo problem and its solution really helped clarify the issues and made it easy to recognize how they play out in real life.This is a useful read for those interested in cohesion within an organization and figuring out how to make all the moving parts come together toward common goals.

The book is an easy read and the concepts are well presented. Though thoroughly simple to ingest the author doesn’t really deliver anything revolutionary. Sure, the thematic goal is admirable but it’s highly unlikely that most corporate workers will have enough influence in their organizations to get these types of changes through. As a small business owner I’ll certainly be mindful of it in the future.

I love Patrick’s writing style. The fable format allow the reader’s mind and imagination to juxtapose their situation. This allows for deeper understanding of the underlying concepts and development of a plan to apply them within their organizations. Thanks Patrick and may the Lord continue to bless your work.

Patrick Lencioni's "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" is essentially required reading for my teams - it is a great book to work through communication and trust issues in an organization. This book follows the same writing style, and has equally useful advice. I only gave it 4 stars however because the content is really focused at leadership - especially senior leadership, which limits the usefulness somewhat. The great part about "Five Dysfunctions" is that EVERYBODY in the organization contributes - we are all on some sort of team. "Silos..." puts focus on the goals and priorities communicated by senior leadership instead.It's a good book, but not as good and immediately applicable as "Five Dysfunctions". If you have read that one and are looking for more, then this is worth it. If you haven't yet read "Five Dysfunctions", I would recommend starting with it!

Another great read, highly recommended

Patrick Lencioni writes from experience and the fascinating fables in all his books are so real it makes their lessons truly significant. Handling internal pressures from these three difficult subjects forms the basis of this fable and the conclusions and potential solutions made me realize "keeping things simple" always works.

著者がコンサルタントとしていくつかの会社の組織間の壁(Silo)を破っていったかという、実例っぽいような物語。最後の章のみ、具体的に物事どう進めるかが書いてあり、忙しい方はここを読めば、十分。ポイントがすっきりまとまっているので、すぐ読めます。複数の組織間で共通のゴールを設定し、優先順位を絞り、その手段と進捗を共有していきましょうという、バランススコアカードっぽい印象もあり。戦略のマネジメント、アラインメントなどに苦労している方には、参考になる。リーダーシップの重要性が書いてあるので、本当は会社の役員クラスに読んで欲しいと思う。

I enjoyed the fable but the thing I loved most about this book were the chapters at the end that explained the whole system, and the examples of different organisations' use of the Thematic Goal.4-star fable - 5 star idea.

I really liked this book and encouraged my work superiors to read it to no avail. At the learning institution where I worked, there were silos and turf wars all over the place. But I found that unless you are a decision-maker that can see the problem and the solution, nothing will change. Still, it is an excellent read. Just have to get the right people to read it and not be afraid of losing their turf. When I retired, I gave this book to people who would enjoy it as I did.