Book Review, by Tim Fulton

This is the fourth book (Death by Meeting, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Five Temptations of a CEO) I have read and reviewed by best-selling author Patrick Lencioni. Each book is written as a management fable with a powerful leadership message embedded into the story. His books are favorites of my CEO clients as they are short, easy to read, and very prescriptive in nature.

In Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars; Lencioni writes about the barriers that exist in all organizations that stifle individual and group performance. The main character in the book, a management consultant, is tasked with trying to fix organizational issues at several different companies all of whom are suffering from the 'Silos' effect. He is ultimately successful after his own personal experience in a hospital emergency department and than applying the principles that worked so well there into his client companies.

In the book, Lencioni gives the reader a prescription for overcoming organizational barriers that starts with defining a 'thematic goal' for the team. Such a goal causes employees from sometimes competing departments to want to work together to achieve this company-wide objective. While this sounds like a simple answer to organizational strife, the reality is that the determination of the goal and then the execution of a plan to achieve the goal can be very difficult for any organization.

I strongly recommend this book to any leader. While it will not eliminate 'turf wars', it will certainly help the reader be better prepared to lead their team out of this organizational state and moving towards leading a high performing team.