Unite the Tribes: Ending Turf Wars for Career and Business Success

By Christopher Duncan

* Real world perspectives and language, not theoretical

* Corporate building from the front line, not the boardroom

* Practical and unconventional tactics from a corporate veteran

* Audio CD with value-added talks available online

• Language: English
• Publisher: Apress
• Release date: Jan 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781430207948

Book preview

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The Lay of the Land

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The Problem

Christopher Duncan

Companies and people actually have the same goals and desires. Whether you’re building a small home business or a huge international corporation, or just trying to make a living, you want money, security, and all the good things that come with success. You also face the same basic challenges in life, as you must cope with competition, changing economic conditions, and a host of unexpected events that can interfere with your goals.

Another thing that companies and people have in common is that gnawing, ever-present feeling that things could, and should, be a lot better than they are today. If you’re building an enterprise, you have a vision. You look into the future and imagine how successful and profitable your company could be, and then you go about the business of creating and marketing your products to make those dreams a reality.

However, no matter how reasonable your plans seem, along with your accomplishments come frustration after frustration. Very often it comes down to people who just don’t seem to behave the way you think they should. Sometimes it’s the customer, and sometimes it’s the people who work for you. These people, of course, interfere with your plans.

It’s no different from the individual perspective. Regardless of how ambitious you may be and how great your ideas are to improve both your personal career and the department you work for, you run into enough brick walls to cause some rather impressive bruises. The structure of the company you work for and the politics of the people involved all seem to block your efforts to create new and better ways of doing things. This then limits your career and tests your patience.

In both cases, whether you’re building a company or a career, you typically find yourself spending more time in conflict with the people and structures that inhibit your vision than you do making great things happen. This amounts to a lot of wasted time and energy that should instead be producing the stuff of success stories.

It doesn’t matter what the industry is either. If you talk to enough people, from high-level corporate executives to middle managers to the people who do the daily frontline jobs of producing the products and servicing the customers, you’ll continually hear the same stories. Unmotivated or uncooperative people coupled with restrictive organizations and structures create nothing but frustrations, tensions, and severely diminished results, both personal and corporate. It seems we spend more time struggling with each other than we do producing the results we care about. Because companies and individuals have the same goals and desires, why do we waste so much of our time in pointless and counterproductive conflicts?

THE BATTLE LINES

The dilemma predates the industrial revolution itself. For as long as we can remember, businesses worldwide can be characterized by an unspoken and pervasive culture that draws very distinct battle lines between the two major tribes in every company: workers and management. It’s rarely verbalized or acknowledged in so many words, but the implicit assumption is that workers are little more than property, owned by the company and treated as such by management. Not surprisingly, this creates an incredibly confrontational environment. Sometimes it’s a quiet and subtle undercurrent that never boils over but instead fosters continual grumbling and dissatisfaction on both sides. Other times, it’s an overtly hostile atmosphere wherein management overworks and underpays the workers, who for their part spend more time complaining than actually producing. Usually, however, it’s somewhere in between, and the result is never satisfactory for either party.

From management’s perspective, workers are typically the little people, who don’t understand, appreciate, or care about the larger vision and well-being of the company. Employees are seen as selfish and undependable. Those dedicated souls in management who work countless hours of overtime for the good of the company often come to resent the attitude of rank-and-file workers who just put in their time and leave it all at the office when they go home, concerned with nothing more than their paycheck. In many environments, this scenario encourages management to treat workers as little more than stupid and lazy children who are disposable and must be herded and prodded like cattle to be productive.

Workers, of course, see things quite differently. They see their managers as political and self-serving creatures who are more interested in climbing the corporate ladder than they are in putting in an honest day’s work. Additionally, the general consensus among the workers on the front lines is that managers are typically clueless about the realities that are faced by the people who do the real work. Additionally, high-level corporate policies are extremely impersonal, and all too often take little heed of the daily realities that employees encounter on the job. Bureaucracy is so prevalent—and thick—that it’s almost impossible to change anything that doesn’t seem to be working, and the result is that many employees simply give up trying. In short, managers are seen as shallow, inept, and ineffective, and the corporation is often considered an evil entity that manipulates and takes advantage of workers at every opportunity.

No matter what position you hold in your company, from the CEO down to the custodian who empties the trash, there’s sure to be something in the descriptions of the preceding paragraphs to offend you. But consider this: if you find some of these characterizations and stereotypes offensive in a book that’s trying to help you, just imagine how people in every company react when these observations are made by real, live people that they work with. The responses are often emotional, fueling the conflict between these two powerful tribes. Back and forth the battles go, with people arguing, resisting, withdrawing, and in general doing everything but moving forward with the common goals of companies and individuals. In short, we waste far more time and energy fighting with each other than we ever spend being productive. It’s a wonder anything gets done at all.

THE OLD BUSINESS MODEL

There’s no shortage of books and seminars to improve businesses, and an equal number exist to help people with their careers. Each and every one of them has merit, for there’s always something new to learn. However, for all the different philosophies and methodologies on both sides of the fence, life in the average company still goes on much the same as it always has. More time is spent in conflict than in being productive. With all the brilliant minds out there trying to help us succeed, how can this possibly be?

Business and career strategies come and go, leaving our professional lives largely unchanged. This owes more to the problems being solved than the solutions themselves. Whether it’s a business book or a career book, by definition it’s speaking to only half of the problem—either managers or workers. Furthermore, without intending to do so, categorizing solutions and strategies into one or the other of these two camps helps further reinforce the Us vs. Them mentality that is continually tearing at the seams of even the healthiest companies.

The problem is simple. The old model of business—a worldview that draws dividing lines between workers and managers—doesn’t work anymore. The company as an authoritarian group of rulers dictating to the indentured peasants of the working class is an outdated way of thinking. Maybe it worked once upon a time, and perhaps it never really worked. But it matters little. Today, it is no longer a productive or profitable business philosophy—not for the company, and not for the individual. When there are no winners in a game, the only logical course of action is to reconsider the rules.

It doesn’t really take much intelligence or perception to pierce the stereotypes we’ve explored. Management is not a group of selfish, inept, and evil dictators. And workers are not a herd of lazy and stupid peasants. We’re all, each and every one of us, the same. We’re simply people trying to make a living. What we do for that living may differ, but that matters little. We have much more in common than any of us realize.

We all serve different functions in the company. Some of us are entrepreneurs who create businesses. Others manage and organize the various details that need attention. Still others perform the hands-on work that must be done. At the end of the day, however, we all collect our pay and go home to our personal lives. The next day, we get up, put on our work clothes, and do it again.

So, where is this magical dividing line, this demilitarized zone between the evil management and the poor, oppressed workers? Well, it simply doesn’t exist... because the distinction is false. We are not separate races. We are one people. Attempting to divide us into these artificial tribes does nothing beyond causing trouble for all concerned. Anyone who actively seeks to define and promote these divisions has an agenda of their own, and you should be wary of them. Divide and conquer is a phrase that should be printed out and taped to your bathroom mirror so that each day you will be reminded of how dangerous this conflict is to us all.

A FRESH APPROACH

It’s time for a new business model. We don’t need to change the organizational chart, alter the rules of financial management, or attempt to subvert the market laws of supply and demand. It’s not necessary (or even beneficial) for companies to eliminate management, pay all people the exact same amount of money regardless of the job performed, or reorganize the physical architecture of the typical corporation. These structures all exist for a logical and productive reason. Instead, and far more importantly, we need a new model for the way in which we think, for it’s our professional philosophy that limits our benefits.

The classic business view of workers and management defines just two of the tribes that exist within your company. There are many, many more tribes, and people often belong to several at once. Just look around you. Everywhere that you see a group of people who feel they must compete in some way against any other group, you have a tribe. Beneath the surface of the major battles that happen daily between the tribes of workers and management are countless other skirmishes going on as departments and political cliques fight it out for internal power and control. Your company is a collection of warring tribes. And it’s not getting you anywhere.

Solutions that are founded on the underlying assumption of Us vs. Them don’t work. The only successful solution to the problems faced by companies and individuals alike is one that takes all people, at every level of the organization, into consideration. Just as it was in the days of old, your corporate environment of warring feudal states could instead be a vast and powerful empire. To succeed, to become powerful, your internal conflicts must give way to a group effort toward the common good. You must think and act as one. You must unite the tribes.

For your company to become a strong and cohesive force that not only succeeds profitably as a business but also brings personal wealth and success to its people, everyone must realize that the enemy is not within. Your true enemies are your company’s competitors in the marketplace. They are the ones who will decrease your sales and reduce the amount of money available in the payroll account for raises and bonuses. It is the competition that will gleefully put your company out of business and cause you to lose your job. Therefore, all of the time and energy spent on petty internal struggles is wasted and would be far better utilized in building a stronger empire that can survive the continual threats from the competition and provide wealth and security for all of its people.

But, for this kind of success to happen, the artificial battle lines between management and workers must vanish, as must the lines between all other warring tribes. When there are no more tribes, when people instead view themselves as proud members of a single empire, all of the energy that was once wasted in internal conflict will instead be combined, focused, amplified, and directed toward increased productivity—leading to benefits for all. Your competition will be kept at bay, unable to harm you, and your company and your career will move forward from success to success.

Because your empire becomes ever stronger, no matter what your job or position is today, it will be better with each year than it was the year before. Furthermore, because you aren’t constantly fighting with coworkers, managers, and other departments, you’ll find that it’s much more enjoyable to go to work each day. And, in the end, from the production workers to the board of directors, isn’t that what we’re all after?

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The Empire

Christopher Duncan

Corporate culture divides more than it unites. The prevailing wisdom of businesses everywhere is that larger structures should be broken down into smaller ones and managed as groups. If you draw such an organizational chart, it looks very clean and efficient on paper. In fact, it is in just such a way that many companies are born—on paper. However, unbeknownst to those at the top, they’re creating more than just logical groups and divisions. Once an enterprise moves from the conceptual stage to a working reality in which people are hired and brought together, human nature comes into play and exerts a creative force of its own. From within the boundaries of business divisions and departments, ambitions and politics arise. They breathe life into organizational units, and these units begin to take on a personality all their own. No longer are they merely divisions of labor. As people bond from a common sense of purpose, these conceptual groups become very real. They become small villages or even nations unto themselves. They become tribes.

If only one tribe existed within your company, it wouldn’t be a matter of any great concern. The very need to organize a business into smaller groups, however, guarantees that there will be many. Furthermore, because of basic human nature, there will always be competition where there is more than one group. The fact that your people are now caught in a struggle between tribes means that they’re not directing the full force of their abilities toward the real enemy, your competition. They’re fighting the wrong people, and it will bring your company to its knees.

As years go by, these separate groups become deeply entrenched. Constantly maneuvering for position and power, always struggling to obtain resources before another tribe can claim them, they begin to focus more on their internal status than on the work for which they were created. Animosity and bitterness arise among groups, and competition erupts into full-scale tribal warfare. People begin to focus on what divides them rather than what should unite them—the common good—until you no longer have a single company. Instead, you merely preside over a loose federation of warring states.

This internecine warfare reduces the output, diminishes the quality, and saps the creative force of your business. The experience of individuals within the competing factions is no better. Stress and frustration rise, fulfillment and rewards decrease, and people begin to dread coming in to work each day. And, all the while, your competitors never sleep, always watching for the slightest signs of weakness in your defenses. Is it any wonder that your company is such a mess?

No matter what part you play in your organization, stop for a moment and take a look around you. The signs are everywhere, too obvious to ignore. The walls built to protect your livelihood from the threats of the competition are slowly crumbling. You don’t need a loose stone falling on your head to make you realize this, although it would certainly get your attention a little more quickly.

Whether you work for the company or run the company, you spend half of your waking life involved with your career. If it’s a bad experience, then at least half of your life will be unpleasant. If you’re the owner of a company or a high-level executive whose compensation relies on the profitability of the business, everyone else’s problems suddenly also become your own. If your people are unhappy and spending more time fighting each other than engaging in productive efforts, your livelihood is at risk.

Therefore, no matter what level of the enterprise you work at, you’re faced with a simple choice: you can ignore these dangers and suffer the inevitable consequences, or you can stand up and make a difference. If you choose to work for change, the task before you is simple and straightforward. You must unite.

THE COMPANY AS AN EMPIRE

To better illustrate the incredible potential of the people within your organization and to show how you can achieve personal success by helping to build a strong and powerful corporation, we’re going to view your company as an empire because it truly is a modern-day version of one. Even if it’s small today, it’s still an empire in the making. Enormous or tiny, we’re going to strengthen it and make it invincible so that it can stave off the marauding hordes and be capable of protecting and benefiting all its people. To do this, you’re going to have to recognize the tribes within your organization and learn how to make them work together instead of against each other. If you think about it, the parallels really aren’t that hard to see.

Just as when Genghis Khan united the scattered and warring Mongol tribes into the huge and powerful Mongolian empire, each corporate empire also has many tribes. Let’s look at just a few examples:

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companies under the corporate umbrella

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divisions within the companies

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departments within the divisions

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workgroups within the departments

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different classes of job

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different groups within the classes

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social and political cliques everywhere

Some of the higher levels, such as different departments within divisions of a company, will make sense to those of you who work in management because you’re trained to operate at a strategic level. Others may relate more readily to workgroups within a department. Such workgroups could be as large as different production units in a factory or different project teams in a software development shop, and even as small as the divided responsibilities you see in a restaurant, where one group prepares the food, another serves it, and yet another cleans up.

No matter how you look at it though, your company is composed of multiple groups performing specialized functions. Indeed, more often than not, one tribe has very little idea of what goes on within another, and, furthermore, it usually doesn’t care. Each tribe will lean by default toward a self-centered perspective, thinking only of what benefits it and frequently fostering an isolationist attitude. Such is the nature of a tribe after all.

In addition to the similarities between businesses in terms of tribal organization and the social classes that the people fall into, all companies, regardless of industry, operate internally on the same fundamental business principles and perform many of the same actions. This is just as true of the local restaurant where you had lunch today as it is in the huge corporations that build multimillion-dollar aircraft.

All companies create products and services. They produce them, market them, and then sell them, interacting with customers so that they can charge and collect money. Every company must administer to daily details, and all are affected by external competition and are subject to market conditions. And every company, whether it realizes it or not, presents an image to its potential customers.

Unfortunately, it’s not always the image it had in mind. When your company works with a tribal consciousness, the face presented to the outside world depends upon the attitudes and motivations of the individual tribes that interface with the public. If these people are thinking of their own little world and agenda rather than the good of the company, your enterprise will appear quite differently to the general public than you might have envisioned.

Regardless of whether your business is a chaotic land of warring factions or is a single, united people, it is a nation in the making. Embracing this concept allows you to become a part of something larger and more beneficial, improving your own career and building the stability and security that can be ensured only by the power of an invincible empire.

THE GOAL OF BUSINESS IS CONQUEST

Thinking of your company as many tribes united into a single nation I doesn’t really require much imagination. After all, working in the corporate world often feels as though we’re living in ancient times. You know that your tribe is part of a greater kingdom, but that’s not really your daily perspective. The only things that are truly real to you are your neighbors and friends, the people you see and work with each day.

And so, tucked away in a remote corner and far removed from the rich and powerful rulers, you live in your own little village, oblivious to all other tribes. You do your work, you go home and eat dinner with your family, and life is good. That is, until the day when you look to the horizon and see your competitors, thousands of heavily armed horsemen bearing down on you, intent on taking everything you have of value and burning the rest. At that point, the personal ambitions and petty tribal politics don’t really matter much, nor does your social standing. You’re all about to have a very bad day.

What I’ve just described is not a scene out of the history books or faintly remembered childhood tales of knights and barbarians, swords and shields. This picture I’ve painted is only a loosely veiled metaphor for the corporate reality that is home to us all. Those unruly, predatory barbarians coming over the horizon are not extras from a Hollywood set. They’re your competitors, and they’re quite real. Even though they’re not swinging swords and shooting flaming arrows, their intent, without a doubt, is very much the same: they want your territory, your customers, your money, and even your people. And they’re not terribly concerned with how that affects you in the process.

We all get so caught up in the day-to-day details of our jobs that we tend to lose sight of the big picture. If we’re to improve our lot in life and protect ourselves from these predators, it’s important to get a better understanding of the world in which we live. We all work for companies, but why do these businesses exist? What makes entrepreneurs endeavor to open the doors of a new commercial enterprise?

Many of us get caught up in the goals and ideals of our given industry, perhaps to the point that we might think that companies exist for the noble purpose of improving society through our particular products and services. This kind of altruistic vision may be noble and inspiring, but it doesn’t have any basis in reality. Companies don’t exist to make the world a better place. They exist to make a profit. Regardless of industry, the first and most fundamental purpose of each and every business in the world is to acquire and profitably manage new resources and territory. In other words, the goal of business is conquest. Understanding this is a crucial step toward improving your situation.

This means that business, by its very nature, is a highly competitive pursuit. Your company dreams of controlling all of the market and all of the money. But then so does every other company in your industry. And they’re all willing to fight you for it. Just as in warfare, then, your competitors are the enemy. They want your turf and your resources, and they’ll take them from you any way they can. They will attempt to conquer and subjugate you, and if that fails they will strive to eliminate you altogether. Of course, from their perspective this is obviously necessary. Your company is a threat to their well-being and their very existence. That’s because, given the chance, your company would do exactly the same thing to them. That’s the nature of conquest.

DIVISIVENESS IS THE GREATEST ENEMY

It doesn’t matter if you’re the top executive in the company or a production worker at the bottom of the food chain. Every week, everyone in your company shares a very powerful experience: you get up each day and go to work. The nature of your job, the hours you work, and even the clothes you wear will vary, of course, but each and every one of you, leader and worker alike, are members of the same community. And there is a power in that unity beyond your wildest dreams.

And yet, most people feel a constant sense of separation, perhaps even alienation. The Company is just some abstract concept, much like the air. You know that it’s all around you, but you can’t see it. You can’t reach out and touch it. You’re simply aware of the fact that you’re employed by some vague and intangible entity. This odd phenomenon leaves many of us feeling completely disconnected, both from the company and from the customers and clients who are ultimately served by the products and services we provide. This disconnectedness spells disaster.

Even so, deep in the heart of almost every person is a burning desire to excel, to reach for greater things, to be a part of something larger and more powerful than they are as an individual. Unfortunately, bureaucracy and petty politics have all but extinguished this fire in many who would otherwise set new standards of excellence. This not only often deals a fatal blow to morale but also fans the flames of divisiveness, as people lash out and express their frustrations at what they cannot seem to change.

Lest you think that I’ve merely described the plight of the working class, it’s important to realize that this feeling is experienced by people at every level of the organization, and in companies both large and small. Chances are good that your managers feel just as disconnected as you do. Remember, although your superiors may be nothing more than the management to you, from their perspective they’re just people getting up and going to work each day, and they’re employed by that same vague and abstract notion of a company as you are. Their job just happens to be different from yours. The basic stress and frustration experienced, however, are very much the same.

Divisiveness and class-consciousness can be more harmful to companies than all of their competitors combined. Nonetheless, this atmosphere of separation between workers and management is the norm. Some consultants specialize in teaching management skills—which implicitly exclude the nonmanagement worker. Other consultants focus on teaching career improvement, which subtly promotes the good of the worker over the good of the company. I cannot stress enough how strongly I oppose the artificial boundaries that such approaches create.

In the divided land of workers and managers, each side of the fence offers truly valuable skills and perspective, and neither recognizes that the fence itself is the first and most formidable enemy.

In fact, workers and managers have far more in common than they ever realize. Consequently, this is neither a career improvement book nor a management book. It’s both, as it must be to make a difference. If the people of the company have rewarding careers, motivated by a deep sense that they truly have the fate of the business in their hands, the company will succeed. Successful companies are in turn capable of providing the very best in compensation, benefits, working conditions, and security to their people. Who are the people? They are the leaders and workers alike, at every level of the organization. Notice that the word manager has suddenly been replaced with leader. Workers can show leadership without being managers. Leaders are always workers, people employed by the company, even if they’re managers.

Are the traditional distinctions getting blurry for you? Good. That is my intent. Through unity, you will build a stronger empire than you ever thought possible and through that strength enjoy a higher standard of living as an individual. Consequently, throughout these pages I will intentionally weave back and forth between the perspectives of leaders and workers, often with no warning or clarification of which point of view I’m speaking from. In fact, for each concept, there will always be relevance to both leaders and workers, depending upon how you apply it to your personal situation. Furthermore, no matter what your job, there will always be opportunities for you to lead others by example and through inspiration, making you a leader as well as a worker. No matter what your position in the company, I challenge you to look for this personal application in each and every sentence. It will make the empire—and, as a result, your career—much stronger.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS

More important than anything else, however, is one simple but powerful realization: a company is nothing but a collection of people working toward common goals. Every single resource your company has—whether buildings, furniture, bank accounts, stock, customers, or anything else you care to think of—didn’t just magically appear. Real, live people created or acquired those resources. No matter how vague and detached the concept of the company may be to you, it is not a separate entity with a mind and will of its own.

Neither does a company perform any function or engage in activities. Rather, it is the people who compose the company who make things happen. Real people. Just like you. Company productivity and innovation are simply aspects of how well your people interact.

Companies are neither productive nor creative. People are.

What are the implications, then, if it’s flesh-and-blood people who do the actual work and bring the resources into being, rather than some abstract concept of a corporate entity? It means that the true power of a company—its very heart and soul, all that it is capable of accomplishing—is defined by its people. People, therefore, are power.

However, in almost every corporation in the world, this power lies largely untapped. This is in part because no one knows how to inspire the people to unleash their full potentials. Although they work in separate villages, within these tribes there is no esprit de corps, nor any inspirational leaders to rally them to action.

An even larger problem, though, is the fact that the people, those tangible, living resources who actually are the company, are constrained and limited by the rules and structures of the company itself. As a result, this tremendous power lies dormant, a victim of internal strife, bureaucracy, and inefficiency.

Another thing that is often forgotten by the upper strata of management is that it is not the high-level leaders but rather the rank-and-file workers who are the face of the company to the outside world. Your thousands of customers don’t call the president of the corporation to place an order. When someone comes for service, it’s not the board of directors who walks them through the solution to their problem. The quality of your products and services have much, much more to do with the attitude of your production-level workers than it does the vision of upper management. If this is kept in mind at every level, strategies will be practical and realistic, which they must be to succeed.

Any plan to expand or strengthen the empire lives or dies by the