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Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors Hardcover – Illustrated, February 17, 2006

by Patrick Lencioni (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 853 ratings
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Practical and hands-on strategies for breaking down silos and minimizing workplace politics

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 familiar―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.

In the book, you’ll find:

  • Ways to recognize the devastating–and destructive–power of silos
  • How to create an overarching thematic goal or rallying cry for your organization
  • Strategies for employees to avoid the confusion that often accompanies working in matrix organizations

Perfect for executives, managers, and other business leaders, Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars will also earn a place in the libraries of consultants and other professionals who serve organizations of all sizes.

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  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Jossey-Bass
  4. Publication date
    February 17, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.8 x 1 x 8.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0787976385
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0787976385
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From the brand

Previous page

  2. Patrick Lencioni is the pioneer of the organizational health movement and the author of 13 bestselling books, including, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage, and The Ideal Team Player. For the past 25 years, Pat and his firm, The Table Group, have provided leaders with products and services to make their organizations more effective, their teams more cohesive, and their employees more fulfilled.

  3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
    The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues (J-B Lencioni S...
    The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business
    The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities (J-B Lencioni Series)

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    Visit the Store

  4. The Truth About Employee Engagement: A Fable About Addressing the Three Root Causes of Job Misery
    The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable
    Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
    Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators

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  5. Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleag...
    The Five Temptations of a CEO, Anniversary Edition: A Leadership Fable
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  6. Patrick Lencioni quote about becoming a team player
  7. Patrick Lencioni quote about teamwork
  8. Patrick Lencioni quote about employee engagement
  9. Patrick Lencioni quote about good meetings
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From the Publisher

silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons
silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons
silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons

ESTABLISHING A THEMATIC GOAL ROADMAP

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars provides leaders with powerful advice on how to eliminate the structural obstacles that derail organizations. Urging leaders to provide a compelling context for their employees to work together, the Thematic Goal model gives leaders a simple tool for enabling clarity, unity and alignment in their organizations.

THEMATIC GOAL:

A single, qualitative focus or rallying cry that is shared by the entire leadership team — and ultimately, by the entire organization — and that applies for only a specified period of time.

DEFINING OBJECTIVE:

The temporary, qualitative components that serve to clarify exactly what is meant by the Thematic Goal; shared by all members of the team (and usually varying in number from four to six).

STANDARD OPERATING OBJECTIVE:

Other key objectives that an executive team must focus on and monitor. These objectives do not go away from period to period and often include topics such as: revenue, expenses, customer engagement, quality, etc.

This rallying cry or “thematic goal” serves to align employees throughout the organization and provides an objective tool for resetting direction when things get out of sync. While it is useful for companies to have both a long term vision and a set of short term, tactical objectives, the thematic goal is intended to bridge the two. It makes the vision more tangible and it gives the tactical objectives more context.

For the thematic goal to take root in an organization, it needs to originate at the executive team level. Once the thematic goal is set for the organization, each department can then create a corresponding thematic goal.

silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons

silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons

silos politics and turf wars book, patrick lencioni, employee unity, leadership lessons

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred 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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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)

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (February 17, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0787976385
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0787976385
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 853 ratings

About the author

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Patrick M. Lencioni

Patrick M. Lencioni

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Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders improve their organizations’ health since 1997. His principles have been embraced by leaders around the world and adopted by organizations of virtually every kind including multinational corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, professional sports teams, the military, nonprofits, schools, and churches.

Lencioni is the author of ten business books with over three million copies sold worldwide. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, and USA Today.

Prior to founding The Table Group, Lencioni served on the executive team at Sybase, Inc. He started his career at Bain & Company and later worked at Oracle Corporation.

Lencioni lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their four sons.

To learn more about Patrick and The Table Group, please visit www.tablegroup.com.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
853 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book insightful, with one mentioning it helps refocus an organization's mindset. Moreover, the book is easy to read, taking only a few hours to complete, and customers appreciate its engaging fable format.

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56 customers mention "Readability"52 positive4 negative

Customers find the book highly readable and enjoyable, with one customer specifically noting the engaging fable format.

"...By itself, the story is both entertaining and informative as Author Patrick Lencioni weaves personal and business challenges and complications in..." Read more

"...However, it was an easy and enjoyable read and the techniques could be useful...." Read more

"...Vastly superior to the dry, text book approach. Easy read, yet very insightful. I look forward to reading his other books!" Read more

"...for a company going through breaking down the silos, this was a great read to help understand where senior leadership is coming from...." Read more

55 customers mention "Insight"55 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, with one mentioning it helps refocus an organization's mindset, while others appreciate how well the concepts are presented.

"...The story format shows how steps that can be utilized to bring the organization together...." Read more

"...By itself, the story is both entertaining and informative as Author Patrick Lencioni weaves personal and business challenges and complications in..." Read more

"...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...." Read more

"...Vastly superior to the dry, text book approach. Easy read, yet very insightful. I look forward to reading his other books!" Read more

35 customers mention "Ease of reading"35 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand, completing it in a few hours, with one customer noting the author's ability to make complex issues simple.

"...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...." Read more

"...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...." Read more

"...Vastly superior to the dry, text book approach. Easy read, yet very insightful. I look forward to reading his other books!" Read more

"...Though thoroughly simple to ingest the author doesn’t really deliver anything revolutionary...." Read more

14 customers mention "Storytelling"14 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the storytelling approach of the book, describing it as an engaging fable and a story-based management guide. One customer notes how the narrative format effectively demonstrates the steps involved.

"...The story format shows how steps that can be utilized to bring the organization together...." Read more

"..."Gung Ho" and "Monday Morning Leadership" in that it is a story based management book...." Read more

"...the way Patrick Lencioni teaches business principles by way of an engaging fable. Vastly superior to the dry, text book approach...." Read more

"...Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars tells a compelling story of a young entrepreneur determined to persevere through the entanglements of life and work..." Read more

Patrick Lencioni writes a great fable to explain how to get along in the ...
4 out of 5 stars
Patrick Lencioni writes a great fable to explain how to get along in the ...
Patrick Lencioni writes a great fable to explain how to get along in the workforce. Everything he writes is great and has helped me to focus on what is important in the day to day drama at work.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Fred La Plante
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tired of the Work Politics?
    Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Though this book is for those who are at the top level of an organization, it can help explain what is going on within it and ways to help. The story format shows how steps that can be utilized to bring the organization together. I recommend this book to you, especially to those in leadership positions and those who want to lead in the future.
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  • James A. Hatherley
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy To Read; Easy To Understand; Easy To Use
    Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2006
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Bas Vodde
    4.0 out of 5 stars Another Lencioni fable, easy and useful read
    Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Kelly George Dobson
    5.0 out of 5 stars fable to learn
    Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    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!
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great read for any organization
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Tristan Flannery
    3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good but nothing ground breaking
    Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • JE
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
    Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Working for a company going through breaking down the silos, this was a great read to help understand where senior leadership is coming from. This will help me guide the team I lead as well as my counterparts through some of the roadblocks and resistance to change that will certainly arise.
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  • Dr. Bob Stouffer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Quick, Easy, and Important Read!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I am preparing to facilitate a very important conversation among key stakeholders in an enterprise which will be much more effective as a result of my reading of this book. I have read several of Patrick Lencioni's books, and his ideas really captivate me. I love the "business fable" genre. While I am a career educator, I learn so much from Lencioni's stories and commentaries. He is a communicator gifted by God to help organizations reach their full potential, in spite of the shortcomings of all of us in those organizations. Read. This. Book.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Fujiyama MD
    3.0 out of 5 stars 最後の方だけ
    Reviewed in Japan on March 16, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    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。
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb fable from a true business guru.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • Roy turner
    5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Lencioni
    Reviewed in Canada on September 4, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Another great read, highly recommended
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  • Kym Hamer
    5.0 out of 5 stars 4-star fable - 5 star idea
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • Ame
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read for executives that have no fear of change.
    Reviewed in Canada on January 11, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    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.
    One person found this helpful
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