Has anyone working for a major U.S. corporation had a good practice for breaking down the silos that exist between business units and corporate functions? If so, would you share your success stories and methods used? What kind of culture fosters good cross company collaboration? Are their dashboards that measure this? Good books or articles on the topic?
Success rates vary with individuals, not with the corporation, and it is all in the leadership STYLE. You have to learn to achieve results through INFLUENCE rather than by having direct power over subordinates. That's difficult for newer/less skilled professionals to do, because managing by influence means earning people's respect and harnessing their natural motivation, and not really managing at all. If you walk into someone else's shop barking orders, what do you think will happen? If, on the other hand, you pitch in as one of the team to help them accomplish their goals, you will create a totally different perception and will earn their cooperation in return. Yes, it works. I was able to get regional/branch people to help me with a big corporate project once because the month earlier, I had gotten on a plane to go pull an all-nighter with them on a big systems conversion. They said you were the only one from corporate who was really WITH us all the way! Read any of Warren Bennis's works on leadership, and he will explain the concept. I was very lucky to participate in Professor Bennis's Leadership Seminar in the MBA program at Southern Cal.
