"There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out."
Russian Proverb
You may have heard of the Indian parable immortalized in John Godfrey Saxe’s poem of the group of blind men, who come upon an elephant. Each tries to create an accurate concept of what they have found based upon their own perspective. “It’s a tree!” “It’s a wall!” “It’s a snake!” All are correct, but none of them in entirety. In order to get the true picture, they need an effective exchange of information.
Similarly, in our professional world, the critical pieces of vital information are spread among various parts of the organization, and while each has an important contribution to make to the entire operation, until they get out of their silo and integrate their piece of the puzzle with the other pieces of information spread throughout the organization, we have another analogy – the self-licking ice cream cone.
When organizational information is kept in silos and the work of the various departments is based primarily on their own information without outside input, we have the proverbial self-licking ice cream cone. This is seen when R&D builds something because the engineers think it is a great idea without asking production what it would cost to produce or marketing and sales if there is anyone out there who would actually buy it at that cost. It is not that it cannot be mass-produced, or that there is no market for it, it is that the necessary stakeholders were not brought into the process at an early enough stage to ensure the self-licking ice cream cone does not build an elephant that looks more like a tree than an elephant.
I learned early in my project and operations management career that I cannot possibly know everything. In my first full-time role as a project manager, despite my lack of formal IT training, I was assigned several IT-intensive projects. Faced with this knowledge gap, I learned the value of using experts to fill in where I was lacking. I brought the necessary subject matter experts onto my team.
Much later, while interviewing an executive at a major regional bank, this concept was brought back to me as he explained his resistance to corporate pressure to restructure his division. He explained that he had built the organization with his own strengths and weaknesses in mind. He had brought in people to shore up the organization where he was weak.
Similarly, in our professional world, the critical pieces of vital information are spread among various parts of the organization, and while each has an important contribution to make to the entire operation, until they get out of their silo and integrate their piece of the puzzle with the other pieces of information spread throughout the organization, we have another analogy – the self-licking ice cream cone.
When organizational information is kept in silos and the work of the various departments is based primarily on their own information without outside input, we have the proverbial self-licking ice cream cone. This is seen when R&D builds something because the engineers think it is a great idea without asking production what it would cost to produce or marketing and sales if there is anyone out there who would actually buy it at that cost. It is not that it cannot be mass-produced, or that there is no market for it, it is that the necessary stakeholders were not brought into the process at an early enough stage to ensure the self-licking ice cream cone does not build an elephant that looks more like a tree than an elephant.
I learned early in my project and operations management career that I cannot possibly know everything. In my first full-time role as a project manager, despite my lack of formal IT training, I was assigned several IT-intensive projects. Faced with this knowledge gap, I learned the value of using experts to fill in where I was lacking. I brought the necessary subject matter experts onto my team.
Much later, while interviewing an executive at a major regional bank, this concept was brought back to me as he explained his resistance to corporate pressure to restructure his division. He explained that he had built the organization with his own strengths and weaknesses in mind. He had brought in people to shore up the organization where he was weak.
However, this requires a high degree of understanding of oneself and of others.
I explain in my article “The Blind Leading the Blind – Emotional Intelligence and the Unaware Leader” that the first step to any kind of leadership is self-awareness, followed closely by awareness of others. This is true whether you lead major bank division or a project team. You must understand your tasks, your and your people’s strengths and weaknesses and then build your teams accordingly.
Having a well-rounded team provides the expertise and points of view to find the most effective solutions. It also helps ensure all stakeholders have input into the project and are apprised of progress on aspects of the project that are of interest to them and that are aware of changes coming their way.
However, the benefits of effective cross-functional communication and input go beyond the project itself into implementation and adoption. Unfortunately, this is where many initiatives fail.
Including others in the entire process eases resistance to change by ensuring all have real input and buy-in to the process and a stake in the success of the project. Having changes thrust upon you, which you are not ready for and had no input into elicits resistance.
On the other hand, having production, marketing, sales, and distribution represented on the team result in processes and products, which have integrated the needs of all from the beginning. This will help integrate the new capabilities into current processes and minimizes painful and expensive adjustments that often accompany poorly coordinated hand-offs between functions.
I explain in my article “The Blind Leading the Blind – Emotional Intelligence and the Unaware Leader” that the first step to any kind of leadership is self-awareness, followed closely by awareness of others. This is true whether you lead major bank division or a project team. You must understand your tasks, your and your people’s strengths and weaknesses and then build your teams accordingly.
Having a well-rounded team provides the expertise and points of view to find the most effective solutions. It also helps ensure all stakeholders have input into the project and are apprised of progress on aspects of the project that are of interest to them and that are aware of changes coming their way.
However, the benefits of effective cross-functional communication and input go beyond the project itself into implementation and adoption. Unfortunately, this is where many initiatives fail.
Including others in the entire process eases resistance to change by ensuring all have real input and buy-in to the process and a stake in the success of the project. Having changes thrust upon you, which you are not ready for and had no input into elicits resistance.
On the other hand, having production, marketing, sales, and distribution represented on the team result in processes and products, which have integrated the needs of all from the beginning. This will help integrate the new capabilities into current processes and minimizes painful and expensive adjustments that often accompany poorly coordinated hand-offs between functions.
This means production has the processes in place when R&D turns the product over to them, and marketing and sales have ready customer demand and distribution channels ready when the product begins rolling out the doors.
In today’s world dominated by agile product development resulting in a constant flow of new iPhones, software, and tools, those who can best gauge the voice of the customer, get the best product to market, in the shortest time, and at the lowest cost reap the benefits of being the first mover.
Those who cannot mobilize their organizational assets effectively to stay ahead of the competition go the way of companies like Borders, Blockbuster, and Palm Inc., maker of the Palm Pilot. All of which were overtaken by change they refused to acknowledge just as each blind man refused to acknowledge the elephant was anything more than a wall, a tree, a rope, a snake, and a spear. Mobilizing the power of organizational knowledge can help us see clearly the full picture and act on the resulting clarity.
In today’s world dominated by agile product development resulting in a constant flow of new iPhones, software, and tools, those who can best gauge the voice of the customer, get the best product to market, in the shortest time, and at the lowest cost reap the benefits of being the first mover.
Those who cannot mobilize their organizational assets effectively to stay ahead of the competition go the way of companies like Borders, Blockbuster, and Palm Inc., maker of the Palm Pilot. All of which were overtaken by change they refused to acknowledge just as each blind man refused to acknowledge the elephant was anything more than a wall, a tree, a rope, a snake, and a spear. Mobilizing the power of organizational knowledge can help us see clearly the full picture and act on the resulting clarity.
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