In many organizations, information is power.  If I have information you don’t, I have power.  I am needed.  I also can do what I need to do in my department because I have the information “I” need even if the organization as a whole does not.  Power and a “functional area only” focus on information are driven, I believe, by the entrepreneurial spirit of people in the organization.

Not many people come to work with bad intentions.  Successful organizations have been built by the people who were there before and who are there now.  Built by entrepreneurs.   It is in part that entrepreneurial spirit, that belief of, “I know what we need to do” within functional areas or departments; that separates and divides an organization and builds silos.  It is that attitude which starts to drive the passive aggression that is often seen in organizations.  Many of you have seen it.  Leaders sit at the conference table and nod support on a direction or plan and then go do what they want; often in direct conflict to what they agreed.

Achieving any real organizational change in that situation requires some strong focus on being authentic and being accountable.  We all need to remember the organizational shoulders upon which we stand; all of those who came before us.  In addition we are accountable to other people to whom we owe the continued success of the organization; donors, constituents or in business stockholders.  The need is for organizations at some point to look in the mirror and understand that the behavior that got them here won’t let them get to the next level.  Organizational success requires a state of leadership, shared information, rigorous, followed processes and behavior that is cohesive, collaborative and open.  It should never be about “me” or “mine” and should always be about “us” and “ours”.  Getting to that state is a journey of change management.