Find the First Corner

Early in my career, I was sure sales was the most important part of any organization, of course I did I was a sales rep. We brought in the revenue. Everything else supported them. Then I moved into government relations and solutions work, and I changed my mind. I decided that work was the cornerstone, and that without it the company would fail. We were a the top of the structure.

While I never said that out loud, I didn't have to, it showed up in how I treated people, and the people it showed up on most were the sales reps.

When they wouldn't support the work I was trying to do, even work that would have made their jobs easier, I got frustrated. Sometimes I went to their bosses. Sometimes I took it to my own boss. I was building a case for why my piece mattered and theirs was in the way.

It didn't work. Their leaders saw the organization as a pyramid, with their department at the top, I think we all did. So they were protecting their headcount and their budgets, and as far as they could tell they didn't need my work to deliver theirs. Two sides, each sure they were the top piece. It was a constant struggle, and nobody won.

I only saw it recently, in a conversation with Shawna while we were working through a workshop. We got talking about the competition between departments. Marketing believes the smartest people live there, because they take something deeply technical and turn it into something sales can sell. Sales believes it matters most because sales is what pays for everything. Engineers and developers will tell you it all starts with them. HR and leadership development believe they set the tone for the whole place. Same shape every time. Everyone sees a pyramid, and everyone is working to get their department to the top.

And then I said it "Organizations aren't pyramids. They're puzzles."

Think about how you build a puzzle. You find a first corner, two pieces that connect, and you build from there. It doesn't matter whether you start in the top left or the bottom right. You just need somewhere to start, and every piece has to connect to the next to get the full picture. No piece is on top.

Some puzzles are simple. Five pieces, smooth edges, easy to fit. Others are a thousand pieces, and the bumps look the same and the colours blend together. Sometimes it's obvious how sales and marketing fit. Sometimes, especially in a bigger organization, you can't tell where one department ends and another begins. That doesn't mean a piece doesn't matter. It may mean you haven't found where it connects yet.

If we stopped seeing the pyramid, would we see engineering as the corner piece, and equally important? Would we see HR as the piece in the middle, holding the rest together, and as important to marketing? I think things would fit together better. After nearly 35 years working across a global pharmaceutical company, a provincial government and the non-profit sector, I've watched the pyramid story play out at every size. I wish I had tried the puzzle earlier.

I don't manage anyone now, so I can't go back and fix how I treated those reps. What I can do is help other leaders learn from it.

Here is where to start this week. Pick the department you struggle with most. Write down what you believe it does for the organization. Then write down what your own department could not do without it. If that second list is longer than you expected, you've just found your first connecting piece.

If you'd like to work through this with your leadership team, that is exactly what my workshops are for. Reach out.

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