Integrative Excellence: Connecting All Your Connections

Trying to go it alone? Good luck with that! Why you can't win without others.

Written Feb 16, 2011, read 2086 times since then.

One of the fundamental hallmarks of successful companies, and a key building block for successful business careers, is a predisposition to 1) initiate and engage in powerful conversations, and 2) facilitate communication networks. The strongest leaders ensure that everyone - including themselves - talks with everyone, real time, all the time. And we're not just talking about social marketing with customers.

Companies need to ensure that all cylinders fire when they should and all wheels are perfectly aligned. Functional excellence is great, but integrative excellence - the ability to build processes, structures, and culture that destroy organizational silos while energizing networks, conversations, and collaboration – is even better.

Entrepreneurs who don’t participate in and cultivate networks will fail. Maybe that wasn't true a decade or two ago, but in our 24/7 networked world of social media, there is no alternative. Opt out at your own peril. Our networks must include every function in our companies – yes, even the unholy trinity of Finance, Legal, and Regulatory – as well as peers in other industries.

A few things to consider:

Others need to know what you know. If I know something, and you don’t, then we don’t. You might have the best ideas in the world, but if everyone on your team doesn’t understand them, or hasn’t bought in, you will fail. A colleague of mine recently said at a meeting, “This should be easy. We all know the answer!” To which another colleague whispered, “Yeah, but think about everyone who doesn’t!”
You need to know what others know.I once segmented our retailers by offering a portfolio of our key products in sizes optimized for each key account. It was a brilliant plan. It would take pressure off the discounting that was sucking profit from our category. Sales leadership loved it. My CFO loved it. Buyers in their headquarters offices loved it. Everyone was happy. Except for one lowly marketing rep who knew something that I, the Sales VP, the CFO, the account managers, and the buyers didn’t – that store managers at one of our biggest retailers would rather be out of stock for our product during the height of their season than reset their shelves. He tried to tell us, but no one was listening to him. My brilliant plan failed. Duh!
Group intelligence trumps individual genius. You may have the best idea in the group, but if we work long enough with some of the lesser ideas, chances are we’ll synthesize a solution beyond what any of us imagined. Even you.
Group stupidity has no lower limit. The challenge for groups is to ladder up to a higher solution, not dumb down to the lowest common denominator. Compromising to reach consensus is what gives groupthink a bad name.

Here's the underlying reality: Everything (that includes us) is interconnected. Marketers can’t get there without Sales, Finance, Operations, Product Development, agencies, and of course those pesky customers. Solopreneurs can’t get there without referral networks, suppliers, clients, etc. Your success depends on my success and vice versa.

So kumbaya, my friends: if we are not working together, surely we will end up playing alone. And any kindergartener can tell you that’s not as much fun.

Learn more about the author, Mark P Friedman.

Posted by Randal DeHart, PMP, QPA, Lynnwood, Washington | Feb 23, 2011

Mark,

Your article speaks to business owners that are already successful which is why I rated it a “10”

Warm Regards,

Randal

Contractors Accounting And Bookkeeping Services
Posted by Bud Brown, Kitchener, Ontario Canada | Feb 24, 2011

Excellent article! In the book Crowdsourcing, Jeff Howe confirmed your point about group intelligence when he pointed out that initially people doubted how accurate Wikipedia could be. He referred to a study that concluded that while, statistically one person out of 1000 could describe a particular topic accurately, merging the knowledge of 1000 people gave more correct information than any one could. In this electronic age, the network is not only more powerful. It is more available (as Biznik demonstrates)
Posted by Mark P Friedman, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 24, 2011

Randal and Bud, thanks much for the comments!

Bud, excellent example of how group intelligence trumps individual genius. Thanks!

Best wishes,

Mark
Posted by Elena Patrice, Front Royal, Virginia | Feb 24, 2011

Great article and absolutely true! No man is an island and we're all in this together. I think your profile states why you understand this so well, by combining “small business street smarts with big company discipline" - a winning combination for sure! Thank you for this article! With kindness, Elena
Posted by Mark P Friedman, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 24, 2011

Elena - I appreciate your endorsement! Thanks for commenting, and hope to see you here again!

Best wishes,

Mark
Posted by Nelson Hanton, Tacoma, Washington | Feb 24, 2011

Brilliant!

Your article is absolutely fundamental in Business Essentials 101. It's a breath a fresh air to note it's perfectly ok to be a team player. Thanks for posting.

Nelson
Posted by Mark P Friedman, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 24, 2011

Thanks Nelson! Isn't it funny how the culture likes to portray entrepreneurs as go-it-alone supermen? The fact is, entrepreneurialism is a team sport.

I appreciate your support.

m
Posted by Adrienne Fritze, Portland, Oregon | Feb 25, 2011

I enjoyed the entire article, and the piece that really shone for me was "Group stupidity has no lower limit." Very often groups tire in their conversations or debates around their business topics/issues and give in to the sometimes overwhelming urge to "just get this done so we can move on" option.

I am curious, what do you recommend a leader (and I'm not referring to the title so much as the state of being) do, or create, in situations where the group is struggling to reach their ideal outcome?

Best, A.
Posted by Mark P Friedman, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 25, 2011

Adrienne - terrific question! What you describe is a kind of negotiation, and for me negotiation starts with candor. When I'm facilitating, I try to get all participants to articulate 1) their interests, and 2) their vision of ideal outcome. Sometimes nonverbal exercises help, e.g., collages, drawing, etc., but some groups work best verbally.

When everything is on the table, people can engage without defensiveness, and the group can seek to ladder up to a better decision than any individual imagined, without dumbing down to an easy compromise.

Make sense?

m
Posted by Adrienne Fritze, Portland, Oregon | Feb 26, 2011

Yes, this does make sense. Thank you!
Posted by Jennifer Eckhardt, Buda, Texas | Feb 28, 2011

Nice job, Mark! I always enjoy your candor and knowledge, no matter what the topic! What a great resource you are for small business owners - thanks for sharing with us!

Jen
Posted by Mark P Friedman, Boulder, Colorado | Feb 28, 2011

Jen, thanks for your support!