SPG Blog

By Diana McLain Smith
Review by Jennifer Dawson

When an organization is struggling, it’s easy to look beyond company walls for the cause. But you know what they say: it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

For organizational consultant and researcher Diana McLain Smith, looking “inside” is not just about corporate culture, strategic planning or an operational review. In Divide or Conquer, Smith suggests that a company’s performance is directly influenced by what’s happening as far inside as you can go–within and between its key leaders.

Smith’s book is about relationships. She focuses on the usually invisible and therefore unexamined informal relationships between leaders that result in entrenched—and often destructive—patterns of interaction. Smith proposes a tidy theoretical model, which she calls the Anatomy Framework, to explain how these patterns develop. It’s a circular and therefore self-fulfilling process by which two people come to see each other as two-dimensional stereotypes. “She’s a long-winded lecturer who can’t let go of the reins.” Or “he’s a defensive and indecisive weakling who holds up progress.” These “frames,” as Smith calls them, are interpretations each person has of the other. Over time they become the lens through which every exchange is viewed and the justification for each person’s reaction (thoughts and feelings) and action (behaviour). Unless something is done to disrupt this cycle—to get the parties to recognize the role they each play in the dynamic and then “reframe” their relationship—the organization as a whole will suffer. (more…)

My family has a cabin that my great-grandparents built in the pine forest in New Mexico. It has a beautiful rock fireplace with a large, deep place to build a fire. We keep a fire going in the evenings for both the beauty and the heat—and occasionally to roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

I was at the cabin recently and I noticed that building and maintaining a fire is a lot like creating and sustaining sales relationships. There is some skill needed to figure out the best way to start the fire and keep it going, and different people have different approaches with varying degrees of success. The same could be said of forming and nurturing sales relationships.

My husband, Mel, used to be a firefighter and, ironically, he can reliably start a fire with one match. He knows exactly what to do, has the patience to make it happen and makes it look easy. Mel enjoys the tasks of the fire. He is perfectly happy sitting for hours reading by the fireside, watching it flicker and change and periodically tending its needs. (more…)

1. Give team members an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback about what is happening.
2. Avoid focusing on an individual as the “problem.” Many times the team “disturber” is in fact playing a very useful role on the team. If that person leaves, then someone else will inevitably step into that role and the conflict will continue.
3. Create a group agreement. Make it a fluid document that can change over time as the team’s needs change.
4. Reconnect the team to its original purpose. If this feels distant, create a new common purpose.
5. Set an agenda for team meetings. Follow the agenda and take minutes and distribute them.
6. Focus on “the work” rather than “who did it?”
7. Don’t confuse diversity with conflict. Differences of opinion about “the work” are different than conflict. Differences of opinion should be valued. Diversity allows teams to see the broadest range of potential concerns, possible outcomes and to make strong decisions.