Pat Lencioni wrote a book by this title. Reading about the concept and living in an all out turf war is like watching a WW II movie and actually storming the beach! The movie can reflect the emotion and danger of war but when you are really there the full impact, aftermath and repercussions become, shall we say acute.
Real war causes real death, real turf war causes real death too.
Death comes:
- To respect of one division to another
- Productivity
- Agreeing and working toward the common good
- Professional relationships
- The true idea of why we work in the first place
There is also collateral damage. Those not even involved can lose days and have increased frustration because of the bickering, back channel communication, lack of alignment and down right undermining. These symptoms unchecked bring a wider range of impact to the company, people lose respect for those in the battle and secondary casualties start to way heavy on the company itself moving forward. Turf wars are selfish.
I believe that turf wars can start:
- From the ground up when two people or divisions naturally compete and then the competition turns personal and vindictive because the common company goal and mission is forgotten or put in second place behind ego and expectation
- Nurtured from the top down when executives fuel the fire because that is how they motivate someone to work hard or find it exciting/personally advantageous to fan the flames to press their agenda or goal
Either way a turf war unchecked or managed too will lead to hurt feelings, loss of motivation, loss of relationship and eventually may hurt the company in a significant way when the going gets tough and true alignment is needed.
Some cultures in companies are built around fueling the flames. Some companies refuse to allow turf wars to grow and manage and lead to collaboration and cross functional effectiveness.
What type are you?
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