Perspectives from Inside the Organization
October 7, 2009
This is a guest post written by Haley D. Dilling. Haley is a freelance graphic designer and marketing consultant, currently living and working in Abilene, Texas. You can learn more of her marketing perspective on her blog and by following her on Twitter.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” ***
Why do so many organizations try to stand divided? Their many departments operate in functional silos, each doing its own thing, protecting its own territory, and criticizing the selfishness, ignorance, or disagreeableness of the other departments. The designers can’t understand why the developers won’t build the product to match their elaborate renderings. The developers can’t understand why the marketing team treats them as incompetent one moment and expects them to be all-powerful the next. The marketing team can’t understand why the designers convolute the marketing message with their intricate visual details.
Organizations cannot function this way – at least, not for long. The word “organization” implies multiple parts arranged into a whole. An organism, if you will. The organization should function as one unit, with many parts working together, much like the human body.
In the human body are present millions of cells and tissues and organs, all working in coordination for the survival of the body. Each part of the body has a specific and specialized function, and all of them contribute to the life of the body. Christians have used this metaphor for almost 2,000 years to describe how the church should function, and the same principle applies to any organization. The Apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:
“There are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.”
In the body, each part carries unique abilities, perspectives, and needs. The eyes see. The ears hear. The nose smells. The mouth speaks. The hands touch and clasp and lift and push. The legs walk and stand. Each needs different kinds of nourishment, support, and protection. Each senses things differently, and each provides sensory information that the others cannot.
And each part of the body would be useless if it were not connected and working in harmony with all of the other parts.
The legs would be useless for walking if the eyes could not see, and if the brain could not communicate where to go. The digestive system could not fuel the body if the hands did not respond to hunger pangs and input food to the mouth. The body could not heal itself if the immune system did not redirect platelets and white blood cells to the areas of disease and injury. The many parts of the body contribute to the survival of all the other parts, and of the body as a whole.
In the same way, the survival of any organization requires that each member appreciate the needs and abilities of all the other members. Each member in an organization should understand what he and every other member can and cannot do, and what the function and importance of each member is. He should learn the key factors that affect the abilities of every other member to function, so that he can understand how he can help the other members to succeed. He should trust that every other member is doing his or her job well, and is acting in the best interests of the whole, just as he himself does. And he should communicate continually with the other members, realizing that the entire organization must be coordinated in order to reach its goals.
Working together within an organization is not a matter of “us” vs. “them”, but of truly working together, understanding one another, appreciating one another, and seeking the success of one another. When this happens, the entire organism can thrive.
*** Jesus, Mark 3:25
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