Me vs. We: Making Strategic Collaboration Real

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Portfolio Management   Strategy  

Anyone who has been involved in annual planning knows how painful the process can be. While every experience is different, there are a number of common themes that occur in virtually all organizations. One of the biggest is the politics that occur when it comes to supporting a particular project proposal.

The political maneuvering usually starts several weeks before the actual planning session, as department heads speak to colleagues to try and gauge the level of support they have for their projects. That quickly moves on to trading support: “I’ll support your project if you support mine.” And before the discussions around which projects should be executed in the next year even begin, the process is compromised.

Organizations understand this isn’t the right way of doing things, and yet they seem incapable of consistently improving the situation. That’s what I want to address in this article. For me, the core issue is the issue of “me versus we”—individual department heads putting their own needs and interests ahead of the greater good of the organization.

I have to be honest and say I understand why it happens in many cases. While the organization will have established overarching strategic goals to meet, a large part of the personal goals and objectives for each functional leader will be tied to the performance of that …

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