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This is the latest book from the author that brought us “Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” If you’re familiar with Patrick’s style, it’s to discuss the topic as a story, featuring fictional characters in a business environment. I think it’s effective because (1) everyone likes to read a story and (2) As you read you say, “Oh, that’s just like Millie in Accounting!” Only until later on do you realize, “Oh, that’s just like me, too.” Gulp.

This fable finds us in the life of a young consultant trying to find his way, with a strong start, and then a struggle. He learns that he can really do good if he can solve the “silo” problem that almost every business faces. We all know this one - the “I’ll ask my people to work with your people” situation. And it’s big. Harvard Business Review recently published an article on this very topic. In the HBR article as well as in the fable, it really comes down to customer focus.

Everyone sort of knows this intuitively, but at times they are not practicing it. The book takes us through the attempts of our young consultant to draw parallels between situations where customer focus is paramount and changes the way that people behave for the better. I admit I was taken along quite nicely by the book, doubting any hope in the beginning (as it was designed), and then grooving with the work as it progressed and improved.

The challenge of this topic is that a discussion of busting silos in any format is only going to scratch the surface. How are you going to support others in having a customer focus? Not every consultant is invited into the Boardroom by the CEO to spell it out. It’s more of a very very delicate dance, that can take a long time (maybe too long a time) to execute.

All of that said, because the time commitment was so low to this book, as it is really written in a very easy to read format, it’s a worthwhile read. It’s not going to, in my opinion, explain the how to make this happen, but it’s going to lay out what the problem is and that there’s a way out.

The added benefit of the way it’s written is its recommendability - much better than recommending the Katherine Graham Autobiog (not that there’s anything wrong with that piece of work). Maybe worth a check out from your local public library.

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