I have the opportunity to work with hundreds of executives every year.  I hear it all, from the upbeat to the melancholy. Quite regularly I hear a group whine: why don’t we do have controls for this, or why don’t we have a strategy for that.

The reality is that organizations on their face are dysfunctional.  To have perfect systems, processes, communication and human capital requires a tradeoff between investment in the long term, and profit in the short term. It is easy for organizations to fall into a trap where organizational priorities can become confusing or clouded.

I often compare the prototypical U.S. corporation to capitalism itself: it is not a perfect system, but it is the best one we have. Corporations are built around functional departments, such as accounting, sales, engineering and operations.  It is typical for such departments to have naturally occurring silos and it is easy for a silo mentality to create aggravation and despair.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. Once one recognizes that silos are a function of structure and not of people, one can chose to fight through the bureaucracy, and divergent objectives and lead people to find solutions.  It really comes down to challenging your own paradigm about the natural order of things.

If you work in accounting and you don’t think the sales team gets it in regards to receivables or collecting valid information from customers, it is incumbent upon you to understand their business requirements, and to educate them on the importance of your procedures. Whining is easy, but solving problems requires managerial courage, often in the form of making difficult decisions.

This structural dysfunction often manifests within non-profits which have the same organizational problems, but lack the resources to address them. Volunteers cannot provide the same level of focus as full time employees.

Whether you are working within a for-profit or non-profit organization, the answers lie within you. If you are the leader and your people are not getting along, it is your responsibility to find harmony. If you have a member of your staff who cannot play nice with others, it is time to wish him the best of luck in his next position, wherever that might be.