Why Should a Company Seek External Professional Help?

Every one of us wants to be successful. The same is true for every company. Quite often, companies measure success by looking at the return on investment. “What is our market share?” they ask. But these are just results. They are like the scoreboard in a tennis match. If you only look at the scoreboard, and you play badly, you are going to lose.    

When we play a game we need to play correctly—we need to learn to play well—and if we play well, we will win. We will be successful. So now, the questions are: “What does it mean to play well?” and “What do I need to do to play well?” 

Success is a function of how well a company is integrated externally, versus how much internal disintegration it has. The external integration is divided by the internal disintegration. What does this mean? Since energy is fixed at any point in time, the more internal disintegration there is, the more wasted energy there will be—and this will directly reduce the amount of energy available to compete in the marketplace. Have one good fight with your spouse or your partner in the morning, and see how much energy you have to devote to your work in the afternoon. (Hint: it won’t be much.) If you are sick and your body is failing, how much energy will you have to go and fight the world? As these examples show, to achieve success is to diminish internal disintegration and free up your energy so that it may be applied to external integration. 

And what is external integration?

External integration can be defined as strategic planning and marketing: determining the changing needs of the market, its needs, and how a company can match its capabilities to meet the needs of the market.

And what is internal disintegration? 

Internal Disintegration is the measure of how much mutual trust and respect there is. If there is no mutual trust and respect, then we are fighting. We are spending a lot of time on rumors—analyzing who said what, and why they said what they said. This is all a tremendous waste of time. If a company suffers from a chronic lack of mutual trust and respect, I suggest this cannot be solved internally. As in family therapy, the strife cannot be fixed internally, by the family. There is a Jewish expression that says: A prisoner needs someone to free them from their chains. You cannot free yourself from your own chains. I always recommend getting professional help from people who know how to build a culture of mutual trust and respect.  I strongly recommend using Certified Associates from the Adizes Institute, because we have worked with thousands of companies all over the world over the past fifty years. It is not an easy thing to build mutual trust and respect and a lot of damage can be done to a company if it is not done right.