Who Are You Stapled To?

The September 12, 2011 edition of Forbes magazine contains a special on the 100 Most Powerful Women. Anne Sweeney, co chair of Disney Media Networks and President of the Disney/ABC Television Group, spoke to Forbes about the inspiration behind her success. The resulting article portrays Sweeney as someone who values her team and feels that individuals working on teams should not only know their own jobs but also what their jobs mean to other teams. When addressing a group of teams about their new jobs she is quoted as saying: "I want you to wake up every morning feeling that you are stapled to the other person. Understand that one of you is not successful without the other being successful. And when one of you fails, the other fails as well."

I found this quote interesting in not only the use of the word "stapled" but also for the meaning and intention. In the words of English poet John Dunne, "No man is an island, entire of itself". This is true in all facets of business as it is in life. Regardless of what your actual role and responsibilities are, I'll bet that your job affects someone else and another's affects yours. It is not something we think about consciously and many times are only aware of it when something goes wrong: you can't get your report completed because someone over in accounting hasn't completed your department's projections, etc..

Now is a good time to become more aware of the interconnectivity of departments within your organization and ask yourself the question: Who am I stapled to?