Territorialism is an insidious condition that can potentially derail performance of individuals and organizations.
In The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies—And How to Overcome Them, Robert Herbold examines how this behavior affects creativity. As the former chief operating officer of Microsoft, Herbold provided adult supervision for the software giant known for its innovative spirit and internally competitive culture. So, it is no wonder that his message concentrates on the need to balance creativity and discipline.
Herbold's solution to the fiefdom phenomenon lies in establishing an organization characterized by a system of efficient and effective processes. Described as "the seven disciplines of the well-run corporation," Herbold stresses creating lean global processes, standard templates, and data; avoiding overconfidence, fragmentation, and bottlenecks; formulating processes for inspection; and continually learning new skills.
Herbold reminds us that processes alone won't fix a dysfunctional organization plagued by turf wars--people within the organization must also change. To this end, Herbold offers "the six people disciplines"—standard performance appraisal system, united functional departments, personnel rotation, personnel development, performance improvement, and compensation.—Mallory Stark