When Everyone Knows Their Area And Few Look Beyond It

For about a decade I sat in senior leadership meetings, and for most of that time I was there to represent one part of the business.

I knew my area well, and I defended it. So did everyone else, and that is what made those rooms work. Everyone is in the room because of what they bring as a specialist to their area, and every area had someone who could speak for it with real knowledge.

What I think about now is who is in the room, and what they bring with them. What they are curious about decides how far they see.

That matters because a business does not grow one area at a time. Selling more changes what delivery has to carry. Hiring changes what finance has to fund. A saving in one place turns up as a cost in another. Each of those connections sits on a boundary between two areas, and someone has to be interested enough in the other side to notice it.

In any room there will be a few people who hold a true overall picture. They are usually the ones who want to see beyond what is in front of them: who ask about work that isn't theirs because they want to understand it, not because they want to challenge it.

The more areas a business has, the more this matters, because every new area adds another boundary someone needs to see across. None of this takes anything away from the people who know their area deeply. Without them there is nothing to connect. The question is what else they bring with them.

The Critical Friend

Most leadership teams can tell you what each person in the room knows.

Fewer ask how far past their own area each of them looks.

Who in your room is curious about the area next door?