Week 2, Chapter 4, Post 3: Coopetition

Chapter 4, Post 3: Coopetition (page 106)

At the last place I worked, the culture of the company was that each department functioned as a cyclone. The departments would come together to work on projects but each department functioned very much on its own. It was as if the departments were competing against each other. I would hear my colleagues come back after a meeting and say, x, y, z department is being secretive about x, y, z project... From what I understand, the departments functioned this way because people wanted to be the one to get the credit for the project. If someone was first to come up with an idea, upper management would then promote this person or this person would be the first to be considered for new projects. So, instead of sharing information to further along the project, people would implement stall tactics or request data from other groups without disclosing how far along they were in the project or how they came up with their data. Not a great or efficient way to work on a project.