Breaking the Proactive Paradox

CHAPTER 3

The Collaborative Relationship

The old and new models serve as reference points to make sense of this shifting employment relationship dynamic.

The newly appointed CEO in the government agency, Samantha, identifies as her first major challenge as breaking down the boundaries between departments. She observes that the agency is organized around several “silos”—it’s a typically bureaucracy. This is evident even at the senior management level. The most important cross-functional team—the senior management team—is disjointed and not operating as a team. Managers arrive at executive meetings with their functional “hat” on and fail to consider issues from the perspective of the overall organization. Samantha knows she has a problem and has ...