NPR has been running a great series on the “war on terror”. In a recent episode, a guest of the series said something very wise:

“If we objectify terrorists, we open the door to allow them to do the same to us.”

To move this entry into the world of business, let’s translate the quote into something one might hear from an enlightened engineer:

“If we objectify marketing, we open the door to allow them to do the same to us.”

Unfortunately, this type of objectification happens in many companies, and it leads to some very negative side-effects such as individuals spending countless hours complaining about and working around their departmental counterparts, product schedules slipping, and poor quality products shipping.

Many companies accept the side-effects as an unsolvable cost of doing business. Some organizations try to treat the symptoms through process and procedure, which - similar to modern drugs - has side-effects. An enlightened organization devotes the resources necessary to create strong interpersonal and cross-departmental relationships.

Real relationships create common ground that obstructs dehumanizing and objectifying the people with whom one must work. Once people are viewed as individuals and not objects a major roadblock has been removed.

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