This is no way to run a superpower.
Americans arepissed offnationwide, and despite the presidents insistence that America isrespected again, confidence in American leadershiphas plummetedworldwide.
We desperately need to rememberPatrick Henrys declaration, United we stand, divided we fall.
That would be no way to run a company.
Unity is as important in business as it is in government, maybe even more so.
Most businessesarenttoo big to fail.
What color is the sky in your world?
If people cant agree on the set of facts surrounding an issue, they cant come up with solutions.
As a nation, weve slowly built up a tolerance for lies.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Today, the credibility gap yawns wider than ever before, and it makes solving problems almost impossible.
Unfortunately, fake news isnt just a political phenomenon its a problem in company boardrooms and leadership meetings too.
Incomplete data or numbers taken out of context.
Say a marketing team needs to generate 1,000 qualified leads so sales can close 50 deals.
Who are we to believe?
And as weve seen from Washington, that way lies madness and dysfunction.
In Washington, too often legislators put party politics over their common duty of conducting the peoples business.
But is that really whats important?
Then they can work together like adults instead of feuding like middle-schoolers or politicians.
Guard against factionalism
The political divisions in the US are real.
Divided companies tend to split along fault lines that reflect genuine differences of opinions too.
But true collaboration is defined by bringing together different perspectives so you shouldnt expect an era of kumbaya.
The necessary element in both government and business is a shared sense of purpose and goals.
Competing visions on how to achieve those objectives are inevitable, but factionalism is a choice.
The American democratic experiment is being tested now.
Many companies are dealing with a similar stress test for parallel reasons.
The good news is that we get to choose our path every day.
If our feuding political parties cant set a good example, at least they serve as a cautionary tale.
It wont be easy but its necessary, because in your business, failure shouldnt be an option.
Bonnie holds a B.A.
in biology from Princeton University.
