Author Archives: Animal Health

As we head into the season of business planning, it is important to look beyond goals and objectives and examine how your teams are functioning.

Are teams working together toward the same outcomes? Are there clear lines of authority and responsibility? Do business units understand who owns a decision, who needs to be consulted, and who needs to be informed? And, perhaps most importantly, have we created an organizational structure that allows people to succeed?

Strong teams that communicate openly, operate with honesty and integrity, and trust one another are not built on good intentions alone. Trust is built through consistent behavior. It requires clarity, accountability, transparency, and an environment where people can depend on one another.

When a business unit is responsible for an area of work but is not given the information, authority, or support necessary to lead that work, trust begins to erode. Withholding information, excluding key people from decisions, or working around colleagues rather than with them creates an environment where collaboration is expected of some, but not of everyone.

And that is where shared goals can fall short.

Individuals and business units can be committed to the same organizational objectives and still behave in ways that undermine one another. Competing incentives, organizational structures, power dynamics, fear, or the desire to protect one’s own area can influence behavior.

Having the same goal does not guarantee that we will work toward it in the same way.

So, as we think about building winning teams, we need an operating philosophy that creates not only shared goals, but shared expectations for how we work together.

A few principles that can help create the right foundation:

• Expect transparent communication. Information that affects another team’s responsibilities should be shared with the people who need it to do their jobs effectively. Transparency should be an expectation, not a favor.
• Create clarity around ownership and decision-making. People need to know who owns an outcome, who has authority to make decisions, and who needs to be consulted or informed. Clear responsibility reduces ambiguity and builds accountability.
• Create systems that make decisions visible. Documentation is not about bureaucracy. It creates clarity, consistency, and accountability and helps prevent misunderstandings.
• Establish a “no surprises” culture. Teams don’t have to agree on every decision, but they should have the opportunity to provide input when their responsibilities or outcomes are affected.
• Reward collaboration, not territorial behavior. Business units should be encouraged to optimize for the success of the organization, not simply protect their own function, budget, influence, or priorities.

Ultimately, trust isn’t built by telling people to trust one another. It is built when people consistently experience behavior that is trustworthy.

I will communicate with you. I will tell you what you need to know. I will respect your area of responsibility. I will raise concerns directly. I will do what I say I will do. And when we disagree, we will work through it without undermining one another.

Those behaviors create the foundation for trust and, ultimately, high-performing teams.

As you enter your next season of planning, don’t just ask whether your organization has shared goals. Ask whether you have created the structure, culture, accountability, and behaviors necessary to achieve them together.

Because winning teams don’t just agree on where they’re going. They agree on how they get there.