Intricately Interwoven: How Everything in Your Organization is Connected

Remember those old-fashioned, beautiful blankets that grandma used to make? The ones that took months to make, comprised of patterns made from countless patches sewn together? As children, we would marvel at the attention to detail—the intricately interwoven threads that came together to make the blanket.

Your organization is like that blanket. It’s intricately interwoven. While you may not see this on a daily basis, it’s true nonetheless. Your department, your team, your specific role, affects not only those directly around you, but people all the way up to the senior leader and all the way down to the bottom of the totem pole. Your influence makes a huge difference; and so does the influence of every other person around you.

When someone functions effectively in their role, everyone is benefitted. When someone isn’t functioning well, it will affect his or her department—and the organization as a whole. Have you ever pulled a loose string on a piece of clothing, only to have that seam unravel more than you expected? That’s what it’s like when one aspect of your organization—one member of your team—isn’t functioning properly in his or her role. It affects the entire garment—the entire blanket. We don’t function in silos, however much the thought may appeal to us.

So here’s my question for you: how are you contributing to the intricately interwoven organization you serve? Are you a strong seam, holding the different departments together and bringing stability? Or are you unraveling for whatever reason, weakening the integrity of your “blanket” day by day? What about those around you—how are they affecting the whole organization?

You’re only as good as your lowest common denominator.