Caron Carlson recently wrote an article called "Is the CEO's 'kitchen cabinet' cooking your goose? In it, she refers to Bob Frisch's new book, Who's in the Room?: How Great Leaders Structur and Manage the Teams Around Them. This is definitely on my list of books to read. Although the book discusses the lack of transparency when it comes to decision-making at the top levels of corporations, I've seen it happen at middle management levels, as well.
It isn't necessarily a conspiracy on the part of executives to prevent department managers and other employees from doing what they're supposed to do, such as preventing security leaks. Sometimes it's a matter of budgets and government rules and industry regulations that need to be prioritized. Which fire do you put out first? Everyone has his preference. For me, anything and everything to do with security comes first. To the sales manager, it's all about getting money needed to wine and dine customers and doing whatever it takes to get new ones.
The book is supposed to offer suggestions on how to bring proposals to fruition, but I would also be interested in tips on how to prevent existing projects from stalling. I've worked on multiple projects, so it's important for me to stay organized. I keep simple logs using Microsoft Word so that I can show my boss what I'm working on and what the status is. I include contact information on customers, people in various departments of my company and vendors. If I never need to cover my caboose on why a project isn't completed, I can always show my log to my boss and say, "The vendor said it won't be shipped for another two weeks" or "I've called So-and-So eight times about this and here were his responses." Then my boss can hound that person.
I wish everyone kept logs like this. It would help me get more detailed answers and it would help departments run more smoothly. Good communication is key in any organization.
