More than 30 years ago I noticed that people seemed to have two sides of their brain—personal and professional—and they rarely utilized the knowledge from one side to address situations on the other. One way that the two areas were kept separate was with language—different terms for what were essentially the same thing. This was especially true about their human interactions.

Many people attended “relationship workshops” on the weekend, but rarely thought to take what they learned to work on Monday because those were colleagues—not relationships.

But that was then and this is now.

These days relationships are recognized as business lifeblood and everyone works to improve them, so Diana McLain Smith’s Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength is right on the money.

Smith says that all teams “rise or fall on the strength of their relationships,” but instead of the typical discussion of team relationships, strengths, etc., she draws on her 25 years of experience and analyzes a number of high profile relationships to graphically illustrate her points.

She shows us why our belief that the problem is the other guy’s attitude/action and focusing on getting him to change boomerangs convincing the team that the source of the problem is actually us.

Smith says that what must change is how we interact, i.e., change the old patterns and create new ones, explaining how to build work relationships that are flexible and strong—the kind that can survive the tough challenges found in today’s global economy.

She takes you behind the media stories of relationships that made headlines, such as the recruitment and eventual meltdown of Steve Jobs and John Sculley, to illustrate how a broken relationship can cause severe damage not just to the people, but to the company and the brand.

Relationships happen, but great relationships take thought and effort. They’ll never be easy, but Divide or Conquer provides the tools and insights to make them easiER.

What did you think of the book?

Image credit: Wesman PR