Fundamentals of Level Three Leadership

114. Organizational Glue

Concept

What holds a company together? What is the cohesive mortar or glue that keeps an organization from flying apart? This question lingers today.^81,82 My colleague Bill Zierden, years ago, developed this concept from his experience in the nuclear submarine force and his consulting and executive practice. He argued there were four kinds of organizational glue that held an organization together: charismatic leadership, Rules and Regulations, Reward Systems, and Common Values (VABEs).

Bill’s idea was that whatever held an organization together, we could call 100 percent and then allocate that 100 percent among these four forces. Further, he would argue that the distribution of glue would have a big effect on the organization’s ...