Stop taking the poison.
Somewhere in your business, a project or a team or a process is dying. It used to be good, or the idea behind it was good, or the people were good. But then something came along that poisoned it:
- bureaucratic nonsense;
- untested technology;
- interpersonal feuds;
- interdepartmental feuds;
- unfunded mandates;
- budgetary waste;
- key players more interested in politicking than performance;
- key bottlenecks left unaddressed;
- timidity;
- poor communication;
- a Pollyanna worldview;
- a doom-and-gloom worldview;
- laziness;
- weak leadership;
- grandiosity;
- a failure to deal with reality.
In times like these, you need every ounce of strength you can muster.
Find the poison. Isolate it. And get rid of it.
~
(Photo by ohsoabnormal.)
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“Find the poison. Isolate it. And get rid of it”.
A follow-up post on ways to achieve this would be good. =)
You could give ideas about group restructuring, introducing a reinforcement policy, etc.
Talking about it is a huge first step. Actually, just taping copies of your list around the office would be big. Really big. (or passed around digitally in a virtual office). Many of these things are the ‘elephant in the room’ that nobody can acknowledge or talk about but that everyone sees.
In really big co.’s, you could take just one division or group at a time. Just like different families in a neighborhood, some far more dysfunctional than others, even within the same co. and even within the same physical campus.
Not that many of these don’t happen even in small groups, but far more likely in big companies. Layers of management and risk-averse cultures are particularly devastating…
Thanks for the post.
Great advice, Kathy.
I especially like your neighborhood analogy: you start by persuading those who are more persuadeable — or just more ready to listen — and then move outward with their support. You’ve got me thinking in new directions about this — thank you.