Common Approaches to Imperilling Organisational Frogs

Every day, thousands of organisational frogs move on to The Big Swamp in the Sky because it's alarmingly easy to kill them.

When placed in water already too warm, a frog will leave immediately but if placed in cold water it accommodates gradually increasing heat (smiling all the while) until it dies, because the rising discomfort is almost imperceptible.

It's a good analogy for many workplace crises and challenges: you may not know you're in difficulty until it's too late. The realisation that something is very wrong came, people often claim, as a total surprise. Well, yes and no . . .

• We sensed something was wrong but we didn't really see it coming!
• I guess we tried to pretend it wasn't happening . . .
• We just hoped it wouldn't happen to us.
• Things were going so well fiscally and there was lots of goodwill . . . we imagined we were bullet proof.
• Things were pretty desperate at times but we figured they'd improve.

These are the kind of admissions my clients will make after we've done a bit of digging into the causes of current challenges.

The very good news . . ? No matter how many frogs you've already despatched and whatever number you're currently warming, there are very simple things you can do to reduce or eliminate the phenomenon. Provided you know where you're heading and have a clear picture of where you are right now, you can start immediately to make the difference that makes the difference.

Start here

Check through this list of the most common ways organisations jeopardise their thrival, survival, or both. If you identify any that are currently at play in your workplace, at very least pay attention to them and count your insights as a breakthrough - a definite possibility for improvement.

Get people together to discuss the matter and consider its likely effects and implications. Get help where you need it but don't rush into "solutions". (Most problems are tackled far too close to the tip of the iceberg: more digging may be advisable.)

Get help where you need it. Get support, to navigate from survival to thrival. Call EncourageMentors. Saving frogs. It's what we specialise in.

1. Basic reference-points for the desired culture group culture, (what we believe in and value, how we want to behave with each other and how we want to be characterised as a group or team as we work on the collective task) are often vaguely-stated in advance of the need to act on them. Whatever culture eventually transpires (without planning, collaboration, monitoring, adjustment and evaluation) is left to chance.
   
   
2. Ideals, philosophy or constitution, values and principles (the basis of culture) are often expressed as empty bumper-sticker exhortations or one-liners such as, "Support, Honesty, Openness, Respect and Trust" without being translated into clear behavioural guidelines that people can understand, follow and hold others to. Differing interpretations surface as hidden agenda and get in the way of effectiveness.
   
   

It is clear, for example, that honesty in most organisations means telling the truth about some things and not others; that openness does not mean total disclosure of everything; that respect does not apply under certain conditions involving conflict and negative feedback (when people tend to resort to unhelpful childhood models in extreme conditions); and that very many workers routinely have insufficient support to perform optimally.




3. Even though values form the basis of all they do every day, many managers and leaders are unable to articulate their values, other than as bumper-sticker slogans, described in the previous item.
   
   
4. When team members share a common definition of "team" and are committed to methodical growth towards being an "effective team", greater teamwork results. But teams usually have no such definition, have no clear criteria of team competence, do not systematically monitor team performance and are consequently team in name only. If they capture the extraordinary potential of real teamwork it is a matter of sheer luck.
   
   
5. Leaders with stunted personal development try to build a "learning organisation"; produce vision and values statements without having clarified their own and aligned their personal behaviours with them; or develop organisation improvement plans even though they lack their own personal improvement plans.
   
   
6. Leaders model self-exploitation (in terms of time spent at work, or by ignoring their personal health and wellbeing needs, for example) while attempting to encourage sound self-management and self-care in others.
   
   
7. Leaders who attempt major or rapid reform over-estimate their ability to respond constructively to others' reactions to unwelcome or unasked-for change. They perceive these reactions as evidence of unfairness, of being misunderstood, personally attacked or victimised, and become focused on their own emotional needs (rather than on remaining in role). In so doing, they incapacitate themselves at the very moment others need their concerns and feelings heard and understood by a wise and mature leader.
   
   
8. Programmes to improve customer service are initiated by leaders and managers with weak levels of continuous improvement to their own leadership and management behaviours.
   
   
9. Territory-protecting, insular or conflict-ridden groups of senior managers try to build team-based organisations.
   
   
10. Disorganised, unsystematic managers design systems, set goals, priorities and methodology for everyone else.
    
    
11. While avoiding (and shooting messengers of) personal feedback, managers and leaders construct performance appraisal systems and measurements for everyone else.
    
    
12. They are often unable to articulate the range of decision-making processes they routinely use, describe the circumstances in which one is preferable over another, or even define the generic process of management.
    
    
13. It is unusual for leaders to be able to define leadership, teams to explain what constitutes a team or teamwork, and for those who believe they use "consensus" to define the term or the process.
    
    
14. Groups whose duty it is to routinely resolve differences, conflict and problems or manage and improve their own effectiveness usually do not methodically design, monitor, refine and evaluate their processes for these matters. Under scrutiny, their current practices demonstrate wasted effort and energy at best and at worst, serious dysfunction.
    
    
15. People behave as though to argue about or to debate possible solutions is to have effectively resolved differences, conflicting needs or problems; to discuss an issue is to have made wise decisions; to talk about what needs to be done is to have exercised methodical management, sufficient collaboration and sound planning.
    
    
16. Discussions about issues meander without direction, become contests of will over differing needs and conflicting views, are hijacked by the vocally confident and articulate, run out of time and disperse without clarity about outcomes. Those whose mental processes are unsuited to processes of this kind, and the timid, shy or otherwise reticent participants are marginalised, left unheard, bored, apathetic or resentful.
    
    
17. Participants may describe these discussions as Good, Interesting, Useful or Constructive but be unable to point to any real progress towards the purpose for which they were held. Later, different individuals hold conflicting understandings of the decisions arrived at, about who accepted responsibility for acting on them, what the plan is and how the plan will be managed, monitored and reported. Those affected by decisions become anxious, confused, sceptical, cynical or resentful about them. Views differ on whether any real decisions were in fact made. Plans become unstuck or fail to materialise.
    
    
18. Many efforts towards empowering organisational constituents are completely genuine but fail because enablement is not part of the empowerment effort. Power without skill in exercising it is wasteful at best and may even be dangerous. Skill without the power to apply it is frustrating and pointless.
    
    
19. Individuals display considerable unawareness of their actual interpersonal behaviours in the face of conflict, differences or confrontation, and even less self-awareness of the attitudinal bases of those behaviours. They are unaware of the relationship difficulties caused by their own interpersonal practices.
    
    

© Copyright 2002 - 2007 Tom Watkins Group. All rights reserved.

Select and contact a Mentor if you'd like to discuss these ideas or want support to make progress with your own issues.

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