Instinctual time-saving wastes the most time.
Instinctual time-saving wastes the most time.
In most organisations, there's a contradiction. There's no time to provide clear direction but the time lack of direction wastes is tolerated. How can leaders break the cycle?
I find it amazing that at most organisations, you can see these two contradictory truths in action:
1. Organisations will invest little time being clear and aligned on their goals.
2. Organisations tolerate wasting significantly more time and capacity by not addressing the issues that result from a lack of alignment and clarity.
Organisations are left with competing agendas without alignment and direction on what is important. These agendas compete, leading to lots of friction and wasted energy—lots of effort in jostling and less effort in creating and protecting value.
Why this happens stems from a variety of human factors:
not valuing the time investment to resolve upstream issues contributes to wastage and inefficiency downstream.
an inability to have candour required to resolve issues such as making choices, resolving issues of ownership and responsibility, etc.
some ingrained biases steer us towards short-term, more certain activities and away from disciplined sense-making and communication that can support alignment, prioritisation, and cooperation.
Some assumptions about what doing work and being a leader entails, e.g., that it is enough to ensure ‘proper project management and governance’ are in place.
Ultimately, leadership fails to provide the context to reduce friction and support decision-making and progress.
Underinvesting in the requisite effort to provide context and allow the ensuing waste to persist is the true reflection of an organisation's values. The same behaviours tend to then be repeated at all levels of the organisation.
It’s easy to underinvest in the direction and alignment because the payoff does not seem immediate:
The effects of misalignment show up in indirect ways, such as friction, unnecessary competition, politics, thrashing, stopping and starting, over-committing and many commonplace organisational inefficiencies.
These inefficiencies can also have other causes, so it’s not a silver bullet that solves all ills but part of the hygiene factors for successfully leading.
The effort and discipline required to set direction and cultivate alignment is often underestimated. What’s involved is something I’ve covered in many posts on this publication (along with documented practices, workshops and activities).
To break the cycle, you must first recognise the contradiction and the absurdity of continuing in this manner. You must also help your peers and leaders recognise and value change. That requires more than pointing it out when the symptoms surface; it requires a concerted effort to proactively educate and highlight where this is specifically happening in your context. Leaders must recognise to address this is leadership.
What has been your experience? Does your organisation provide appropriate levels of direction? Are there high levels of politicking required to get things done or a high amount of friction, various elephants in the room and other issues that systemically never get addressed?