Too many companies seem to be “breaking”, rather than making it

In all our years of experience in implementing individual, team and organizational change, we have identified a common set of productivity killers which are derived from an obsolete mental model--we call it Unilateral Control. In order to develop productivity enhancing behaviors, it is imperative to “upgrade” the individual, team and organizational culture towards mutual learning.

Some of the ineffective behaviors or Productivity Killers we've found to be contributors to inefficient and unproductive behaviour include:

Victim Attitude

People attribute failure to factors outside of their control, giving up power for the sake of innocence. Blame trumps responsibility and finger-pointing is substituted for corrective action. Employees blame bosses, “My project is late because they didn’t give me the resources I needed…” Bosses blame employees, “My staff is not proactive or competent; I need better people!” Bottom line: If you don’t see yourself as part of the problem, you can’t see yourself as part of the solution.

Undiscussable Issues

Meetings are conducted with conversations which are polite exchanges where people discuss only “safe” topics, while the tough core issues remain unaddressed but are often the topic of water cooler or hallway conversations. Examples include: “Marketing is getting too many resources, isn’t it a coincidence that its director is the Chairman’s son in law?” Bottom line: Unspeakable issues keep building which negatively effect employee and management relationships thereby preventing growth.

Narcissistic Negotiation

People focus on being right, getting what they want and “beating” their “adversary” in a win-lose battle. Egos get in the way and prevent the identification of underlying interests that can unleash creative solutions for the situation at hand. “I’d rather win over you than win with you”. Bottom line: Nobody ever asks for what they really want (interests), people ask for what they think will give them what they really want (position). It’s much more creative to bypass the latter and focus on satisfying the former.

Broken Commitments

People agree to fulfill requests without assessing whether they have the skills and resources to do it, then default on their commitments without any warning, explanation or apology. “Next week? Sure; I can do that… (maybe I can, maybe I can’t, we’ll just have to see…)” Bottom line: Lack of integrity destroys effective coordination, trust and values.

We share Jim Collins’s finding that “people are not an organization’s most important asset; the right people are an organization’s most important asset”. We believe that “right people” means people with consistent values, motivations and skills in the areas of personal effectiveness, interpersonal relationships and leadership; people who can deal with both the human and the technical dimensions of their jobs. Only when staffed with these “right” people will companies be able to cope with the complex situations they confront.

If you would like us to tackle your productivity killers? Then This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to find out how we can help you today...