© MCL & Associates, Inc. 2001 - 2024
MCL & Associates, Inc.
“Eliminating Chaos Through Process”™
A Woman-Owned Company.
03/11/2018:
It's a Leadership Thing
I once got into an empty elevator with the chief-of-staff for a large government organization. He recognized me from a meeting I had attended a few days earlier where the issue of cultural change had been briefly discussed. Specifically, the discussion centered on how difficult it was to change corporate culture, with the disruptions it might cause prominently mentioned and agonized over by the manager’s in attendance.
My role at the time was one of consulting support, not consulting leadership, so I did not contribute to the meeting’s conversation. Apparently, my body language or facial expression had somehow spoken volumes, for he mentioned it to me.
“I noticed you at Tuesday’s meeting”, he said.
“Yes sir.”
“You didn’t seem to agree with the discussion we had on cultural change.”
“No, sir”.
“Why not”.
“I think we tend to over-think cultural change. There is always change, it always affect culture, and there will always be disruptions. When we try to avoid change to avoid its resulting disruption, it’s like Wile E. Coyote pulling down the window shade to avoid the on-coming train.” (Looney Tunes Wiki, 2018).
Figure 1:Wile E. Coyote: Super-Genius © Warner Bros.
“For example?”
“For example: if today you sent out an all-hands memo announcing that -effective immediately- no presentation made to you concerning a specific problem or its solution would be accepted if it did not contain a Pareto chart. That to fail to do so would be considered the submission of a substandard work product for the purposes of performance evaluation. I guarantee that tomorrow the entire staff would learn how to do Pareto charts.”
The Chief-of-Staff gave me a frown as the elevator doors opened. As he exited the elevator ahead of me he said, “Interesting”.
Interesting, indeed.
© Mark Lefcowitz 2001 - 2024
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