Power mixed with incompetence at the top is a toxic impediment to all progress
Irecently heard both Jack Ma (Alibaba) and Uri Levine (Waze) extol the virtues of failure. Failure is the new success. If you’d like to test the failure temperature of an organisation, look at its risk register. Where failure has become a comfort zone, the risk matrix is always red. Everything is always a threat, nothing is worth taking a chance on, however well considered. It is simply better to do nothing than to risk doing something.
In the more serious cases of corporate procrastination, red just doesn’t seem enough. To scare into permanent standstill those still thinking of moving forward, shades of darker red are introduced: crimson, blood.
Of course, there are real risks and identifying them means something can be done about them. But the reds will be found among the ambers and greens in a balanced risk assessment. If all aspects of the business are seen to be at risk, then pack it up already — the whole damn company is at risk. Red risk matrices are sure signs that failure is a refuge and the organisation has given up. Change the leaders. No decision will be made unless you Control, Alternate, Delete.
Long before this terminal state is reached, symptoms of impending group failure become obvious. Instead of doing anything, people avoid the risk of failure with excuses explaining why something can’t or hasn’t yet been done. Blaming and complaining are the order of the day. Problems are repeated back at you instead of being solved. Accountability is avoided, and yet it is the root of self-respect.
While sideways delegation only defers, upward delegation is a killer. Blaming someone else starts a chain reaction of deferral that protects the weakest link, which, if you try hard enough, could be you. If people can’t get started, how can they get it wrong? It’s always better to do something than to do nothing.
Competitors will be doing things, making mistakes, moving on, stealing your lunch; their success will become another excuse to fail. Trial and error builds institutional knowledge and beats idleness every time. Small, early failures build foundations for success.
If failure is already entrenched and expected before you get there, find the highestranking failures in the organisation and fire them.
There is no greater impediment to progress than the toxic mixture of power and incompetence found at the top level of management in failed organisations. Incompetent leaders, ordained with power, suppress any initiative below them. These thugs live in fear that they will be found out and displaced. If they are tolerated, they will destroy the company.
Only once you have scraped the mould off the cream can you hope to release the engine room of people who operate at escape velocity to get you out of the orbit of failure. Any boundaries (silos) and just about any hierarchical diagram I’ve ever seen should be scrapped. The problem simply cannot be passed over the wall, because there isn’t one. “I’ve sent an e-mail” is not a job done.
Getting things done requires everyone to know what their role is and everyone to be in the room when progress is being discussed. Output must be the judge, not intention, and the team must be integrated and have common purpose. Once on the sports field, trying to score, the team captain has very little to say beyond encouragement and congratulations. The culture has to be changed to replace the habit of failure with the habit of success. It happens incrementally, not by dictate. The people doing their homework on time must be rewarded, as must those who exercise judgment or take initiative, at all levels. The promise of economic prosperity and respect must outweigh the risk of ridicule.
No matter how hard business leaders try or how well they lead or reward, rotten apples cannot be cured by simply throwing more good ones into the basket — the bad apples should be taken out first. The detractors must go, the fiefdoms must be destroyed, the camps must be taken down.
If bosses get it right, it will be the culture of the organisation that does the hiring and firing, not the human resources policies and not the CEO.