Do things happen too slowly in your organisation? If they do,
your organisation is constipated. Look at how decisions are made.
Is anyone making decisions? If they are, how far is the
decision-maker from the point where the decision is needed? Are
committees involved without the requisite authority to make
decisions? Does decision-making emphasise a chain of command,
control and adherence to policy or procedure? How many layers of
management approval need to be obtained before anything can be
done?
I see this all the time in large organisations and it's
frustrating and then depressing.
Monday, 8 January 2007
Organisational constipation
Posted by Simon Baker - Permalink
4 Comments
I find it frustrating, also, but I think that large organizations think it's a feature. It ensures stability, since things cannot change very fast.
Hi George,
Interesting comment. I'm not sure if organisations consciously think that stability is a feature - it's usually down to cultural habit. Stability is defined as 'The condition of being stable or resistant to change.' As the external pressures on such a business do not lessen this 'damping' of the system results in change tending to happen in large, wasteful and often destructive increments (mergers, internal reorganisations etc.). On a smaller scale increasing the distance between the decision maker and implementor disempowers teams and adds many forms of waste (waiting & motion to name a few!).
I think companies believe that organisational stability leads to financial stability. While organisational stability may provide security for people, it suffocates competitiveness and innovation. A company can operate on the edge of entropy, provide its employees with the freedom to pioneer and challenge and make a profit.
When you see it in SMALL organisations is when it gets awesome.