The 3 Envelope Story

I was delivering a course some weeks ago and the attendees hadn't heard this story/myth.  I'm aware that is maybe a somewhat cynical view of leadership and change but I'm wondering how accurate you may find it; for many people its scarily accurate indeed.  Enjoy ...

There is a myth that when any new CEO joins a certain and specific organisation they are handed 3 envelopes by the departing CEO.

In these three envelopes are the wisdom of the ages as handed down to successive CEOs. The idea is that when the new CEO hits their first crisis, with no apparent solution in sight they open the first envelope in hope of inspiration.

The contents of the first envelope reads “Blame your predecessor.” (In the case of organisations that go through consultants like a dose of salts this could read “blame the consultants”). This buys the CEO enough time and some good faith with organisation as the members knowingly nod to each other and affirm “yeah – if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be in this mess”. Phew ... crisis averted, lets find a proper solution!

But of course as we all know, very rarely are the problems we face today are ALL of the predecessors fault and invariably crisis two emerges. Now it’s time to open envelope 2 to discover what to do in this particular crisis. The contents of the second envelope provide just one word “REORGANISE”. We have all been subjected to this one haven’t we? This is the ultimate demonstration of change being done to you as the organisation descends in chaos and anarchy as the new incumbent waves their godlike wand for the betterment of the organisation, with little or no s=consultation. This envelope could also easily read “reorganise and bring in your own cronies”. We all know how that goes … mass resentment from the staff as their ideas and current initiatives are brushed aside in favour of the new leaders “yes men”.

Now oftentimes restructuring and a clean sweep can be very effective in bringing about necessary change but all too often it’s the new leaders way of asserting their authority. And as we might guess, another crisis looms on the horizon so its time to open the third envelope which simply reads:

“write three envelopes”.