It’s NOT My Fault – I Had Nothing To Do With It! WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THIS CASE

The organizational conditions these leaders created became the very 
?problems that they had to overcome.

I have listened to at least 1,000 stories from MBA and EMBA students in the past 30+ years underscoring this point. Different companies-different industries-different eras; same problem and, for the most part, the same cause. All problems between two people have both person’s fingerprints on them. The same is true for problems in organizations – people-problems, in particular, reflect a conspiracy between leaders and their followers. And, leaders don’t easily recognize this simple truth. For them, it’s them; it’s never themselves! It’s just not their fault.

As an example, I consulted in a large business in support of leaders who were focused on addressing a real mess, all stemming from a decision that the senior team made (and repeated) a decade prior. People have long memories, and once opinions are formed, anything can confirm their positions. Repeating the bad decision locked those opinions in concrete. As a result, the workforce and their leaders were in different camps and the consequences were not just bad for their business, but for everyone in the business.

Messes come from someplace and some time and all too often from the very people who want to clean them up! In this instance, one senior leader told me that that he would support spending $10M to make this problem go away … and the problem arose because that leader and others took away a rather trivial benefit that symbolically was the last nail in the coffin to a work force that already looked at their leaders with a crooked eye. Work slowdowns, sabotage, withholding of information, and resistance to change are what the company bought when their senior team “saved” $100K. 

RESPONSE: This senior team understood their role in creating their mess intellectually – but, there was no emotional to this understanding. The consultant team (that I worked with) suggested that the senior leaders conduct focus groups with a meaningful sample of their employee base. These leaders, not surprisingly, resisted, tried to get the consultants to do this and write a report, begged off by saying they didn’t know how to do a focus group, and so forth – but in the end, these leaders (in pairs) met with over 600 of their people in groups of 8-10 and asked them about the issues and problems that kept them up at night and why those problems existed. In an offsite following the focus groups, they reported out not only on what they heard, but on what they felt! That was the key – they finally understood that the pain their people shared (and that they knew about intellectually) happened on their watch. They could see how their decisions had impacts beyond their meetings in ways that made them committed to creating real change in how they worked with and supported their people. A senior group of leaders were turned into a senior team of change champions by finally recognizing and taking responsibility for their prior decisions and actions. 

YOUR TURN:

1.    Could something like this work for you when your leaders refuse responsibility for their decisions and actions?

2.    Has anyone tried this? With what results?

3.    Suggest alternative ways to help the leaders you work with take responsibility for negative outcomes that contain their fingerprints.

Of course, one could develop a workforce connection where everyone is on the same page – working toward the same goals, as partners.

See https://www.SimpleTruthsLeadership.com for some insights into how to turn your people into your partners. Chapter 1 of this well-received book is available to preview.