Lean Musings and other stuff...

Vacuums doing vacuum things

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Vacuum – a space that is empty of matter – unfilled spaces go against the laws of nature and physics – empty space must be filled

You’ve been here before. You are moving into a new phase of life or place. Unknowingly, you go about mostly bringing with your thoughts, tools, and approaches from your prior location or situation and it’s common that they work fairly well. Even when they don’t, it’s logical to see that as a chance to upgrade or increase that thing (think cars, tv’s, furniture, appliances, etc.). Unfortunately, no one tells us what else we create when we move or grow past a prior location or even phase of life. We create vacuums.

They are unnoticeable initially most of the time. They are the needs we didn’t even know we needed.

And for that reason, they “pop” into existence largely unnoticed. But, over time, the need that created them, the one we were oblivious too, grows. And, one day, they become very, very noticeable, and painful. Then, whether we are ready or not, whatever is around – poor thinking, panic, shoddy theory, or whatever we saw someone else doing, rushes in to fill the vacuum. Whew – it’s full! For a time, that’s enough. But as time goes by, the poorly filled vacuum begins to surface a new problem. It’s full of something and we’re stuck with that something as it produces no outcome, poor outcomes, and inconsistent outcomes. Now, the empty place is replaced by a sputtering, unreliable something we regret ever filled the space in the first place.

Companies, Functions, and teams are no exception. As they grow, especially if they grow fast, suffer the same phenomena. One day, you look around, and realize that you sort of layered and filled in as you went, and while that was okay then, you can no longer operate with whatever the vacuum sucked in during the past. You need to excavate the junk out and refill on purpose, with design, and intention.

Don’t blame the vacuum. All they know is that, once created, they will accept whatever is handy to fill itself. Challenging enough in our individual lives, but pervasive and crippling in larger groups and organizations?

So, while you can’t blame a vacuum for doing vacuum things. You can look around your world, your teams, and your organization and ask – is that filled that the way it should be/ Or, is it time to empty that process, function, event and fill it with something born out of intent, design, and purpose?

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