When everything seems to be going well...

Below is a situation that many of the teams will be quite familiar with. Wondering what the situation is?

Let me tell you a story. A project team was tasked to plant trees. The activities then were then divided as below:

Team Member 1 --> Task is to “Dig a hole”

Team Member 2 --> Task is to “Get the sapling and place it in the hole”

Team Member 3 --> Task is to “Close the hole and water it”

Project Manager --> To oversee this whole project of planting trees

One day Team Member 1 and Team member 3 approached the project manager and informed that the Team member 2 has not shown up for work that day. In response, the manager yelled at them "Don’t come to me with such silly issues". Go and do your own work.

Later that day when Manager went to inspect the work there were no saplings that were planted. He just saw a wet and patchy field. When asked why there were no Trees, the team replied "We exactly did what you wanted us to do". And here are the results.

As comical as it may sound we all have been in situations like this often in varying flavors and magnitude. Typically happens when:

• The Team tasked with the objective does not know the big picture and purpose
• The team has no clue about the end goal and how they constitute a part of the process
• We centralize/decentralize Functions without considering all the aspects
• Common Sense does not exist
• Managers don’t listen to their team

I am pretty sure that this rings a bell or resonates with a situation that many of you were in. And it happens in all levels and functions of the organization

I am curious to know your experience and what steps you had taken in your capacity to avoid or reduce such type of occurrences.

PS/Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and do not represent the opinions of any entity whatsoever with which I have been, am now or will be affiliated