Why Organizations Fail – Another Symptom

In the previous post, I said that organizations often fail because they are focused on the wrong things.  Symptoms include people arguing over how something gets done, who decides things, and when things get done.

Here is a related symptom of the same problem: protracted arguing over which ideas, projects, strategies, and investments should be chosen.

You can tell a team or organization is focused on the wrong things if you notice they are stuck and

  • arguing about which ideas, strategies etc. are better without first agreeing on how they will evaluate the ideas etc.,
  • unable to select and stick with a strategy,
  • making seemingly random decisions,
  • rejecting certain reasonable ideas out-of-hand, or
  • accepting other reasonable or not-so-reasonable ideas without due consideration.

Have you noticed any of these symptoms recently?  Not to worry, the solution is simple.

Next post: what they need to do instead.

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