What we blame on an organization’s inability to execute is often a problem with the management team. Show me an organization that continues to struggle, and I will show you a management team that is somehow unable to make the decisions that it alone must make.
Perhaps it’s a lack of cohesion and trust. Maybe there are too many, not enough, or the wrong people on the team. Or maybe they don’t have the approaches, systems, tools, and models they need to support their work.
Regardless of the cause, whenever a management team fails to decide on what only it can decide, it forces the rest of the organization to try to make the decision collectively. No organization can do this at all well.
The consequences are confusion, incoherence, politics, silos, and a lack of accountability for results. Next time you see any of that, look for dysfunction in the management team.
In your corner,
Mike
Today’s photo credit: Lars Plougmann via photopin cc