What you’re describing as anxiety narrowing the field is also a perception problem, because a stressed leader doesn’t just move faster, they literally take in less data while believing they’re seeing the whole board. Great article!
Exactly, Tanu -- you're starting to see the complexity and the challenge. That narrowing and partial truth may solve the immediate problem, but it has second and third order effects that may make the situation worse.
Really appreciate the close read and thoughts. Andrea and I are going live tomorrow (23 July) where we're going to talk about this in more detail. You should join or watch later if you can!
Will be in transit but will watch it later for sure. A very interesting breakdown of this leadership problem especially in this day and age when there are more crises and compressed timelines to respond instead of react.
Perhaps it's the current time of the year, but your forrest fire analogy is appropriate. Organizations are all 'unique' in many ways and classic/standard organizational structures are not always appropriate for every business. However, the one KEY common strength is honesty. When that is misplaced or disappears entirely - especially at the CEO level the organization is doomed and dies. Sometimes the CEO is actually charged and convicted of criminal action. We learned a lot from that experience.
I'm sitting in Chicago where we are taking on much of the Canadian wild fire smoke, so a relevant analogy for me, too! I like how you're connecting the dots here, Kathleen, if I summarize honesty, trust, transparency, etc as cultural elements, it's incredibly important to both a healthy and recovering organization. Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliff's research on what they called high-reliability organizations pivots heavily on that notion. And in my experience, at least, I am seeing the same thing you are!
Appreciate you taking the time to read and share your thoughts!
I couldn’t agree more! Honesty is definitely one of those traits that apply across organisations and field. Alongside transparency and clear communication.
the pressure dial is the useful part here, especially the point where dissent starts getting read as obstruction... that's usually the tell an org's already past the point where it can self-correct without outside intervention.
Thanks for reading, Rini -- I had personally never used that dial in practice, but now really love it, too. Andrea has a way with making things come across so cleanly! It's always great working with him and shining a new perspective on ideas, especially when they resonate with others!
What you’re describing as anxiety narrowing the field is also a perception problem, because a stressed leader doesn’t just move faster, they literally take in less data while believing they’re seeing the whole board. Great article!
Exactly, Tanu -- you're starting to see the complexity and the challenge. That narrowing and partial truth may solve the immediate problem, but it has second and third order effects that may make the situation worse.
Really appreciate the close read and thoughts. Andrea and I are going live tomorrow (23 July) where we're going to talk about this in more detail. You should join or watch later if you can!
Will be in transit but will watch it later for sure. A very interesting breakdown of this leadership problem especially in this day and age when there are more crises and compressed timelines to respond instead of react.
Perhaps it's the current time of the year, but your forrest fire analogy is appropriate. Organizations are all 'unique' in many ways and classic/standard organizational structures are not always appropriate for every business. However, the one KEY common strength is honesty. When that is misplaced or disappears entirely - especially at the CEO level the organization is doomed and dies. Sometimes the CEO is actually charged and convicted of criminal action. We learned a lot from that experience.
I'm sitting in Chicago where we are taking on much of the Canadian wild fire smoke, so a relevant analogy for me, too! I like how you're connecting the dots here, Kathleen, if I summarize honesty, trust, transparency, etc as cultural elements, it's incredibly important to both a healthy and recovering organization. Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliff's research on what they called high-reliability organizations pivots heavily on that notion. And in my experience, at least, I am seeing the same thing you are!
Appreciate you taking the time to read and share your thoughts!
I couldn’t agree more! Honesty is definitely one of those traits that apply across organisations and field. Alongside transparency and clear communication.
the pressure dial is the useful part here, especially the point where dissent starts getting read as obstruction... that's usually the tell an org's already past the point where it can self-correct without outside intervention.
Thanks for reading, Rini -- I had personally never used that dial in practice, but now really love it, too. Andrea has a way with making things come across so cleanly! It's always great working with him and shining a new perspective on ideas, especially when they resonate with others!
For sure. It’s really painful when you’re on the inside and see that happen!