Musings at Altitude

I’m very fond of sacrcastically saying that “life is all about assessing blame”.  That’s exactly what I see folks all over the business community doing right now. 

I see folks at the top of organizations mandating down actions on their subordinates when those at the top refuse to take similar actions themselves.  I see folks who have no accountability for business results stepping in and defining actions and making judgments on things that they themselves ultimately have no accountability for and no consequence to the actions they so adamantly mandate.  I see folks defining process and orchestrating events within organizations and then stepping back and waiting to take credit for success if it occurs and to quickly say “I told you so” if things don’t work as planned.  And I see bureaucrats controlling and containing business activities when trust and empowerment need to occur.

The true personality of an organization comes out in times of enormous stress.  It’s not unusual to see an incredibly nurturing environment when things are going good and then a quick flip to a critical and condescending environment at the first hint of business challenge and distress.

During these tough economic times where folks at the top are under enormous stress to hit numbers or to appease shareholders, accountability is quickly pushed down to the lowest possible level where action can occur.  This trickle down effect (more like a huge waterfall) brings momentary comfort to those who unleash the torrent of blame and creates a huge burden on those experienced operations personnel who are already working enormously hard to deliver against expectations in a very tough economic environment.

Imagine how cool it would be if business leaders completely reversed this trend and nurtured and empowered during times of great stress and focused on change and optimum business efficiency in times of great success.  With less overseeing pressure during tough times, business leaders can focus on delivering the income needed to sustain business operations.  With more focus on change during the positive times, business leaders can leverage the times of plenty to carve out less than scarce resources to drive change and instill process maturity.

With more disturbing economic news today and no real end in site to the collapse occurring in many businesses across this country, the search to blame anyone for the struggles of a company will only intensify.  Those in bureaucratic roles will point down and microscopically focus on vulnerable operations within a company.  The good and important issue of accountability will be quickly transformed into blame as those bureaucrats seek to justify and protect their jobs at the expense of those who cherish the very opportunity to deliver revenue generating services to their company.

It’s tough to hear about.  It’s tough to watch.  It’s tougher to justify.  It’s an incredibly disturbing fact of life in today’s business environment.

It certainly doesn’t have to be.