Have you ever heard any of these before?
- We’re glad you’re here, we need an outsider’s perspective
- If you have something to say, speak up and say it, we value open communication
What happened when you tried it? Well in our experience it probably didn’t work out too well for you. Why, because there are some issues and situations in an organization that are just not discussable – and discussing them violates an organizational norm. And yes, even though you were “encouraged” to speak up.
To improve, organizations need to confront reality – the changing market conditions for their products or services, their position within the market, new competitors who have products and services that are disruptive in the market, poor performers within the organization, poor systems and processes.
Leaders need to address impediments to organizational improvement. And to do this they need evidence and the ability to discuss and debate the evidence and make a decision with the intent to improve performance. But when these issues are not discussable, it is impossible to gather evidence. Unfortunately, what ends up being gathered are myths – reinforcing how things are just fine or just temporary setbacks.
All organizations (both large and small) are vulnerable. We hear: we have been successful thus far, there is no reason we won’t continue to be successful. This spoken as the competition is gaining a foothold in their market (i.e. Wal-Mart’s disruptive impact on small town businesses). Who would ever stand in a “cattle line” to board a plane (spoken by more than one airline about Southwest)? How long did it take the newspaper industry to realize its position in the marketplace was changing forever? We see the book publishing industry scrambling to figure out how to deal with eBooks and the burgeoning self-publishing industry. Clayton Christensen gave us some insights into the consequences of the undiscussables in his book the Innovator’ s Dilemma.
You cannot create innovations nor can you respond to them effectively in an organization where undiscussables exists – or worse where the mere suggestion that there may be undiscussables is – undiscussable.
In Thursday’s Quick Tips we will give you specific examples of undiscussables and ways you can deal with them.
Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest
If you enjoyed this piece, please consider sharing it!
