Not long ago I spoke at a company meeting about the challenges of complexity in organizations. At one point, I asked the audience members to identify and discuss simplification opportunities in their areas. During the report-outs, one woman described how she and her co-workers spent hours each week on the cosmetics of a particular report to make sure that it looked good when it went to senior management. She went on to say that this focus on style rather than substance was a waste of time. When I asked why she continued to do this, she quickly said that her boss expected it. Her boss was also in the room, and when asked about the report said, “I don’t care what it looks like, as long as it has the right information.”
This kind of disconnect is not unusual. One of the main reasons that employees knowingly continue valueless activities is the lack of candid dialogue between people at different organizational levels. For example, many times I’ve heard people say that their manager is “unapproachable” or “too busy” to talk about changing the way things are done. And while that observation is certainly true in many cases, it’s also often code for: “I’m afraid of my manager’s reaction.” On the other hand, many senior leaders wonder why their people don’t raise issues more proactively. As one senior person said to me, out of frustration, “I don’t know how many more times I can tell them that they are empowered!”
So what does it take to break this logjam so that dialogue flows more freely and spontaneously? Let me suggest two steps:
Take responsibility for the truncated dialogue[, and then] do something about it.
"Speaking Up Takes Confidence, Candor, and Courage." Harvard Business Review. 8/23/2011
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