When Change Isn’t Happening Fast Enough

Are you treating the symptoms and not the real problem?

You’re under pressure to grow the business and increase sales and revenues fast. You know exactly what needs to be done. You’ve assessed the problem, communicated clear expectations, made significant organizational changes, initiated efforts to address key process and system changes, brought in outside experts and yet the results have been disappointing. Your company and leaders are not performing to their capacity. There is resistance to change and nothing is happening fast enough. Dissatisfied customers, inconsistent execution, underperforming businesses, absence of innovation, unmet objectives, low flexibility and agility, and the inability to respond and adapt quickly, plague the organization. You’ve tried everything and it still hasn’t worked.

The Misdiagnosed Problem: Leadership Blind Spots

If you are experiencing painfully slow change, a lack of leadership alignment and people not working effectively together, it is likely that you have a behavioral problem, not an organizational issue.

Leadership dysfunction—good people behaving in unproductive, derailing or damaging ways—is the most frequently misdiagnosed problem in organizations today. This unproductive behavior undermines change, thwarts customer satisfaction and prevents companies from achieving their strategic objectives. Leadership dysfunction leads to a bigger problem: People dysfunction. People underperforming and engaging in dysfunctional behaviors due to the lack of aligned and cohesive leadership.

Common behavioral identifiers of people dysfunction include: Resistance to change, lack of leadership alignment, turf protection (silos), internal competition, victim and entitlement mentality, blame and finger-pointing, lack of collaboration and partnership, lack of a cohesive senior group, underground conspiracies, absence of trust, lack of personal accountability, low morale, no teamwork, excuses for poor performance, and low employee engagement.

Because the symptoms of people dysfunction manifest as workplace deficiencies and inefficiencies, it is easy to misdiagnose. Addressing behavioral issues with enterprise restructuring, process and system solutions treats the symptoms and not the problem.

People dysfunction may be pervasive or localized in one or two underperforming businesses. Unrecognized and unresolved it grows and contaminates the entire organization. Disengaged people conspire and enroll others in negative and destructive conversations that erode business results and bottom line dollars.