Only Five Dysfunctions?

Intersecting Tetrahedra

In the marketplace, we all are part of at least one team, no matter how small or large that team may be, and some of us are part of several teams. It is difficult to participate on several teams that intersect with one another, especially if they exist in the same organization, and have different agendas. Which team are you true to? Which team do you owe your allegiance? Which team trusts you, invests in you, submits to you, and is loyal to you? Which team do you trust, invest in, submit to, and give your loyalty to? Which team deserves your allegiance? These are hard questions, but they are real-life questions that arise daily.

The Apostle Luke Wrote

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Luke 12:13

In this example, Luke is making a point about finances, the love of money, and the relationship of finances in the light of our relationship with God. However, the principle is the same for other areas of our personal, social, and professional lives.

I recently participated in a failed rollout of a new leadership philosophy that was intended to radically change an existing dysfunctional corporate culture mindset. In theory, the new leadership philosophy appeared to have merit, and was devised by a well known management consultant, and if I’m not mistaken, a Christian man as well.

Following Instructions

The reasons why this new leadership philosophy failed are too numerous to mention, but the primary reason was “trust,” or the lack thereof. The owner and leader of leaders did not follow the precepts of the philosophy. As a result, much of the negative fallout predicted by the author in his “fable,” actually became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The corporate culture transformation never happened because of the inability of the leader of leaders to trust, and conversely the leaders were unable to trust the leader, including me. And, in my estimate the latter condition was worse than prior condition.

Fish or Cut Bait

After an indoctrination period of more than two years, the new leadership philosophy never made it outside the conference room doors and into the minds of masses; all 30 of them. One thing that the author stated in his book, struck me very hard and seemed to contradict everything about the entire strategy, and appeared to be the crux of this little company’s dysfunctional corporate culture. I am paraphrasing at this time, since I’m unable to locate the exact quote from the book or study guide. A leader must be loyal to one team, regardless of the number of teams he or she is a member of. That one team is the leadership team. That is counterintuitive to me, especially if the leadership team is so dysfunctional, that it caused the leader of leaders to resort to such a drastic course of action. The author makes the assumption that all of the dysfunctions are identified, addressed, and overcome, however, in my experience in this particular situation, none of the three happened in their entirety.

Pigeon Holes, Compartments, and Departments

The leader spent hours a week for well over two years trying to instill this philosophy in the leadership team, which as I have stated, failed miserably. It was doomed from the start. Instead of starting with the leaders, because the leader of leaders could not trust that the leaders would accept another new philosophy, so he compiled a pilot group of non-leaders. The pilot team, had no managers and a single supervisor, two staff members, and consisted of people he felt needed “fix’n,” or would be sympathetic to his cause.

Your Fired, And Your Fired, Your Fired Too

Soon after beginning this pilot, approximately six employees were either terminated or quit because of fear of termination. One of them was part of the pilot team. At the time this pilot started I was two months into my tenure with this company, where I supervised a small group within my department.

Twenty-twenty hindsight, I should have realized that when my manager wasn’t invited to join the pilot group, that a problem existed for him. However, in my defense the other three managers were not asked to join the pilot either. Within three months, two of the four existing managers were terminated, and one of which was my manager.

Woulda… Coulda… Shoulda

Again twenty-twenty hindsight, I should have never accepted the manager position when it was offered to me. After several weeks and much prayer, I accepted the position offered to me. One of my concerns at the time was if I did not accept position, the owner would have a cause to hire someone else to replace me, just like he had my predecessor(s). I am convinced that if I had not accepted the position, I would not have been at this company much longer. I believe I was hired, without my knowing, for the express purpose of replacing my manager.

Off the top of my head I can list from memory more than 30 people, which happens to be the cumulative size of the company, who were either terminated or quite during my tenure at this company. There were a few that quit within a day and even before lunch. That is nearly an average of one employee a month leaving this company, but they usually happened in spurts. If you read my prior blogs, then you can understand why I felt like the revolving door monitor.

Not For Weak-Minded Or Faint-Hearted

If you are entertaining the use of this philosophy, please do so with this caution. Damage will ensue, and if you are not ready, willing, and capable of coagulating the flow of blood, then you are at risk of hemorrhaging to death. In my estimation, this philosophy is not for the weak-minded or faint-hearted.

I liken it to cancer surgery, where you have to stop the spread of cancer cells and unfortunately have to sacrifice some healthy cells to eradicate the cancerous cells. I think there is a much easier way to deal with culture change, but the change has to be uniform and consistent and begin at the top where corporate culture is instituted. The leader of an organization that is so dysfunctional that he finds himself instilling such a radical change needs to first ask himself the following question. “How did I allow my company to get to this cancerous state, without addressing the cancer when it was just a small blemish on the surface of the skin?”

Five Dysfunctions

Five Dysfunctions doesn’t sound like a lot, but they are just bullet points and there are many dysfunctions rolled into each of the five dysfunctions. Just like a minor searching for gold, if he only picks at the surface for obvious, he will only get the obvious. The same is with this philosophy, picking at the surface won’t make the radical change happen, and it will unearth additional dysfunctions that require more mining and more and more digging.

Therefore, ask yourself the following question. “Only five dysfunctions?”

~ by ruaservantleader on April 28, 2008.