- not having the full picture/information. You can only make assumptions, bring half a broken solution.
- no direct access to decisions makers. You can only talk to same level colleagues. Can be considered as gossiping, so not very enhancing.
- If, by some miracle, an ear is trailing, feedback can be heared and solutions applied. The rewards will of course go to someone else than the initial solution provider. Not very encouraging, especially when the situation last for quite some time. Especially when there is a quite big gap between people.
This is a really interesting perspective, especially your first point Amelie. People may bring up 'symptoms' of the problem to their leaders - either with or without a 'solution' - and not see any resultant traction because they haven't identified the root cause (for no particular fault of their own).
How well can people recognise "brokenness" in organisational policies and practices? People who have worked in multiple organisations have seen a lot of bad managers and un-designed practices, unskilful use of managerial fads, and legacy kludges. What makes you think people can pick out instances of "brokenness" from the ubiquitous background shitness of organisational practices?
Person 1: " That is a pretty serious risk to the business"
Me: "Why don't you raise it in the risk register - that forces the business to act"
Person 1: " No way, the person that raise the risk is often the person that has to fix it!"
I think you can circumvent a lot of the items that are above by distilling a culture of doing what is right for the business takes precedence over any thing else.
So what happens when you are aware, and as an individual contributor you try to speak up but are often ignored, even though the message from leadership is that the organization is focused on change and the employee experience.
Some variants:
- not having the full picture/information. You can only make assumptions, bring half a broken solution.
- no direct access to decisions makers. You can only talk to same level colleagues. Can be considered as gossiping, so not very enhancing.
- If, by some miracle, an ear is trailing, feedback can be heared and solutions applied. The rewards will of course go to someone else than the initial solution provider. Not very encouraging, especially when the situation last for quite some time. Especially when there is a quite big gap between people.
This is a really interesting perspective, especially your first point Amelie. People may bring up 'symptoms' of the problem to their leaders - either with or without a 'solution' - and not see any resultant traction because they haven't identified the root cause (for no particular fault of their own).
How well can people recognise "brokenness" in organisational policies and practices? People who have worked in multiple organisations have seen a lot of bad managers and un-designed practices, unskilful use of managerial fads, and legacy kludges. What makes you think people can pick out instances of "brokenness" from the ubiquitous background shitness of organisational practices?
I heard this the other day.
Person 1: " That is a pretty serious risk to the business"
Me: "Why don't you raise it in the risk register - that forces the business to act"
Person 1: " No way, the person that raise the risk is often the person that has to fix it!"
I think you can circumvent a lot of the items that are above by distilling a culture of doing what is right for the business takes precedence over any thing else.
Wear your <insert your company name here> hat.
So what happens when you are aware, and as an individual contributor you try to speak up but are often ignored, even though the message from leadership is that the organization is focused on change and the employee experience.
In my experience, the weekly 1-1 gives quite some insight. But you must create a safe place where people can speak up about everything.
Thank you for this insightful list. One antidote might be "CPI" training: continuous process improvement.
Great to see you heading towards the cohort based course. You have a unique perspective to bring practical value to teams.
Thank you very much for this piece. You could draw out many other unfortunate similarities: it happen with HR and discrimination issues as well.