One of the most frequent comments from our culture engagements: “It used to be a lot easier to get stuff done around here, when we were smaller. Or, before the reorg, acquisition, etc.”
Seems to be a pretty universal phenomenon. You’re not alone is the good news. There’s a lot to be done, is the other news.
Great business success is awesome. You get more growth, more people, more processes, more complexity, oops. It all happens so quickly. And before you have time to strategically plan. Then, suddenly, everyone is stuck.
It’s a complex problem.
The quickest short term fix, is just to ask the question “Is this working in the best interests of the business?” Is it helping us get the best outcome, or standing in the way? Ask yourself. Ask your coworkers. Ask it before anything you do, and inspire your team to ask it too.
Meetings, projects, etc. Filter it all through. Keep what passes, scrap what fails. When you’re aligned to a singular focus, all that complexity can work itself out.
Another great question to ask: are our core values, actually valued? This helps you understand how far off you are, from the business’s soul.
You might need to get back to that. Or, re-articulate some values you can rally around. There’s lots of alignment to be had.
