A post by Guy Kawasaki reminded me of our change management practice at my old firm. It was amazing to watch how the most admired companies had the right (mostly clear vision), reasonable results but it you set foot inside it was the living Dilbert world.
We used the term of Corporate Self Sabotage to describe how middle management structurally disconnects corporate strategy from field execution.
- Consensus is mostly a middle management illness. CEOs mostly have the wherewithal to direct their staff in no uncertain terms and the same happens to be true on the shop floor. Not a lot of team building between plant supervisors and machine operators.
- Fuzzy performance measurement in the middle. CEOs are focused on growth, earnings or innovation (depending on your industry and stage of maturity). The other end, well let’s just say operations typically have the most metrics in a company. And the middle? I would challenge you to ask 10 mid-level managers you know on what makes them successful and how their work impacts the company. I rest my case.
- Lack of passion is a dominant attribute. Why is it normal that so many people hate what they do all day? It is impossible to get anything done unless everyone puts in the extra 10%. Startups have this ingredient and larger companies rarely do. Especially (you guessed it) in the middle.
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