The Normalization of Organizational Dysfunction

How Legacy Management Theory is the Achilles Heel of Agility

For several years now, I have been helping organizations on their quest for agility. Invariably, those organizations are adopting some sort of agile framework. Having a myopic focus on agile framework adoption is insufficient for two primary reasons.

First, agile frameworks are delivery frameworks, not transformation frameworks. “Doing” agile will not materialize the agility organizations so desperately seek. Secondly, organizations are either unaware, or ignore, that their current system needs to be addressed to enable new delivery frameworks. Keeping the underlying organization model unchanged will only frustrate teams and individuals trying to deliver using a methodology not created for their organizational system.

If that does not resonate in your psyche, you have either never worked in an organization, have been supremely fortunate, or you are naive. I’ll let you choose. I’m truly envious of you if you cannot relate. The metaphorical hole-plugging system described above is why most organizations struggle mightily, and unnecessarily, with realizing their dreams of agility. So, what has become normalized?

While specialization, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. As an example, while all doctors have undergone a medical residency and can perform as physicians, if I am undergoing brain surgery to repair an aneurysm, I’d prefer to have a brain specialist. In fact, the brain surgeon can be considered a “hyper-specialist” because they usually only perform surgery on the brain. But, in firms trying to deliver with agility, hyper-specialization results in organizational silos. When creating products, organizational silos require teams of specialists to coordinate their work and become dependent on their sibling teams to co-create and deliver value.

Every July 4th holiday Nathan’s Famous, Inc. holds its annual hot dog eating contest. Contestants compete for the coveted “mustard belt” designating them as champion. This year (2020) saw Joey Chestnut break his previous record by devouring 75 hot dogs (and buns) in ten minutes. Dear reader, I ask you, “Could you compete in this competition? Would you want to?” Not everyone can devour such a quantity of hot dogs in ten minutes. Personally, I don’t know why you would want to, but some find it rewarding in some way. But, for most of us, it would be magical thinking to believe we could finish an equivalent number as one of these competitors.

I consistently see companies competing in a never-ending metaphorical hot dog eating contest, seemingly with themselves. They commit to more work than they are capable of finishing; and as a result, delivery and morale suffer. It may sound counter-intuitive, but continuously starting more work without finishing work already in progress only slows work and improves the probability of reduced quality. This phenomena happens with organizations, teams, and individuals, and it is severely limiting to business agility. Because this is such a large issue within organizations I’ll be addressing it in a separate article that I’ll post in the near future.

After several years of organization transformation work, I have come to understand that most every individual is operating in a way that preserves their role in the organizational system. People are not the problem, the system is the problem. When people are doing their best to persevere and preserve their place in a system that does not function well, they become complacent and accept their situation as it is. Often, the pain of the status quo is perceived to be less than the pain of improving or changing the system.

In the beginning, individuals may make attempts to change things. They might surface ideas only to have those ideas discounted or ignored. As time passes, people begin to feel hopeless that meaningful change is possible. Individuals ask themselves, “Why should I try to change this? It won’t do any good. It will probably just turn out disappointing like the other ten times I tried to do something.”

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