It’s been awhile obviously since my last entry and my excuse is none other than I had too much on my plate that didn’t allow me to think through ideas.
I wonder how often people in organizations feel this way. Are people running from one moment to the next from one crisis to the next with hardly a breath in between?
How much time is there for actual analysis of what’s going on in terms of organizational structure or processes?
Well if my work life is an example and to my utter shame even though I’m supposed to know how to prioritize tasks, I have done a pitiful job of juggling all my responsibilities and thinking. In recent weeks, I have found myself gasping for time to sleep much less time to analyze or think through new ideas.
What’s the problem here? It’s not just a question of time management it’s a question of how organizations are run. Too much of what happens is based on crisis management. People are rounded up to attack the most recent problem and get it solved before the next emerges. In these moments, they have to leave their own work to solve an issue that usually cascades into another. The end result is that their own work is rarely completed, the real problems are never addressed and everyone is stressed.
Please tell me what kind of good thinking can occur under such circumstances? It can’t and it doesn’t actually happen.
Now there are a multitude of systems to measure what’s going wrong in an organization. Reports are given and sometimes even discussions are held but the actual resources to move the organization from one of what is quite simply incompetence to competence is rarely done.
Doing so requires a different kind of commitment. This commitment says as an organization we aren’t going to fire fight any more and we’re not going to drain our people resources or overburden them. In these times of labour control, downsizing, being more “efficient” (I find this almost comical because efficiencies so rarely occur when it involves people) we are actually asking people to do more with less time.
Too often we act quite literally like chickens with our heads cut off. The first question when a new demand is made on another should be “what do you have on your plate?” Then the next is, “What can be moved off?” and “What can I do for you to make it possible?”
Here’s my other pet peeve. Organizations don’t really want a lot of innovation not when it comes to organizational development. They don’t mind it if it makes a process faster but not if it requires a true restructuring of processes that include opening avenues for groups to discuss ideas in a real atmosphere of creativity and commitment to changing the course.
The other flaw in good thinking is the organization’s habit of always calling on the same limited group members to address an issue. This is taxing of this group and the more they have on their plate the less likely they’re going to be able to add something inventive. And, the rest of the organization is left out.
People with good ideas are never identified and others in the organization are locked out from learning how to be creative thinkers. So good inventive thinking which in my lexicon is difficult, damn difficult is left to a few tired, over worked individuals who just want to come up with the fastest solution so that they can back to their other pressing priorities.
If we want good thinkers we have to reduce the stress of people, commit to real change, and engage more people in the process. If we’re so keen on succession planning, we should be doing succession in terms of who can be brought in to learn these “thinking” or “brain storming” processes.
Cross thinking allows us to ask questions like “have you thought of this” or “what if we did this”. It’s fun and it’s certainly more valuable than the usual painful ways we sit around and think that seems to suck the blood out of us.
When people in an organization are overworked or their stress levels are out of sight then good thinking is not going to happen. When more than one person is feeling more than a little taxed then the organization is not positioned well. In this case, the issue is not the individual but how the organization is run.
Now I need to get back to keeping all my 4000 balls in the air. Until the next time....
~ Dr. Helen Ramirez
