Being Radical
Often, when a new person is brought into a senior managerial role, the company is looking for change - typically a big change - because they believe that something is fundamentally wrong. Companies get stuck in a rut when the culture stagnates around existing or historical dogma. They think they need a big culture shock / kick up the backside to get things back on track, and who better to give this high risk strategy to than....
... someone new?
This to me already looks like a probable lose-lose situation. The new guy coming in (let's call him Craig) has been given 6 months by the CEO (let's call her Janice) to "make some big changes around here".
Janice has played a blinder. She's 10 years in with a great pension and is too busy 'being strategic' to handle this change herself. Craig's CV reeks of 'change bringer', and yet he was able to start within 2 weeks (why was that?). Janice knows the task is a tall order, and she can be seen to have done the right thing by bringing in a specialist with prior experience.
Craig is in the hot seat he knows he's got 6 months to turn things around before Janice apologises to the board and blames the whole fiasco on Craig who had looked so promising and seemed to pass the due diligence with flying colours. Craig also knows that you cannot effect real cultural change within an organisation in 6 months - not without a set of people who are urgent to change and a heck of a tail wind. So what does he do?
He's left with the "Go big or go home" option. He comes up with a radical plan (because Janice wants radical), and if he pulls it off, he'll be laughing, but if he doesn't, he'll be back on the job market with an embellished CV screaming 'change bringer'. Either way, he has nothing to lose. He is neither emotionally or financially invested in his new business, and therefore, he is free to experiment with the company in whatever way he sees fit for the next six months.
When the plan falls through (and so often they do), the company is left in a worse position than it was to begin with. There's a half implemented plan that wasn't needed and was never going to work. Some of the best employees have seen the insanity and have jumped ship, taking their skills with them, leaving a gaping whole in a now truly dis-functional organisation.
It's a great shame, and I've seen it at close quarters on several occasions through my career, and on more than one occasion, it's been completely unnecessary. The companies (in my opinion) were never that for from already doing the right thing, and certainly didn't need radical re-working. If the management team had had a little more faith that they were on the right road, and that their teams needed a little more respect rather than a little less trust or resource, then they would have saved damaging themselves and the extra pain that ensued.
In the commercial world, there is always the pressure to do a little more with a little less, and to give a bigger return to the shareholders. But there comes a point where no amount of 're-structuring' or further management, will result in improved outcomes. If your company is frantically changing priorities or running projects with teams of one or two, then it may be time to look for a company who have confidence in their own vision and a realistic understanding of what it takes to move towards it.
Companies with real faith in their vision will invest their time analysing how their strategy aligns with the needs of their customers. Those without vision will spend their time watching their competitors.
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