Leadership strategies to address Failureship

When leading a failureship on the journey from a risk averse to a risk managed culture, there are two entangled parts of the culture that need to be addressed… “Uncertainty avoidance” and “Power distance index”. How these are addressed will determine whether the leader achieves the transparency they need in order to identify and address the real issues in the organisation.

Any leader new to an organisation wants to find the “dead bodies” as soon as possible so that they can be rightly identified as the consequence of the previous regime. They know that after a certain period of time, they will be held accountable for them. I was complaining to the business manager of the trading desk about a system I managed. The business manager stopped me and said “After three months, there is no legacy portfolio”. An organisation that has been taught NOT to officially show the leader the real problems to ensure plausible deniability for the leader (possibly by communicating only solutions) will thwart such attempts by doing exactly as they are asked to do. They adopt either the child ego state “You asked for coloured widgets, not the black and white ones”, or the parent ego state “You are asking the wrong problem, ask for the coloured widgets”. For the best interest of plausible deniability, often out of loyalty to the previous (current) regime, the organisation will make sure that the leader does not receive the information they need. The game of cat and mouse between new leaders trying to unearth actionable information and an organisation’s attempts to thwart that discovery is the subject of many classic dramas and comedies including:

• Brubaker with Robert Redford – The ultimate “Go to the Gemba” as the new warden goes into the prison as an inmate to understand what really goes on. The warden literally digs up the dead bodies in this classic movie.
• Yes Minister / Prime Minister – A British politician attempts to modernize the British Civil Service but runs afoul of Sir Humphrey and the establishment.
• Erin Brochovich – A legal assistant uncovers a conspiracy because no one initially suspects what she is digging into.
• Please add any others to the comment below.

The point being made is that this is well established problem in organisations. Leaders are thwarted because they rely on those working with them directly who are trying to protect them from the truth (Child ego state). Those working directly for the leaders ensure that the leader never encounters someone who can tell them an alternative reality to the one they are presented with. “Going to the Gemba” is not enough. The leader has to make those at the Gemba feel safe coming directly to them. They need to protect them from their management who might feel undermined that their version of reality has been undermined. To illustrate why “Going to the Gemba” is not enough, a leader in New York might decide to visit a team in London. By the time they get to London, the management of the team in London have carefully rehearsed what everyone will say to the new leader and ensured that troublesome elements are “out of the office” for the day. A comedian once joked that “The king thinks the world smells of paint because one hundred feet ahead of him a decorator is slapping paint on the wall”, in other words the King is saved from the reality of the places that he visits so that he does not have to acknowledge that reality.

“Creating a more real reality”

There are a number of things that a new leader needs to do to collapse the power distance index and address uncertainty avoidance.

1. Acknowledge that there is no single reality. A single reality only exists when that reality has been carefully curated by the organisation to hide the “dead bodies” and give you plausible deniability. If you are presented with a single coherent version of reality, you are not looking at reality. You need to start digging and protecting those who provide the truth.
2. Meet people at the Gemba in unplanned spontaneous ways. Get past orchestrated trips to the Gemba that smell of paint, and avoid “Meet the troops sessions” and “Leadership breakfasts” with carefully screened attendees. Try the following:
   • Chat to people in the coffee area next to your office ( Mark Gillett at Skype )
   • Interview EVERYONE one on one before they join ( Al-Noor Ramji at DrKW )
   • Surgery hour every evening in the bar opposite the office (JP Rangaswami at DrKW )
   • Randomly choose a desk and chat to the people you meet ( BoA Group CIO ).
3. Create a structure that provides transparency. Most risk averse organisations will evolve to a state where the “Parent” is unable to construct an actionable reality from the information provided by the “Child” organisation. As a result, a new leader who wants transparency will need to introduce a system to provide that transparency. Now it is possible that the responsibilities are so inter-twined that the leader will need to re-organize. The re-organization is not necessarily to improve delivery but rather to provide transparency. Once the leader has transparency, they may need to re-organize again to improve delivery.
4. Focus on the delivery of value. Focus on how investments satisfy needs for customers and the resulting value for the organisation. Even though some investments may be internally focused on cost reduction and risk reduction, there should be a balance which includes increasing return by focusing on customers.
5. Go to the Gemba. Once the new leader has transparency into the organization, they can go to the Gemba. Not formal pre-arranged visits that are chaperoned by a minder to ensure no information leaks, but rather impromptu visits. Walking over to the team or picking up the phone (teams/zoom) and speaking directly to the people involved, potentially with no middle management present to act as “translator”. I like Jabe Bloom’s suggestion that executive dashboards should not support decisions but rather act as “An invitation to the Gemba”.
6. Bring a team. Successful transformation leaders bring a team of people who understand how they want things done. They act as ambassadors pointing out what is expected, especially when agents of the “risk averse” culture state that something cannot be done, or is “impossible”. “Impossible” means “Impossible for me” or “I can’t do that so I’ll oppose it”. Al-Noor Ramji took a team from Swiss Bank to DrKW, and then from DrKW to Qwest. It was not his “leadership team” but rather a “team of leaders” at all levels of the organisation.

New leaders should be aware that the failureship culture will fight back. Next we will look at the Failureship culture’s counter measures.