Post #3528733

2026-04-20 07:36 UTC

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day The company's strategy is unclear Context: "What we've got here is failure to communicate." A common quote used to describe a lack of understanding of and commitment to the company's strategy. Top management is frustrated by the lack of alignment, projects and departments not seeing the bigger picture clearly drawn up in the strategy document. At the same time, the people at the coalface constantly report back that they miss a clear and concise direction to follow when making decisions. All attempts to hold town hall meetings, clearly visible pages on their intranet, middle management sharing it frequently in their weekly status meetings, and even motivational phrases posted on the office walls seem to help. OST explains: There are many explanations for this dynamic, like a strategy not really being a strategy but rather a lofty goal that provides no clear guidance, or poor communication lines between the top and the bottom. Let's focus on something often missed instead. A strategy must make operational sense to people; it should give them a clear, relevant purpose for their work, feel relevant and relatable in a way that inspires and motivates. Cool and fancy wording is not the point, not even how and how often it is communicated, but how engaging it is. The best way is for people to take part in its creation, but that is not feasible in large organisations, so at least it must have agents in all parts of the organisation who do, someone the people trust and can relate to. This is what middle management ought to be doing: making the company strategy relevant and actionable for people. #OpenSystemsTheory #SocioTechnical #OrgDesign #agile

Replies (1)

@trondhjort@hachyderm.io 2026-04-21 06:56

Organisational Dysfunction of the Day Workshops not working Context: You have probably seen and even experienced being invited to workshops that you may or may not have that much interest in, but still obligated to join, and although it was carefully planned and executed by the facilitator, it still felt forced, unengaging and maybe even like a waste of time. This is an unfortunate situation as workshops are really the place where important and constructive work ought to happen, where people really feel energised and collaborate at the top of their game. Is it the participants that's the issue, or could it be something else? OST explains: It is rarely the participants who cause this issue, even when workforce engagement has reached rock bottom. Systemic problems like this have different causes, ranging from the larger structural issues of autocratic hierarchies that inhibit collaboration and put people up against each other to simply bad facilitation. Let's focus on the latter now, as that is an easier adjustment to make. Make sure the facilitators are only in charge of managing the process; they should not own the decision to run the workshop, the technique or process to use, or be involved in the content. The reason for this is that the point of a workshop is for people to own the content and the output, and any attempt to lead will result in Bion's basic assumptions: dependency on the facilitator, just doing what they're told; fight/flight, opposing the whole thing or just not participating; or creating factions that do their own thing instead. Suspect many have experienced these, and they can only be avoided by removing the leader and letting the facilitator serve the group, not the other way around. DP2 instead of DP1. #OpenSystemsTheory #SocioTechnical #OrgDesign #agile

Open ##3528732