For the past month, I’ve been administering my Defeating Corporate Distraction diagnostic to management teams of companies with +50 million in revenues. The CEO and the top executives fill out the online diagnostic, which takes only ten minutes to complete. There are around fifty questions covering the Twelve Corporate Distractions. Broadly speaking, each respondent indicates whether they perceive each as a big distraction or not much of a distraction at all. Click here to
see an explanatory letter that contains some sample statements from the survey.
The diversity of answers I see from the same management team on the same question is blowing my mind. How can one executive believe the wheels may soon be coming off the bus, when another executive in the same company thinks everything is fine? This is happening regularly. Not just between levels of management (i.e. CEO vs. their direct reports) — I’m even seeing it within the top team.
In many cases, team members are surprised the rest of their team isn’t seeing things the same way. They assumed since they’d all been working together for years that they all had similar perspectives. This is a costly assumption.
Working together to produce business results doesn’t mean that the team has taken time to work on the quality of their teamwork, or on improving the productivity of their collaborative efforts. It’s much easier and more comfortable to work on “the work” than to work on ourselves. But having a crack executive team pays big dividends, and having them work as one takes effort and work as well.
Here is an example of one set of diagnostic statements, for Distraction #5:
Distraction 5: Debates without Decision. Please indicate your opinion about the statements below.
Choose: (Fully Agree, Largely Agree, Maybe, Hardly Agree, Completely Disagree)
a) You never find yourself in a debate/discussion about something you thought had been already decided.
b) Meetings are well run, with decisions clearly made and well documented.
c) Once a decision is made, dissenters fall in line and wholeheartedly support the decision. They do NOT “heckle” from the sidelines, trying to implement their preferred solution.
d) When important decisions are to be made, most participants come prepared with a detailed analysis, ready to engage in a deep, well informed debate.
e) The leadership team is very comfortable with conflict in a discussion—where
different opinions are expressed and debated.
As I begin to analyze the data sets that are now rolling in, I’m looking for:
1. The overall level of distraction.
2. Individual respondents who are outliers—holding a significantly different opinion than their peers. Of course, their identity is kept confidential.
3. The gap in perception between different levels in the organization, for example
between the board, the CEO, the top executive team, and middle management.
4. Individual statements that caused many respondents to react differently to one
particular statement than to other statements tied to the same distraction.
It is Hard. It is uncomfortable—perhaps even jarring—discussing respondents’ perspectives to find the differences. It can be even more jarring to debate them, find a resolution, and then execute that decision. Such discussions may seem to jeopardize relationships between the leaders of the organization. It may seem easier to ignore these differences, but it’s much more costly.
What is the Cost of Ignorance? What are the real costs of leading a company while leaving substantial differences of opinion undiscovered or hidden? What are the costs of exposing them without acting on them? What are the costs of the organizational surgery that might be required to resolve these differences? What is the cost if you work it out, but settle on a bad decision (i.e. the minority was right)? I don’t know the answers, but I suspect they are different in each circumstance. I’d encourage you to think carefully about the answers, then to pick a few of the biggest differences of opinion that likely have the most adverse affect, and tackle them.
Take a look at the Distractions Profile on page 3. Observe how the visual shows gaps and overall levels of distraction quickly. There is much to discover in each one of these gaps.
What’s Next. In the coming month, I’ll be meeting with the management teams of a substantial number of volunteer companies who have taken the diagnostic. I’ll report back on what I learn, and how these teams respond to the analysis. I know each will be different.
Know a Good Subject Company? For the second edition of the book, I’m focusing my efforts on management teams of Bay Area companies with 50 million in revenues and up. If you are a member of such a team, or would like to connect me with one, I’d be most appreciative.
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