When management gurus were espousing the mantra, ‘What gets measured, gets done’, I was protesting. Be careful what you measure, because it will turn workers into zombies. The photo above is living proof of the brainless activities that employees will perform because it is not in their interest to make an executive decision. The term ‘executive decision’ is misunderstood. People presume it to mean ‘decisions made by the senior managers who are in charge’. The word ‘executive’ come from the verb ‘to execute’. An executive is the person who executes the strategies and the projects in accordance with the management plans, that in turn are designed in response to the strategies set by the board.
Any staff member who is executing a task, is an ‘executive’. We need executive decisions at the front line, made by the front-line staff. Unfortunately, people are not encouraged in this way. They are not allowed to deviate from the allocated tasks. In the photo above, we see that the people who were given the job of delivering the promotional catalogues and newspapers are not given the scope to care about the consequences. They will continue to deliver the junk mail because they are paid ‘per thousand’. It is in their interest to offload their wares. Besides, they know that a supervisor could conduct random checks, and if an item is not delivered, there would be unpleasant repercussions. In addition, advertisers might object to having juniors making decisions to skip a block of units. The solemn rule would be: Just do your job, and don’t worry about things that don’t concern you.
The only problem with this is that it permeates throughout an organisations where people cannot speak-up about obvious anomalies within the organisation. The ‘them and us’ syndrome will raise its ugly head. Sales people are told to look after customers, yet these sales people must never rock the boat. They cannot go to any other department and demand improvements or attention or service. Everyone sees that inefficiencies are rife. They dare not speak up. Some bosses are more powerful than others. Some are shareholders or sons of uncles, and as such, no-one wants to stick their neck out. So they just resign to the concept of covering the back side, and flying under the radar, and keeping one’s cake-hole shut.
Take a look at the photos below. What concerns me is not the pollution or the unsightly mess, but the years of schooling and all those government grants that go towards an education system. We churn out supervisors and managers who reign over younger employees. Collectively, where is the brain power? For what purpose was all that schooling. What kind of attitudes and work ethics are we promoting?
As if it is not bad enough that the deliveries continue to be made, despite the obvious lack of interest by the residents who are obviously not home, the pollution and brainless action continues for months, until I called the newspaper and showed them these photos.
If someone litters a small chocolate wrapper, they could be fined $200. At which point does chucking wads of paper onto the ground move away from being a delivery, to outright littering? The distributors are doing what they are told, in accordance with how they are rewarded. The eight-week pile does not end there. The house in question can be seen below, along with all the other junk strewn every which way.
Are you sure that your organisation is not rewarding this type of lethargy and disregard? Having been a consultant for over ten years, and an active corporate warrior for a lot longer, I will boldly and emphatically say that most, as the almost all, corporations and bureaucracies and institutions suffer the same absurdity. Oh, where have all the leaders gone?
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