Winning Without Competition: How to Break Out of a Commodity ...

Sidebar F: Most of us choose to ignore the crossroads we face,
choosing slow death over deep personal change
The Tyranny of the In-Basket
“When an executive admits that a change is needed but opts out not to make it,
the executive is making a conscious choice. The water is slowly heating up and
the executive knows that the leap to safety is possible, the strategic thought being,
‘If I can hang on just a couple more years the problem will belong to someone
else.’ However, when he leaps to safety, the rest of the work force is left with the
problem. In this scenario, self-interest triumphs over collective responsibility.
The selection of slow death has some moral overtones. It involves the violation of
trust and responsibility, often leading to guilt. Because of the moral implications,
the issue becomes undiscussable in the organization. Organizational members
fake ignorance of the situation, while fully understanding that the organization is
in serious trouble. The impact of this problem is enormous.
“People slowly lose hope and begin to feel trapped by their circumstances. They
often cope by withdrawing or conversely by staying busy with insignificant issues.
Others who know how to lead and who understand deep change and the
enormous investment of energy and resources that are necessary cannot bring
themselves to initiate the process because they lack energy. There is no energy
left. They are victims of burnout. So they continue to go through the motions
finding it difficult to discover interest and relevance in their work.
“What they need is deep change at the personal level, a re-invention of their
professional role, a revolution in their priority list, a recognition that
maintenance is production and that their absolute ‘must” really must be
delegated to someone else. Few people are very good at re-inventing themselves.
They often choose the destructive alternative of staying very busy. It may not be
effective behavior, but has the effect of a good narcotic. It diverts attention from
the real issue and temporarily saves them from having to tackle and resolve the
actual problem.” (QuinnDeep Change)
Pamphlet #5 Page 221