Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

faculty focus
Dilbert Effect
Disconnected leadership derails strategy implementation
BY BILL YOUNGDAHL AND KANNAN RAMASWAMY
Many bold new
strategies hatched
in executive conference
rooms
around the world never have
a chance to gain traction.
Something happens between
inception and implementation
loosely described
as the “Dilbert Effect,” a
nod to the farcical world of
cartoonist Scott Adams.
In our consulting and
teaching experience with
Fortune Global 500 organizations,
we frequently feel the
pain of Dilbert empathizers
trapped in their metaphorical
cubicles. Lack of clarity,
poor communication and
insufficient resources sink
some strategic initiatives.
But a more fundamental
problem is disconnected
leadership.
Like the pointy-haired
boss who torments Dilbert,
many real-world leaders
remain disconnected from
the realities of strategy
implementation. Despite
their good intentions, these
leaders often get in the
way of progress — somehow
limiting rather than
enabling the full potential
of their employees and
partners.
Checking for the Dilbert
Effect is not part of the official
briefings we conduct
with our corporate clients,
but issues of strategy derailment
come up in classroom
discussions and interviews
with people from various organizations.
Many working
professionals report cultures
of fear and lack of support
from leaders who seem
to believe another layer of
management can solve any
problem.
We recently met one manager
who sees the pointyhaired
boss on cubicle walls
as evidence of disconnected
leadership. When she visits
parts of the company
adorned with numerous
Dilbert cartoons, she knows
the jokes are hitting close to
home. She laughed when
she told us her company
could save a fortune in
consultant fees if its leaders
grasped the meaning of this
simple visual signal.
The irony of some situations
is hard to overlook. We
heard of one organization
that fired an employee for
criticizing its new “speak
your mind” campaign.
Another company scrapped
its simplification initiative
after the process became
too complex. In a third case,
an organization chose the
name “Brighter Tomorrow”
for an offshoring initiative
that displaced 25 percent of
the workforce.
Other examples of disconnected
leadership are more
Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D.
subtle. Cross-functional and
cross-divisional initiatives
typically start with committed
sponsors driven by longterm
vision. But overlapping
initiatives often emerge,
resulting in confusion.
When everything is a
priority, schedules slip
and budgets swing out of
control. The combined effect
can be organizational
paralysis and employee
burnout. Go a few levels
down and most employees
are unaware of the strategy,
let alone the supporting
pillars that originated in the
corporate suite.
In an effort to understand
the factors of strategy derailment,
we have launched
a formal study that will
build on our background as
global strategy consultants
and educators. Our aim is
simply to define the Dilbert
Effect in greater detail so
Take Dilbert Effect survey
Spend 10 minutes to share your insights by participating in an
anonymous online survey at www.initiativeleader.com. The link
also contains a blog section that will host a discussion of the
results.
Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D.
we can begin to understand
the root causes and costs of
disconnected leadership and
provide insights into how
leaders can overcome such
dysfunction.
We do not believe any
leader wakes up in the
morning and asks, “How
can I become disconnected
from the realities of my
organization?” Something
else is afoot, and we intend
to define it and explore it so
we can help leaders reconnect
with their true missions
— for the sake of Dilberts
everywhere.
Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D., is an
associate professor of project
and operations management at
Thunderbird School of Global
Management in Glendale, Arizona.
Follow his blog, Prosper
in a Project-Driven World.
Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D.,
is the William D. Hacker chair
professor of management at
Thunderbird. Both professors
teach extensively in Thunderbird
Corporate Learning, the
school’s executive education
division.
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