Change and Challenge 177procedure as I was. In the past they had lobbied to change it
- not surprisingly, as it was they who always bore the brunt of
the consultants’ frustration. That personnel department was
as much a victim of the system as I was, and this brings us to
another counter-intuitive aspect of systems: the part that
breaks down or has the most difficulty is nearly always an in-
nocent party. It is the weak point that breaks under the
strain, like a pipe that gives under too much pressure. You
can keep repairing the burst pipe, but unless you reduce the
pressure, it will simply burst again. If you repair it really well,
or replace it, the pressure will find the next weakest point
and cause a blowout there. Getting angry at the pipe will do
no good – the basic problem is too much pressure.
Think of this metaphor when next a department or per-
son comes under pressure. The way the business functions
may put too much pressure on people and then they are
blamed for the inevitable error. People usually do the best
they can in the system they are in, but they are often blamed
for poor decisions, when they themselves made the best de-
cision they could in the circumstances. If this happens often
enough, they adopt a ‘safety first’ policy (‘If it isn’t working,
do it twice as hard, twice as often or twice as fast’) and this
leads to organizational inertia.
A business culture where short-term heroic efforts are con-
tinually rewarded is a business in long-term trouble. A business
culture that rewards firefighting is bound to have a way of light-
ing fires in the first place so someone can be heroic and put
them out. Ironically, no one is rewarded for preventing prob-
lems, only for fixing them, so a leader may have a low profile
because their business (or their life) runs smoothly.
What can leaders do to ensure that the business does run
smoothly and that there are no fires to be fought? First, pay
attention to the relationships that they are building between
people. How easily can people communicate? There are two
channels to pay attention to: the formal methods – the tele-
phone, fax, e-mail, memos, meetings and reports – and the
informal talks and exchange of opinions. Office space is
often a metaphor that shows how people are communicating.