- Leandro Herrero - https://leandroherrero.com -

The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (4 of 5): Too much vision, not lack of it

Forth in the mini series:  uncovering of truths of the failure of change and transformation programmes, via a reverse engineering.

Lack of vision, one way or another, is often used to explain failure. In my experience this does not necessarily comes at the top. OK, there may be sloppy visions, or half cooked visions, I accept. But nobody is completely blind.

In fact, strong tunnel vision is as a bigger problem. Something has been decided ( a form of restructuring for example) and the red bottom is pushed with no flexibility to review or change gears. It’s Brexit type of organisational transformation.

Of course our wonderful mind mechanism, cognitive dissonance, kicks in and we have million reasons why what we are doing is perfect, after all we have committed lots of resources and, PowerPoints, you know, have a life of their own. Cognitive dissonance  then meets her sister Groupthink, and the it’s all sorted.

I wrote moons ago that the Proverb’s line, ‘when there is no vision people perish’ needs to be translated in management as ‘when there is too much vision people perish faster’.

Fixed, rigid destinations expressed by fixed mind people seen as fixed and strong leaders are simply dangerous. If top leaders have all the answers, they are not qualified for the job.

So, then, what? Am I  advocating chaos? Never said that. We don’t’ live in a bipolar world. We live in one where navigation skills are needed, and that included the ability to change gears faster.