Every Company Needs a Good Map

In the post from last week (Top-Down or Bottom-Up)  I discussed some of the cause of societal collapse mentioned in Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. " Most, if not all, of these issues are easy to understand in the sense of a societal or community collapse. What I wanted to look at was the analogous situations with a business. In that post I discussed the general misuse of resources and how that can be accomplished in a business.

In this post, I would like to look at the issue of  "Effects of introduced species on native species" and how that can be seen in a business setting. There are actually a few analogous situations and I would like to hear what you think are some of the others. I will focus on just one for now: culture. The culture, or current state of behaviors in a business can be very fragile; seemingly simple or beneficial changes can be very disruptive.

• New people (subordinates, co-workers, or supervisors)
• New policies (internal or externally mandated)
• Stricter enforcement of existing rules or regulations
• New location (move, acquisition, or expansion)

Status quo can give certain people power or influence even without official recognition. Seniority, over capability, is one such situation. The introduction of a new person can be seen as threat to an existing balance. Companies that started out small and grew slowly may have people who contributed in ways that new people cannot appreciate. Favors and assistance that was extended in the past builds a relationship that may not be visible on an organization chart.

Additionally... 

Many corporate cultures have been built over years of personal interactions. In studies by numerous business schools and consulting firms, it has been demonstrated that there are information networks that develop to get around corporate structures that may improve learning and progress. People not familiar with the "way things are done here" may have a difficult time fitting in. New management may want to restrict or rework information flow to demonstrate control.

Many newly introduced people, rules, and enforcement requirements often do not work out. New people may just not fit in. They can be disruptive. I once had to let person go because of her verbal abuse of others. She was an excellent programmer but a rather mean person. She may have been the best at what she did when it came to programming but she had terrible interpersonal skills. Less work was accomplished as she berated other people who she felt had written sloppy or code that was not well annotated. (Most of that sloppy code was mine but the others just took the abuse for me.)

A work place does not have to be the happiest place on earth, but it does not have to be hell either. I believe that a pleasant work environment encourages productivity. I think that life is too short to work where you are unhappy. I think contributions to the improvement of products, procedures, and companies occur more frequently when people like what they do and where they do it.

Another aspect of the introduced species is the manner in which it is introduced. A policy change without explanation can be very disruptive. A new boss that replaces a well-liked boss can be hard for everyone. Care should be taken to make a transition smooth. Feelings of attachment may linger for some time. Once again, adequate discussion seems to do wonders here.

The analogy only goes so far but I think it should be clear that feelings, history, environment, and relationships need to be considered when making changes. We do not always have the luxury of gradual change. An acquisition that made perfect sense to the Board of Directors, may not make any sense to employees that dedicated their lives to building a business, customer list, or product line. People quit, get sick, and sometimes die. We cannot plan for every event. The more we are aware of the current state of things, then the better we can be at helping everyone adjust to the change or prevent the change in the first place.

What other analogies can you see that are similar to the potential damage that can be caused by the introduction of a new species to an existing environment?