Many of us with degrees have hears the phases of team building.
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
It's fairly standard stuff and as I was thinking about my new team and how its not really doing any of these, (although I suppose technically its in forming) I couldn't help but think about what I am seeing for the C Suite executives through two downs.
Almost every leader we have is brand new at this point. They have been hired into a vaccuum of culture with a mandate to create one on the fly.
As I perceive their performance to date it has been a cascade of shuffling as they try to make sense of chaos and mini cultures based on self preservation have taken shape.
While I applaud the efforts to keep the wheels on, I still to this day cannot put my finger on what our strategy is and how each line and support function map to that strategy.
IT seems to be doing the best so far but its a strategy independent of lines. Paltry attempts to create line liaisons have occurred but it appears to just be a mechanism to inform business of what is being done, not a partnership driven by strategy.
Our agile support functions seem to be stuck in neutral and I am not sure its thier fault. I would say they have done best they can without the clear push of needs from the business to refine how work comes in and is processed.
I get the sense that LOBs are in crisis mode as they lose market share on product offerings that are just modifications of existing products. There should already be innovation teams and product owners fighting for offerings to make it to development. I am just not seeing it. I see existing maintenance and modification being the bulk of work.
Its my observation that new executives are being brought in with the usual bait and switch tactics and get her and are paralyzed by the sheer dysfunction and amorphous goals in a culture that is tearing itself apart to try and meet staff reductions that also are not tied to a strategy.
I would freeze too, before I assessed the situation and did cost benefit and what I can do versus what I should do.
Their newness also robs them of context and by extension a boldness to speak to real needs with the courage to say no.
I could be offbase, but I have never seen the complete replacement of an entire leadership caste this fast, and a simple metaphor to me is this: if I put a bunch of new naval cadets on a ship with general training in how a ship works then tell them to sail the ship into war but they are encouraged to make it hard on the engineers so 15% of ghem quit, how successful could they really be?
The ship might sail and it might even get to fight, but it will fall into disrepair and its people will ve exhausted doing what used to be done by a team. They will fight for resources and respect but in the end, they too will get tired. And leave for a ship with a captain and crew that can help them succeed.
We are not even done with forming and storming is overriding the first phase of getting people aligned to problems.
We are sinking our own ship and encouraging people to jump overboard.