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Empowering change empowering Tech

I’m talking about the perfect murder here, Hitchcock-style. Forget the arson at corporate headquarters, or the mysterious disappearance of a company into the annals of history (through a merger and acquisition that merged nothing and acquired everything, including the logo and a name that first ceased to exist day of the ‘union’). I am referring to the subtle poisoning of an organization that many do not see and that some suspect only a little. I mean slow poisoning by professional killers with a hidden agenda. I mean a thriller script of the husband-poison-wife-with-small-doses-of-cyanide genre, where the poison is administered in an apparently loving atmosphere.

In some organizations it is not that difficult to identify the main suspects, the toxic managers. You might even know them well; You can even inform them. There are two types: the obviously unpleasant and the affectionate. One of them is very dangerous.

That’s right, he is the one who cares and the one who poisons under the duty of caring.

So here are ten script sketches for an organizational thriller. You can choose the heroes and villains you want; I am just providing the schematic. You can also choose the extras and the location. I will be the producer. If you contact me with a developed script, we will test Hollywood first and share the proceeds. Alternatively, we can try business schools – the case study industry is doing well, and frankly, anything is better than learning about Toyota’s penetration of the US market and maximizing shareholder value in the industry. automotive in Southern California.

Script 1: I know

Caption: I just know we’ll do x, but go ahead and explore all the options.

In this scenario, a senior manager not only openly trusts teams, but declares himself the Great Defender of Team Spirit. Take care of and protect your team. He emphasizes personally training all project leaders, although this is met with mixed feelings. Encourage the team to explore many possibilities, be open-minded, and see the big picture. But he “just knows what’s going to happen.” When faced with a problem, he asks for ideas, although “he already knows the answer.” This pattern repeats itself several times, until the team begins to suspect that it is wasting time and that Big Guy is just playing ego. By the time toxicity is revealed, half of the project leaders have gone in search of a boss who “knows less,” and the other half is bored or enjoying their stock options.

Script 2: Let them fail

Subtitle: Wrong way, but they need to see for themselves.

This scenario is played out in patronizing and patronizing organizations where senior management has chronically mistaken a business organization for an elementary school. Toxicity is very subtle because it manifests itself in a learning environment in which people “learn from their mistakes” and are “trained to take risks.” Suspicion arises in the middle of the script when some people who fail are fired. The piece ends with people laughing as the CEO speaks highly of knowledge management while receiving the Learning Organization of the Year award.

Script 3: Try harder

Subtitle: Guess what I want.

Teams are always “not quite there” when they present the results of a three-month analysis of the problem, and come back again and again to refine their exploration. Finally, a project leader has a revelation and asks, “Why don’t you tell us what you want? That would save us from having to keep ‘coming back to the team.’

Script 4: I have the answer, what is the question?

Caption: I’ve been there, I’ve done that, trust me, I know.

A variation on Script 1, this organization is governed by managers who constantly refer to their past experiences. If it’s a management change program, they bring McKinsey templates from their latest company’s mergers and acquisitions to the first start-up meeting. The answers are there and you have them. If it’s an HR problem, they’re superpsychologists. If it is a financial problem, they know it because they have been there before. The reality is quite mapped out, causing the staff to creatively tune out. Sudden death occurs in this script when market conditions change dramatically and the combined wisdom of those seasoned managers cannot make up for the lack of new ideas and imagination.

Script 5: legitimized suicide

Subtitle: You decide who is redundant: this is a very human M&A.

The story begins with M&A consulting gurus deciding that it’s better to let the staff decide who will survive, rather than burdening the leadership team with such an inhumane decision. The division heads meet and are given a business plan and timeline. After several sleepless nights, a good third of managers and staff decide they will be fired, so they leave. The trick to this script is that there is no visible killer. Instead, several staff members commit mass suicide while singing an enthusiastic chorus of ‘What a wonderful human death this is’. The ending has a twist: Two surviving divisional bosses blame the leadership team for clearly giving up their responsibilities and disguising everything as a democratic decision, while the CEO uses the case to show how humane, democratic and open the company is.

Script 6: Do but don’t do

Caption: Feel free to do so, but make sure we tell you what.

This story takes place in a “free” environment in which people are encouraged to undertake all kinds of initiatives, to act. The examples are numerous. On one occasion, a manager implements a program that he feels he has been encouraged to do. She is de facto reprimanded and degraded. Bewildered and frustrated, she leaves. The companions demand an explanation, but they do not go very far. The script ends with highlights of collective frustration when this “do it, but don’t do it” pattern is found to be common across the board.

Script 7: You have the power to believe me

Subtitle: We are all empowered, but I am more empowered than others.

This plot is largely based on the concept of “We are all the same, but some of us are more equal than others.” Empowerment is a widely used buzzword in the organization and ranks high on its mission statement. Life is relatively peaceful until a manager asks the question, “What does it mean?” The enraged top management responds with a lengthy sermon on trust, culture, values, and principles. The little one asks again: “But what does it mean to be empowered?” The big guy says, “Look how empowered I am by the Board.” Graffiti begins to appear on bathroom walls, doors and partitions with nasty statements about the credibility of the company’s rhetoric. The organization is slowly dying of buzzword poisoning.

Script 8: Maximum responsibility, minimum authority

Subtitle: Great titles, great visibility, great blindness.

In this script, the responsibilities of the organization are well defined: everyone knows what they are responsible for. But small hidden doses of toxicity come from giving staff the impression that they have the authority that goes with it. It turns out that this is simply not true. Authority is elsewhere, and people are not very responsible for anything other than accumulating as much authority as possible. Managers’ egos are bolstered by big “responsibility” titles, such as Global Project Leader (a company equivalent to the UN Secretary General). Some staff members find they have no real authority and run away from the organization. The trapped go blind. The Big Titles game ends when more and more managers suspect the mismatch between responsibility and authority. The CEO responds by creating a new layer of highly responsible managers with very attractive titles on their business cards.

Script 9: Big Goals, Big Future, Big Cuts

Subtitle: We are doing well but you are fired.

Growth has been declared within the organization and its annual results are not bad. The CEO declares high hopes and possibilities. Around the same time, R&D is cut by 20% and those in the wrong place at the wrong time are fired, regardless of their talent. The pattern repeats itself several times as the plot progresses, until a Pavlovian reflex develops: every time the CEO announces a “good year, great results, we have to grow,” the staff trembles.

Script 10: Boiling Frog

Caption: There are two ways to boil a frog and you should be feeling a little hot by now.

This is based on the old adage that there are two ways to boil a frog. One way is to get a pot of boiling water and throw the frog away. The frog is burned, but jumps quickly and survives. The second way is to put the frog in a pot of cold water and light the fire. The frog is very happy in its increasingly warm and welcoming environment until it boils without realizing it. This script is offered for free interpretation and application to the lives of managers in organizations.

Script 11 – math has never been my strong suit – is based on a combination of the other ten. In this script, the managers believe that all the above scripts are a bit of a joke, funny stories with barely developed ideas, certainly not a reflection of real life, a bit of fun disguised as managerial thinking. Readers in script 11 mode might feel quite warm and welcoming. Check that the heating is off.

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