Sometimes, it’s not the people, it’s the entire system. Indigogold’s consultancy work takes us into many organisations, and every now and then we realise that the specific issues we’re addressing have little to do with the individuals or teams we’ve been asked to talk to. Instead, the problem is that these unfortunate people are working in a ‘lowest common denominator’ organisation.
Running an organisation at the lowest common denominator means that judgement has been stripped away over time in favour of compliance with policies and processes.
Here are ten indicators of a lowest common denominator workplace:
- The pervading culture is a fear of failure, and is very defensive.
- Staff are required to conform to policies and processes, rather than use their brains.
- The organisation spends a lot of time fire-fighting, and seems to be permanently in project-management mode, with projects never quite coming to a clear conclusion.
- Decisions tend to be made by committees or large groups. Decisions are short-term, and aimed primarily at avoiding risk. Tough decisions get constantly postponed. Nobody sticks their neck out.
- Accountability is low. Few people claim ownership, and instead hide behind compliance with processes and policies. The blame culture rules.
- There are many layers of bureaucracy – getting things done takes a long time.
- The employees express resignation (“why should we bother?”), disempowerment (“there’s nothing I can do about this”), and disengagement (“that’s not my problem”).
- Bright, energetic and ambitious people are leaving.
- The organisation has ceased to innovate. Nobody has the courage to back new ideas.
- There is not enough leadership capability. Whatever the leadership team says or does, nothing really changes.
How do businesses end up in this state?
Sometimes, it just happens gradually as organisations grow large; sometimes it’s because they are under stress. This stress could be financial (losing market share, making losses), cyclical (the sector may be declining due to new technology or innovation), or regulatory.
For example, a number of firms in the UK and other financial services sectors have degraded in recent years into lowest common denominator businesses as a result of the financial crash and subsequent regulatory pressure for reform.
How can they snap out of this state?
This is hard to do, as it involves a root-and-branch shift in the organisation’s culture. Huge change is required at every level in the way business is handled, and the attitudes and behaviours of all managers, supervisors and their teams need to be reset.
Most crucial of all, the organisation needs to accept that innovation is the only escape route; that innovation may sometimes fail; and that such failure needs to be tolerated, and seen to be tolerated.
Inevitably, such massive change has to be initiated from the top down, and it’s likely that leadership teams will need extensive remedial work. It’s also likely that more recent hirings will have been cautious and ‘safe’, with anyone out of the ordinary (let alone extraordinary) screened out. So there will need to be an injection of new blood.
Reading this, I realise I’m working in a lowest common denominator organisation.
What should I do?
If you find yourself leading – or being led – in a lowest denominator organisation, give us a call…