Problematic organizations
From PLN
Problematic organizations
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What a topic! But, in fact, what's here is mostly "leftovers"--brief items that didn't fit elsewhere. These are notes and summaries from beyond the library field, what's left of "Toxicity, fear and problem people" after that and other articles were reorganized and combined into
What's here and worth noting:
- Are there drums beating in the background at your library? You might need to think about spotting signs of unrest--and dealing with them.
- One way to avoid project failure might be a premortem--looking at a new or difficult project as though it's already failed and finding out what went (could go) wrong.
Signs of unrest
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest January 2008
Misery in the office is nothing new, unfortunately, but maybe bosses will get more adept at spotting it before it’s too late. Patrick M. Lencioni, author of The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and Their Employees), notes workplace-misery truths and red flags:
- “A miserable job is not the same as a bad one. A bad job lies in the eye of the beholder,” he says. “But a miserable job is universal. It is one that makes people cynical, frustrated, and demoralized when they go home at night. It drains them of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem.”
- The first of Lencioni’s “three signs” is anonymity, “the feeling employees get when they realize their manager has little interest in them as a human being, and knows little about their lives, aspirations, and interests.”
- Second, beware of irrelevance, which, he says, “takes root when employees cannot see how their job makes a difference in the lives of others. Employees need to know the work they do impacts someone’s life--a customer, a co-worker, even a supervisor--in one way or another.”
- The third sign is something Lencioni calls “immeasurement,” which he describes as “the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contribution or success. Employees who have no means of measuring how well they are doing on a given day, or week, must rely on the subjective opinions of others, usually their managers, to gauge their progress or contribution.” So, in other words, if you let them know their misery is not in vain, they may never be miserable in the first place.
(”Signs of Unrest”, Inside Training, Nov. 21, 2007.)
Performing a project premortem
Projects often fail, in part because people aren’t willing to speak up about their reservations. “Prospective hindsight--imagining that an event has already occurred--increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes.” A premortem uses prospective hindsight at the beginning of the project to see how it can be improved. The premortem assumes that the “patient” has died and asks what did go wrong--rather than what could go wrong.
Typically a premortem begins once the team has been briefed on the project. The project manager announces that the project has failed. Each team member is asked to individually list possible reasons for the failure. All the possibilities are recorded and discussed. The project manager then reviews the list and looks for ways to strengthen the project plan.
The premortem offers benefits that other risk analyses don’t. Sometimes it can prevent an ill-conceived project from going forward. Team members feel valued, and others learn from them. The premortem also helps the team recognize early signs of trouble once the project has begun. “In the end, a premortem may be the best way to circumvent any need for a painful postmortem.”
(Gary Klein, “Performing a project premortem,” Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2007.)
Related articles
- We got trouble... - an overview for articles on internal difficulties.
- How healthy is your organization? - A multipart discussion on library organizational health.
- Problematic management
- Problematic communication and behavior
- Dynamic organizations stay supple - Jamie LaRue discusses the need for organizational flexibility in any good library.
- Having the right organization - the LLN Peer Panel discusses the nature and structure of effective library organizations.
- What can organizational structure do for user-centered change? - Ryan Deschamps offers a thoughtful perspective.
- Libraries and organization development - Maureen Sullivan discusses the discipline of organization development as it applies to libraries.
- Different ways of dealing with obstacles - a librarian considers ways to cope with organizational and project problems.
- Change notes and Change management - notes on change management from within libraries and elsewhere.
