Ever worked with those that are predicting the end of the world, ever been one?
I can say I have to both of those, and looking back it smacks of naivety. On any large engagement there will be conflicts, the larger more commercially convoluted the more Machiavellian the pots and intrigue will become. However it is exceptionally rare for any of these political schemes to pull off a Coup de Grace. Those that preach in the wings, of doom and destruction are often doing so because they relish the potential fall of those they have attempted and failed to influence, like abstracted revenge.
All projects, programmes or organizations are attempting to do their best with the resources they have available, and principally the most important in the intrigue stakes, is people. Now when changes do occur they usually manifests as a reshuffle of most of the same people. So now they have new roles, new responsibilities, new reporting lines etc, but they will retain their existing relationships, understandings, opinions and prejudices – and consequently less will change than probably would have been desired or expected.
Any change that is made in terms of the actual culture and ways of working will inevitably be incremental.
Waiting for the cataclysm, for the large change, is like waiting for Godot, there will be much going on around you if you care to look, but Godot never arrives.
A coach, or anyone within a large relationship heavy environment, needs to try to ignore the preachers of doom and focus on making small changes in their immediate environment in the confidence that large cultural changes are realized though the concerted coordinated effort of many smaller changes. To stand back and wait for, or even attempt to encourage, large-scale change is ultimately fruitless. For evil to triumph all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. Do something good; don’t focus on large change that will transpire into making no change and bearing witness to the degradation of the situation.
philagiledesign 