Organisational constipation

Health warning

In this article, I will be delving into what many might consider an indelicate matter. It is important to highlight from the outset that I am not a gastroenterologist. This article is metaphorical and does not represent in any way a medical breakthrough in respect of this debilitating condition.

The Symptoms

Telltale signs of organisational constipation, include:

Loss of appetite – Your leadership team seems to lack ambition. The organisation appears to be coasting.

Discomfort – Getting even the simplest things done feels like an uphill challenge.

Bloating - Bureaucracy appears to be spreading into the simplest of processes, not unlike a yeast infection.

Stagnation – Your organisation is no longer brimming with creativity, and decision making is grinding to a halt.

Headaches – Your leadership team are tetchier than usual. Thus there is a tendency to leave them to it. Consequently, they no longer receive the intelligence needed to make strategic decisions and the staff feel they are on a rudderless boat.

The causes

Broadly the issue can be collectively considered as a lack of guts. Specifically, the guts to:

• Remove high performing, but culturally toxic staff.

• Demise grand vision projects that are clearly going nowhere.

• ‘Sack’ lucrative, but high maintenance clients.

• Turn off products and services that no longer have value in an increasingly chaotic world.

• Strip away processes, particularly those that stifle creativity.

• Take measured risks.

Less a lack of guts, and more a lack of gut contents - A diversified gut biome is the basis for a healthy body. We still don’t really know its full contribution, but the evidence to date suggests that the link is critical to overall health and wellbeing. Organisationally, homogenous cultures are a precursor to poor organisational health.

Treatment

These include a mixture of invasive and non-invasive approaches:

Stress management will go a long way to avoiding this condition. However stress is unlikely to evaporate until the organisation feels confident that it can operate in what is an increasingly disruptive and disorienting environment.

A healthy gut, as mentioned, will sidestep this issue. Please note, diversity is not an exercise in recreating something akin to a Benetton advert. Cognitive diversity is what we are seeking. Life experience variety, regardless of colour, gender or height, is as good a metric as any.

Move – Movement is a natural means of stimulating several of our internal systems. Organisationally, this means creating a sense of direction and then focusing the organisation on getting there. An inspiring vision will lift, and mobilise, the most curmudgeonly of spirits.

Shock treatment – There is no need to orchestrate this. The market has much to offer in this respect. Disruption is a natural and readily available laxative. Movement, particularly of the faint hearted / uncommitted, will follow.

Routine – Our bodies thrive on routines for many reasons, not least for the energetic benefits that the cultivation of habits affords us. The annual review is such an example. But as we all know, a year is a little too long when it comes to ‘purging’. Something closer to real-time makes more sense. Such reviews might well include clients, products/services and projects.

Fibre–optics – Smooth and reliable communications across the organisation will ensure smooth decision making and will thus significantly decrease the likelihood of organisational stagnation. 

Digital convenience

In organisational circles, the topic du jour is typically more digital / AI focused. And perhaps there is a role for tech to play in respect of the above treatments. I am not holding my breath in respect of Harvard or INSEAD adding a ‘constipation module’ to their MBA syllabi. Nonetheless, I believe this represents a fundamental organisational challenge. One that will determine its future vitality and viability.

I chose to tackle this socially awkward topic as it links very closely to one of the eight key characteristics of a living, and thus intelligent system, namely ‘excretion’. I suspect a direct nod to this in the title might be a little too much for LinkedIn’s more censorious moderators.

This article also appeared in the Intelligent Organisation newsletter on LinkedIn.