Features of dysfunctional work environments

“Leadership has two main functions. One is to see the vision and develop the strategies that lead towards it. The other is to create an environment which makes it possible to implement the strategies."

Russell Ackoff

I love this quote because it challenges leaders to think about their organisations as connected systems. It can help them to reflect on two questions:

Is our direction clear and compelling?
and
Does the way we currently think and work together (our environment) set us up for success?

Here’s my list of some characteristics of dysfunctional work environments; (there are many more). If these are the current outcomes of the way that an organisation thinks and works together, then new success is always less likely:

Attempting to go somewhere new via old thinking
Doing the wrong things righter
Unwillingness to look inward and acknowledge responsibility
‘Leadership’ as only directing, pace setting, mandating
‘Leading’ as enabling doing
Administrative competence as the goal
Agency and autonomy feel like risks
No moral dilemmas
Lack of alignment
Over obsessed with alignment
‘Performance’ (really) means ‘level of compliance’
Low trust
Status and approval are key drivers; (‘parent - child’ relationships)
Communication = broadcasting
‘Learning’ means education
Learning and work are separated
Meetings are the work
Meetings as only task allocation
Presenteeism
Good people have ‘given up’
Bad people can survive / rise by reinforcing the status quo
Lack of questions
Lack of listening
Lack of reflection
Lack of feedback loops
Busyness is celebrated
Busyness is rewarded
False positivity
Fixated on details
Not interested in the detail
Tightly controlled definition / scope for “change”
Group think
Lack of external benchmarks
Contrary viewpoints forbidden (‘No bad news’)
Strategy & policy tightly coupled (control / group think)
Clear separation of ‘thinkers’ and ‘doers’ (pecking orders)