Narratives of life - forties

When I was in my forties I thought that managing programs, making sense of everything, meeting people and telling stories of safe road and better future were the keys to make things to happen. I was managing programs of hundreds of millions euros, which were meant to change behavior of thousands of people. Since time table was really tight and I had to detach money from current operations to finance the change, I was forced to use a lot of outside help in planning and executing the transformation. I did manage change through the whole Doctrine, Organization, Training, Material, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities, Information and Integration sphere extending over four years. Transformation was done gradually and I did my best to walk my talk among people.

I was lucky to work with some bright and executive people so technical transformation went well according the time table partly also because it was supported strongly by outside experts. But I failed miserably with my own people. I was hoping of joint effort within integrated project teams. Wishful thinking! In planning phase my own people took role of auditing rather than co-planning. In design phase they adapted role of judgement and criticism rather than sharing information and gaining competence. In implementation phase they were good only to comment advance from seats of stand. In the operation phase they were not capable to take new systems under their administration as an organization, but I had to hand pick individuals and give them responsibility in operating new systems. Despite the time and money spend in my people, they were not ready to take new steps towards future and grow along program.

I had stumbled on the culture of workplace. I thought that people I had worked with were eager to make changes after some years of lower activity, but I was wrong. The culture and attitude had reversed from where I had left them four years earlier. They had lost their common spirit and were divided into small groups of “tribes” with different mindsets. Some people were almost aggressive in their reaction declaring that “world sucks and you are from deep behind with your talks”. Most were is status that “we have already tried that – it won’t work”. And some people were trying to shine more than actually doing something. As organization they were not ready to start any journey of transformation so they marginalized themselves to be audience rather than players in the field.

I lost those people. It was not enough to give people as clear technical concepts as possible. It was not enough to appoint capable managers to head projects. It was not enough to have talks with individuals and motivate them. Social structure, common spirit and adhered procedures kept good people from changing. I had to work around this group of people and just feel miserable of their situation.

Later I learnt about organizational cultures and their readiness for change. I studied social structures in workplaces, how culture eats systems for breakfast and challenges of tribal leadership.

To be continued...