One concern is that leaders may be over-indexing and blaming individuals for their current predicament. They believe that if they magically had legions of “A-players,” they could continue as they did during the late 2010s and early 2020s. They aren’t asking themselves the hard questions like:
- “Why didn’t we hear and act on the warning signals early enough?”
- “How do we foster an environment that is friendly to addressing problems before they spin out of control and cause a wild pendulum swing?”
- “How do we find the right balance between the local and global?”
- “Yes, we talk about leaders going deep, but how do they do so while preserving the trust and engagement of people on the front lines?”
- “How do we treat people who raise disconfirming information?”
- “How do we build the resolve to address more global issues?”
TBM 287: Layoffs, Pendulums, Layers, and Gemba Walks