Friday, April 27, 2007

Going Through the Motions: A Defense

Have you ever worked with people or organizations that simply "go through the motions?"

(And let's be honest, how many of us do so?)

Fake, or superficial, action has long been one of my favorite targets. The idea that a matter is resolved by holding a meeting or sending out a memo is ridiculous on its face but it has a legion of practitioners in the workplace.

Let us now consider why they are so numerous.

It works.

Not in any substantive way, of course. The problem still remains, possibly festering and growing much worse.

But many executives and managers are not interested in problem-solving, achieving excellence or, as the US Army used to say, being all they can be. Their goal is to be left alone. "Minimal interference" is their battle cry and that's where superficial action comes in.

It's an alibi to be used when the second guessers come calling. The manager can, with a straight face and tones of sincerity, insist that action was indeed taken. See this document and that one over there? True, the matter got worse. That's why I need your help!

In other words, they play the very old subordinate game of escape and evade. The earnest outsider - possibly HR or some other department - kicks into a problem-solving mode, justifies its job, and initiates more serious action. The manager stands by and looks clueless.

In some cases, that's not a demanding performance, but I've long thought that many of those managers knew exactly what was going on right from the start.

Take it from their angle. If your goal is minimal interference, taking substantive action has its risks. It creates a higher profile (not good), may require consultation with other departments (definitely not good), and may attract the attention of the boss (very undesirable). Taking superficial action avoids those dangers and provides a cover story. And who knows? The problem may go away.

Remember the old joke from the Soviet Union? "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." The superficial performers have this line: "They pretend to want us to resolve problems and we pretend to resolve them."

2 comments:

Ed said...

Im afraid I dont have much experience of this in the work place, however I can certainly understand how it could be such a problem.
An area I have seen this almost every day is in college, I attend one of the premier business schools in Ireland, and despite boasting some really great lecturers, at the same time we have some REALLY BAD ones.
So in college alot of the time we are operating on the "They pretend to teach us and we pretend to learn" routine. It can be understood then why this then permeates through to the next level up, the workplace

Michael Wade said...

ed,

You're correct. I wish I could say that you won't encounter a lot of it but going through the motions is not rare. Still, it is surprising to me how many college lecturers are content with mediocre teaching techniques. The sad news is many of them get away with it.