An authentic and slightly irreverent blog on the applied dimensions of leadership & change...

• My Crap

• Your Crap

• Our Crap

• Everybody’s Crap.

Have you ever noticed that there are so many business, management, and leadership books out there and they just keep coming? How about management and leadership schools, programs, and degrees? It seems like new ones keep popping up. Of course I too have written books/articles, built degree programs and even a leadership and change institute. But I still reflect not on only the glut of opportunities and the growing competition with so many providers but even more so on the passionate impetus to keep creating more. Before tackling that query, I will add that the majority of the books and programs that were created in the past are also still valid. In some cases what we’re contributing today is only adding minute increases in the substantial value already out there that is still not being adequately leveraged.

So why are we still “selling” these ideas and this education? Because people aren’t “buying” it! That doesn’t make sense, I know. You see, some people are purchasing it as well as buying into it and that gives us hope. Although there are business enterprises involved in selling books, education, and training, those individuals with the passion to create these want to make a difference in your daily lives. They see a need and a market that transcends the sales analytics and want to provide for it. They are not the only ones. The people with the actual organizational need want what these books and courses have to offer and have been desperately craving the ability to apply the concepts that have been out there for decades. But they have yet to fulfill this desire. Even if they do buy your book or degree, they are not applying as much of what they’ve learned as they wish to and therefore your products and service are not able to reach their potential value in the market. Why aren’t we putting enough good teaching to work even when we are trying to do just that? Here is the crap we have to cut through…

Personal risk.

Fear of failure, losing credibility, job loss, income loss, self-esteem loss, and just too busy and tired to handle the blowback of change.

Upsetting others.

Losing relationships built on the status quo. You don’t know which ones these are until you mess one up. How much of your ability to get results, to be successful, is based on personal relationships? If you try something new, how will that fly? If you upset people they’ll make your work even harder.

Performance, politics, position.

Figuring out how to be a cog in an organizational machine takes time to navigate and get right. There are so many stakeholders and influencers within the organization. Expectations are not always clear and upfront, so once you think you’ve got them down, the tendency is to not rock the boat. Who has the time and energy anyway? Trying to do all the organization expects and the things you believe need to be done in the process to do it right is just too complex a beast to want to poke no matter how high the need may be.

Community and Customers.

Stakeholders and influencers are not just within your organization. They are all around you. Your customers’ voices can be heard all over the world courtesy of the Internet and your local community is just as loud and interested in how your organization impacts them. With the specter of the “whole world watching” (and judging) you, applying new and innovative ideas that promise results may not often seem worth the risks for the feint of heart (or the unclear strategy) . The stakes are complicated and high.

Now, those of you in a learning organization have an encouraging culture built on policies, procedures, and processes that are based upon collective critical thinking and learning. This type of culture is not yet common but let me tell you how starts. Cut the crap! The reason enrollments in leadership programs and sales of leadership books aren’t off the chart in activity and in full use is that we have difficulty seeing and owning our contributions to the situation within our organization. Once you’ve owned your own crap that gets in your way, you can then do a real cost/benefit analysis to applying new concepts, methods, and applying all of that valuable leadership learning. Now you’ll find (discover, realize, admit, fess up, understand) that crap breeds crap and what passes for short-term comfort will soon stink up the place for the long-term.

© 2019 Stacie L L Morgan. All rights reserved.